101 WAYS TO SELL MORE CRUISES
By David Stockert
Holland America Cruise Line

David Stockert has spent nearly 22 years in sales and promotion for the travel industry. He has successfully conducted numerous seminars for a wide variety of audiences, including ASTA, ARTA, NACOA as well as Travel Age and Tour & Travel News.

The following ideas are intended to help travel agents and travel professionals sell more cruises.

1. Banks are cutting back on Notary Pubic services. Become a Notary Public, (it is not that hard) and you can pick up the traffic the banks are sending away.

2. Book your dentist, doctor or lawyer on a cruise. You are spending money with them so why not have them support you when they vacation.

3. While you are in their offices be sure to leave cruise brochures with your stamp for other patients to read.

4. Ask your dentist if you can put a cruise poster on the ceiling of the office. Patients can dream about a cruise while having a root canal.

5. Carry this further and put a cruise poster on the ceiling at your OB GYN office as well.

6. Take brochures to the jury rooms in your area. They are starving for reading material.

7. Get a booth at the boat show and make sign, “See me for cruises you can afford”.

8. Donate old brochures to elementary schools in your area, they like to cut out the pictures.

9. Volunteer to tell what you do at a career day in the schools in your area.

10. Have a kids cruise night. Have popcorn and videos for the kids and have quiet time to sell the parents on the value of family cruises.

11. Book your high school or college class reunion on a group cruise.

12. Target your client’s birthdays and anniversaries 6 months ahead to suggest a celebrations cruise.

13. Put a picture of a cruise ship on your business card.

14. Call you cruise line District Sales Manager or Business Development Manager. They want you to succeed and can help you.

15. Mail post cards to potential clients. One agent did this and four mailmen booked a cruise.

16. Give a brochure and tell the grocery check out person that you can take care of them on a cruise.

17. Take brochures and cruise material to your beauty parlor.

18. Send a ticket stuffer in all the bills you pay. Someone opens those envelopes.

19. Tie balloons on the mailbox of returning cruisers.

20. Have a cruise night at you local cinemax theatre and tie in a group cruise.

21. Take cruise videos to you local video store that they can check out for free. Have your business card on the jacket.

22. Put your logo on a large magnet and use on your car.

23. Go to your local car dealer and offer an incentive cruise as a way for them to sell more cars. A reward of a cruise for increased sales is powerful.

24. Do a joint promotion with real estate agents in your area. They can talk up cruises for you or even offer a free cruise when someone buys a house.

25. Book your mother or father in law on a cruise. A good way to score points and get them out of town.

26. Do a group with your church. Some cruise lines appoint clergy to cruises and you can build a group around your church.

27. Bring breakfast to your clients on the day they return from the cruise. They will remember that forever.

28. Join forces with other agents to do promotions together.

29. Promote the CLIA Cruise vacation month in Feb. It is a big cruise booking month.

30. Visit ships and do FAMs. Actually seeing the ships will help you sell them.

31. Take pictures of everyone in your office and attach a brief profile. Hang these so your potential clients can learn about you.

32. Display scrapbooks of past cruises in your office. Ask your clients to bring back pictures from their cruises to make scrapbooks and display pictures in your office. Everyone likes to look at real pictures of cruises.

33. Use the resources of your consortium or Co-op group.

34. Gives videos when you clients deposit. They like to show all the friends and neighbors where they are going and you might get additional business.

35. Tell a local company that cruise ships have great facilities for meetings.

36. Steal a convention from a hotel and put it on a cruise ship.

37. Offer to be a speaker about cruises at your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary.

38. Write a travel article for your local newspaper. Cruises would be a great topic.

39. Patience and diligence, like faith, move mountains. Do not be discouraged if an idea does not work.

40. Send a direct mail program for Alaska and include seeds of the, forget me not, the state flower of Alaska. This will call attention to the Alaska cruises.

41. Serve Baked Alaska or Klondike Bars at your next Alaska cruise night.

42. Decorate your window to suggest cruising for a vacation. Use beach balls, sand, etc to suggest a warm cruise in the middle of winter.

43. Send Thanksgiving cards and suggest getting warm on a cruise. Your card at that time will have more impact than the standard holiday card.

44. Christmas in July is a good time to sell holiday cruises.

45. Send warm looking post cards right after the first snow storm. It will remind them they need to plan a vacation to get warm.

46. Have a cruise night at your local car dealership. They can talk new models and you can talk cruises.

You just might score a great mailing list.

47. Advertise in teen magazine and promote a fashion or cosmetic cruise. Use a manufacturer’s rep as group leader.

48. Sign up for a booth at a bridal show. Tell them you can do honeymoon cruises.

49. Send post cards to your clients while on your vacation cruise. They will be impressed and be more loyal to you.

50. Fax the Fax. Take the cruise line faxes and add your information to the bottom and fax to companies in your area.

51. Do a cruise night at your favorite restaurant. Get the chef to do a demonstration and offer a group cruise with the chef as the featured escort.

52. Put your logo on a temporary tattoo and create a tattoo parlor in your office.

53. Set up a bridal registry in your office. Instead of the 20th blender, friends can give money for the honeymoon cruise.

54. Put your logo on sugar packets or napkins and donate to your local deli or coffee shop. Great advertising at little cost.

55. The last night of your group cruise, put a pillow case on the pillow in the cabins that has a silk screen promotion of the next group cruise and announce with sweet dreams.

