My Fair Travel Advisor – Simply Sales with Scott

Written By: Scott Koepf, Vice President of Strategic Development – Cruise Planners

 

I have spent most of my career in travel as an educator and I sometimes even fancy myself as a professor of retail travel. I read everything I can about our business which is what I think professors do and I now even have the stereotypical grey in my hair. So, with the pipe and the patches on the elbows of my blazer, I envision myself changing the industry through my enlightened pontifications one advisor at a time.

 

 

Now I know this is wrong on many levels but work with me as I take on the persona of one of the most beloved yet annoying characters in Musical Theatre, Professor Henry Higgins. From the musical My Fair Lady (or for those of you professors out there that consider musicals lowbrow, then reference Pygmalion), Professor Higgins, who takes the professor stereotype to the ultimate level, believes he can change a common street urchin into a proper English socialite. Just like in My Fair Lady, I can easily see myself taking a struggling travel advisor and turning them into a sales superstar. With a bit of liberty to the lyrics, I passionately would sing:

 

I’m an ordinary man
Even tempered and good natured who you never hear complain
Who has the milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein.

 

But let an advisor in my life and they haven’t got a chance!
I will lead them, I will show them how to market and to sell and I will show the errors of their ways.

 

If I embodied the professor I would believe that by sharing my experiences and knowledge in articles like this I would indeed take an average travel advisor and change them into a sales rock star. However, My Fair Lady is not the story of the professor but the lady, Eliza Doolittle. By watching her transformation there are two things that become abundantly clear about her changing into a proper English lady. First is an honest and deep desire to change which is evident from her first song…

 

All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air…
Oh, wouldn’t it be loverly

 

She knew there was more to life and she was willing to try and change to get there. After giving and attending hundreds of seminars I have wondered how many advisors were there with the full intention of changing to become more successful. I see all the heads nod but the same agents are back next year still wondering why they are not reaching their goals. In other words, while I appreciate that you are reading this, if you do not really want to change then all of my professorial advice and the excellent advice of the other writers in this publication are wasting your time.

 

 

However, the desire for change and willingness to be open minded is only the first step as Eliza shows us that change is hard! You have to practice, try again, fail, try again, practice some more and simply not give up. Remember, the phrase below needed to be said ad infinitum:

 

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain

 

With the magic of theatre, the representation of time jumps quickly but after many weeks of painful exercises and techniques we finally hear..

 

By George, she’s got it!
By George, she’s got it!

 

The best advice, direction and ideas are all worthless unless you are open to improvement, want to change with all your heart and then willing to persevere through the pain to get to the results you deserve! Again with slight liberty to the lyrics, like Eliza you too could end up singing:

 

I could have sold all day, I could have sold all day
And still have sold some more
I simply used my lips and sold a thousand trips, I’ve never sold before
I never knew that sales was so exciting, why all at once my sales took flight
I only know when I began to sell, I could have sold, sold, sold all day and night!