Selling Travel February 2016 by SMP Training Co

FEEDING THE

2/2016

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10/29/13 2:18 PM

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS 4

EDITORIAL

FEEDING THE PIG!

BUILDING A WAR CHEST

CURRENCY FLUCTUATION OPPORTUNITIES

FLYING COLOURS By Steve Gillick

FINDING THE RIGHT HOST AGENCY…THE TRAVEL INSTITUTE

THE COLOUR OF SALES

COLOUR INTERPRETATIONS

HOW TO PUT YOURSELF IN THE PICTURE

MAPPING OUT THE YEAR AHEAD

THE COLOUR OF LOVE

SELLING TRAVEL LIKE THEY SELL WINE

WHAT’S YOUR SALES FORMULA?

CLASSIFIEDS

The DESIRE to travel starts early and continues throughout one’s life – are you marketing to Generation Z?

Share your money making ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. CONTACT Steve Crowhurst steve@sellingtravel.net 250-738-0064 www.sellingtravel.net

Publisher: SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net

Contributors Steve Crowhurst, Anthony Dalton, Steve Gillick.

Attention Suppliers: Advertising in SELLING TRAVEL reaches the serious business-minded travel agent. Promote your products and services using Selling Travel’s unique promotional formula – you write the articles on how to sell your own products offering step-by-step selling tips, tools and techniques that you know have worked for your agency accounts. Full page rates range from $300 to $425 based on number of insertions. Remember, if you can’t sell it to them, they can’t sell it for you! Please note that Selling Travel, owned and published by SMP Training Co, is not connected in any way to Selling Travel magazine published by BMI Publishing Ltd., and based in the UK. The latter publication focuses entirely on destination and travel/tourism product training and is circulated solely to the UK and Ireland travel industries. To benefit from this resource visit www.sellingtravel.co.uk and be sure to subscribe.

SELLING TRAVEL is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. SELLING TRAVEL can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in any way monetized. Using any images or content from SELLING TRAVEL must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net” SMP Training Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada, V9K-1G1 Note: Steve Crowhurst is not responsible for outcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. T: 250-738-0064.

SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS

Steve Crowhurst, Publisher

FEEDING THE PIG AND THE COLOUR OF SALES When the PIG is hungry, it must be fed. It thrives on YOUR sales. Be sure to read my Feeding The Pig article. We also take a look at colour and how you can and should use it in your marketing. What colour do you associate with sales? Is it green for money, if the colour of money is green where you live? Or is it blue? Or any combination across the spectrum? Colour plays a very important role in marketing travel and the wrong colour in the right article could cause your clients, readers and prospects to look away and not engage. With our focus on colour and what each colour has represented over time we’ll check into how certain colours are interpreted today and by different generations. There are some who have little to no knowledge of those long ago interpretations and superstitions, however those interpretations still flow down through the ages and remain in the family psyche. Remember: Got to feed the PIG! The PIG likes sales. Colour attracts sales. Also in this issue a few ideas on how to use Layers in Photoshop Elements 14. A quick study would allow you to create an image like the header image above. You can “place” yourself in any location you wish, even if you were there only in your dreams! But that would be fake! We don’t do fake, unless it suits the promo as in fantasy. Let’s get busy and generate some new PIG feeding business opportunities. Don’t forget you have a series of e-Guides you can purchase from The Travel Institute that will help you move ahead in most things related to selling travel. Here’s to your continued success in SELLING TRAVEL. Best regards. Steve Crowhurst, CTC, CTM Hon. steve@sellingtravel.net www.sellingtravel.net

Selling Travel is FREE to all Travel Trade Professionals – click the image above, click on the FOLLOW button to get your copy delivered to your inbox each month.

How that’s piggy bank looking these days? It is smiling back at you or does it have a grumpy look in its face? I know. I hear from the field quite often that it’s tough to make a go selling travel and especially when you are new on the scene and that’s why you need to learn how to feed the pig. First you need to make sure you have your product knowledge in tip top shape. In other words you must make sure your knowledge is leading edge, cutting edge and the most advanced on any given day. There is such a difference in your physiology when you radiate your knowledge just in the way you talk about travel, about your specific niche and when this is also wrapped up in infectious enthusiasm, as Steve Gillick would say, then you will hold the customer’s attention all the way through to the close. How much product knowledge do you need is the question? The answer is simple: everything related to your niche market. Yes you could know a little and find the rest as and when a customer asks. However that is way off the mark for a specialist. When you identify yourself to a customer as a niche specialist and you are charging fees for your knowledge, well there is no room for not knowing. You must truly endeavour to study everything there is to learn about your chosen niche. Plain and simple. No other way to do it. Your Product Knowledge would also include the profile of the customer who would

