Simply Sales With Scott – Integrate to Astonish!

Written By: Scott Koepf MCC, CTC V.P. of Strategic Development – Cruise Planners

 

 

Every potential customer you deal with will go through a ‘journey’ with you that hopefully will result in not only a sale but a raving fan. For simplicity, we tend to break down the journey into the following segments:

 

Marketing (Getting the Attention of the potential customer)
Sales (Engaging and eventually booking the potential customer)
Service (Providing ongoing communications and service)

 

However, the reality is that each segment needs to integrate all three elements throughout the entire journey to provide the results you desire. Once again, I will emphasize that the ultimate goal of each customers journey is NOT to make a booking or complete a transaction. While that is part of the journey that we need to accomplish, the ultimate goal is to establish a lifetime customer who will not only return to you for all future travel needs but will also tell the world (or at least their own little world) that you are the only choice to make when planning for travel.

 

With the lifetime customer as our goal it then becomes clear how each of the segments cross over and carry through all aspects of the journey. Marketing becomes both sales and service through increased personalization. Mass marketing is getting more and more expensive and difficult today. While building the quantity of your database is not a bad idea especially as you are early in your career, the most effective marketing will occur as it approaches what is known as 1 to 1 marketing. In other words, the customer will feel like each message you send them, through whatever media, is designed uniquely for them. Imagine if you had only two or three customers and their bookings alone provided the annual income you desired? Would you send them generic marketing pieces that they probably have no interest in? I would think that with only a few good customers you would customize all of your communications to make sure it addresses their specific interests and desires. Great marketing plans will take this approach to as many (ideally all) of the customers you market to. If we say that selling is determining the right product at the right time, then you can see how much more effective marketing is when it integrates sales. In the same way, if service is defined by exceeding the expectations of the customer then a personalized marketing approach will do just that.

 

In the same way, the sales process needs to integrate both marketing and service throughout that section of the journey. As you provide customized and unique advice and suggestions you are marketing for future business and referrals through that process. Superior sales skills mean that the customer never feels they are being sold to but instead are receiving top notch personal advice and service.

 

Finally, we can’t segment service to just what happens between booking and departure. Your commitment to service needs to infiltrate both your marketing and sales steps. However, what may be the most important time for you to differentiate yourself from direct teams, online agencies or any other competitor is the customer experience after they book with you. If you follow a set plan of communications and advice you will be marketing and selling for all of their future bookings and those of their friends.

 

Each of the three segments of the journey need to integrate the other two but in all cases it requires a plan. Document the entire journey and what you will do throughout each segment so that you will be exceptional and memorable. You can always adjust the steps based on the unique requirements of each customer but the impact to your business will be greater if you have a set plan to work from.

 

When I ask travel advisors the ultimate question of ‘Why should I do business with you?” I typically hear something along the lines of – “I will provide wonderful service”. When I follow that with “Please describe what makes your service so wonderful?” I get blank stares or stuttering. I hope when I ask you that question you will say “Oh Scott, my customers are taken on a journey that I have documented as a checklist from the moment I first reach out to them through the marketing I do after they been with me for years. The checklist ensures that they get the best service and it allows me to personalize each touch point I have with them. I am not interested in transactions, I have designed a system that will bring, keep and astonish my lifetime clients!” When I hear that answer I will be the one stuttering because it is so rare in our industry, but I will have no doubt that each of that advisors clients and now me, are referring to that advisor as Astonishing!