56. Put a travel item with your logo in the welcome wagon in your area. Offer coupons to new residents in your town.

57. Go to the cigar/pipe store in your area and jointly promote a cruise on a ship that has, “Cigars Under The Stars”.

58. Make phone calls to your cruise clients when they return and plant seeds for the next cruise.

59. Offer to do a Seminar about packing for travel at your local Rotary or service club. You can leave you material promoting cruises as part of your presentation.

60. Have a costume themed cruise night. Encourage your guests to come dressed as the destination they would like to visit. Offer prizes for the best and sell cruises to those destinations.

61. Take a sales training course. Selling is the process of matching a cruise to a customer’s needs and wants. The better you listen and sell, the more commission for you.

62. Have a session with all the personnel in your office. Make this a, “think outside the box session” Encourage ideas to flow and act on the appropriate ones.

63. Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what needs to be done and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. Good management will motivate your employees to do better. Paying on commission based upon sales is the best way to motivate personnel.

64. You cannot be an expert on all cruise lines. Pick your preferred suppliers and work with them. Targeted efforts create more expertise and sales.

65. Put you logo on pens and donate to banks or the local tavern. People do look at the logo on pens.

66. Advertise sport theme cruises in the sports section of the newspaper. Why not advertise in the wedding and birth section. Cruising is for everyone.

67. Ask your local health club instructor to do sessions on a ship and promote a group cruise.

68. Go to a dance club and offer the idea of dancing on a group cruise.

69. Work with your favorite charity to promote a group cruise with part of the group discount going to the charity.

70. Sign up for a booth at a stamp collector’s, beanie baby, or any special interest show. Offer prizes when they fill a form at your booth. This can build a great mailing list for that special interest.

71. Put you logo on a camera and give as a gift instead of the bottle of wine. There are even disposable cameras that will place your logo on the bottom of every picture.

72. Look at government agencies in your area to promote a cruise group.

73. Go to your local art gallery and promote a cruise on the ships that display great works of art.

74. Ask your radio or newspaper when they have remnant space. The prices for ads are reduced and you can sell cruises any time.

75. Offer to put your logo on the grocery store bags in your area. You can offer a promotion with a free cruise in return. The store builds business and you get exposure of your name.

76. Have a singles only cruise night and offer to match them to save on the cruise by sharing cabins. Once they are comfortable with new friends, you will be the hero.

77. Rent a bus to nowhere, show videos on the bus and take them to a local restaurant or surprise location. People love a mystery and you will have the opportunity to sell them a cruise.

78. Emphasize cruises on your internet site. Let your market area know you are an expert on cruises.

79. Do something. If it doesn’t work, do something else. No idea is too crazy. Pick the ideas that you think will work for you and if they don’t you have plenty more to try.

80. Work with your local Country and Western radio station and promote a country cruise.

81. Go to Kinkos and get your logo on stickers. Put these stickers everywhere you can. Put them on your bills, air tickets, etc.

82. Go to your local cable TV station. Look at the programming and when a nature show runs, promote an Alaska cruise or destination that fits the program. Cable costs can be reasonable.

83. Cooking at home is popular. Ask a cooking celebrity to do demonstrations on a cruise. The celebrity will talk about it on the show or in print and you get extra advertising.

84. Put your logo on place mats and use at cruise nights or to clients for dinner parties.

85. Promote a nature cruise to the bird watching society.

86. Promote a bridge cruise to the bridge club in your area.

87. Go to a nudist colony and promote a charter cruise. An agent actually did this and chartered a cruise ship for week.

88. Go to the local yacht club and promote a cruise. These people love to be on the water and like being together. Something a cruise offers.

89. Tie in with your Chamber of Commerce to get on their Web Site.

90. Go to a bowling league. They have great accounting procedures to collect money each week so that at the end of the season they would have collected enough to have a group cruise.

91. Go to the local senior’s home in your area. They love cruise nights and will cruise with the agents who actively work promotions with them.

92. Ask your dry cleaners to jointly promote with you. Put your deals on the hangers and in return a referral fee goes to the dry cleaner for everyone who books with you.

93. Charge fees for your services. You are valuable and your time deserves proper payment.

94. Sign up for more Cruise-a-thons, and trade shows where you can find new ideas.

95. Look for a golf group. Your local golf club would probably be willing to work with you to promote a golf cruise.

96. Promote a financial cruise. Your local stockbroker, business planner, or someone who has some financial celebrity would love to do seminars on a cruise.

97. Do a joint promotion with an undertaker. “Sea the World Before you Wave Good-by”.

98. Cruise yourself. Take back the menus, daily programs and material used on board. You can show potential cruisers and use your personal experience to sell the excitement of cruising.

99. Leave you business card when you tip waiters, bus boys etc.

There you go, 99 Ways and now a little bonus: you always give more than they asked for:

100. Go to your local tavern and promote a beer tasting cruise. If bartender is good ask him or her to be the group leader.

101. Promote a kids coloring contest and offer free cruise as part of the promotion. Some cruise lines can supply kids coloring books to use with ship theme.

Do you like these ideas? If so, you can order David’s book that is full of more ideas to help you succeed in your travel business.

Mention Holiday Special and that you are an OSSN Member and send $15 ($20 CN) to:
Idea Machine, PO Box 99323, Seattle, WA 98139

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