Selling Travel 101: Dreaming With Clients
by James Flowers

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Longtime travel writer Patricia Schultz wrote a whole book of once-in-a-lifetime trip ideas called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die -- and, now, she’s sold several million copies! That means lots of people are dreaming about travel these days.

You can put wanderlust to work in promoting trips to, and closing sales with, your own clients. Your best advice for them? Don’t delay in making plans!

While some ultimate vacations may be budget getaways, many American consumers have dream trips that may require a significant investment of time and money: time away from work, and money that could be spent on other living expenses. That's precisely the reason that you should counsel your clients to start making plans now if they have a dream trip in mind.

First, jump start your clients’ travel dreaming. Offer to set up an appointment with them to hear about their dream getaways, or send client surveys that ask your best customers to tell you the types of trips they dream about. Then, you can keep your eyes open for the latest packages and deals and trips that fit those dreams. Also, you can give your clients an idea of the travel budget involved with those trips, so that they can plan ahead for the investment involved.

Second, help your clients put a deadline on these dreams. There’s a famous staying that goals are simply dreams with deadlines. In this case, you can take your clients’ once-in-a-lifetime trip ideas and help them narrow down possible travel dates (even if they’re years ahead) and budgets. You may be amazed how quickly your clients get into these details! They make the trip seem much closer to reality.

Finally, remind them about the dangers of do-it-yourself trip dreaming. Sure, it's tempting for clients to give their credit card number to an online travel site or broker who's promising the moon and stars -- but do they really want to entrust their once-in-a-lifetime cruise, tour, or independent package to someone they can't meet in person? One of the biggest advantages you have as a home-based travel agent is that you are there -- in town, and in person -- to sit down, dream about their trip, and handle the details so that they won't be disappointed in the results!

(Credit: Workman Publishing; stock photo)