normally be interested in the type of niche travel you are selling. This knowledge allows you to prospect like a professional as you target your customer without wasting time and money marketing to the wrong people. Qualifying Next up is your checklist of qualifying questions and yes, I’m referring to a printed checklist that you can share with your client. It’s part of the engagement activity. What is it you need to know about your clients to qualify them for your niche tour? Work it out. List the questions and always use your list. That way you will stay on point. Based on the inherent knowledge you have acquired you can now present an offer to your customer and this means you are suggesting a preferred supplier’s product that supports your niche, or it is a tour that you yourself have created? Presenting The Offer When presenting an offer you need a little showmanship. You need to be able to articulate your own product and do it well. In other words you must excite your customer, speak clearly and concisely without over the top conjecture, elaboration, gesticulation, posturing or any

of the other things boring types do to be heard. Answering Questions The next step in feeding the pig is to answer your customer’s questions. Some sales programs term this as Answering Objections which to me is negative and more or less starts you off in an argumentative situation. So stick with simply asking if your customer has any questions and then answer them. Plain and simple. Closing The Sale Asking for the sale, closing the sale use whichever term you prefer but do ask for the business in such a way that it flows from your lips. Generally something like this: “Well it looks like we’ve covered every aspect of your trip… is there anything else you would like to know before I make the arrangements for you?” Depending on the person in front of you, sometimes the word “book” or “booking” can be interpreted as a pressure. The word book / booking emits contract. Whereas the word ‘arranging” is softer, gentle and pleasing and of course it is more service oriented than the harsh term: booking. It’s all in how you sit, stand, eye ball the client, your tone of voice and the mood of the client at this moment in time. So much to be aware of when you close the sale. That covers the lead-up to FEEDING THE PIG.

Prospecting Before you even get to engage your niche prospect, you’ll be spending time and money to attract them. So the Prospecting, as in Marketing, activity is as important as closing the sale. With no one to talk to, to sell to, your piggy bank will be starving for a considerable time.

Marketing is where all of your product knowledge and customer profiling activities come together in one creative surge – giving you the insight you need to reach out and touch. Bringing Home The Bacon Yes, it’s time to bring home the bacon, feed that piggy bank and feed yourself and your family too. To bring home the bacon you’ll need to turn on that creative genius that lies within and promote your niche, or your generic cruise, tour or package like it’s the first time. You need to be excited about your marketing as your very essence is picked up in the words and phrases and slogans you use. Also you need to be concerned about the colours you use. The Colour of Money We tend to purchase based on colour, 60% of the time. Keep that in mind when you use plain old black. The most commonly accepted colour is dark blue – and that goes for men, women, boys and girls. The next most accepted colour is brick red, (a dark red colour). Now the world itself has as you know a million colour combinations and it’s important that you take a longer look at those mountains, the sky, the grass, the ocean, the woods, trees… even rooftops. Be sure to read The Colour of Money article. 

Someone asked about my former magazine IC TRAVEL AGENT and what happened to it. Well I was publishing three magazine with similar content and decided to go with Selling Travel as that is what everyone does regardless of being in a retail location or working from home. Here’s the entire suite of issues with plenty of home-based selling tips. Click the image to view them online.

Here’s where your pig, if you’ve fed it well enough, can return the favour. There are times like 2008 and times now when world events are shaping the local scene to a picture slightly different from what we all expected. In Canada for instance the dollar is low, very low to the US dollar. In America there will be change at the top soon and then the Iran and America “friendship” has and is happening. The America and Cuba “friendship” too is something to look at as you decide how much money you’ll need to survive the next couple of years.

Pay Yourself FIRST! If you are following that age old advice about paying yourself first before you pay your bills, you might have enough saved up in THE PIG to feed you as and when and if sales dry up for a time.

How Much in the War Chest? It’s important to know how much you need in that war chest. Rule of thumb would be six month’s-worth of expenses but then you’ll need to decide based on the lifestyle you lead.

The world is on another brink of something. How big that something is we don’t know until it happens or someone decides it’s time to do some good or more damage.

Adding to the War Chest Year Round The concept of being ready to outlive any downturn is not something you do as soon as the economy takes a dive. It is something you think about now, today, and then plan for it and then do it and maintain it. In this way, you will always have a fund to fall back on should sales drop off.

Every time you feed the pig, be sure to drop 10% of your earnings into another piggy bank - perhaps a like the one shown here. If you are new to selling travel then learn this now and keep it close to your heart. You must always create a war chest with enough funds to sustain you and your agency or home-based business for at least 6 months. Without this padding to fall back on, you could seriously damage your wallet! No need to lose all that time and money and energy over a short snap where things are not going so well. You might even purchase a brightly coloured PIG to remind you of what you need to be doing. Place it where you sit at home and let it sift into your thoughts. “Make money!” Says the PIG.

The Opportunity is Always There When one goes down the other goes up. Something dies, something is born. From old ways come new. You know the cycle is there in pretty much every part of our existence and ever more so in the travel trade. It’s this ability to see the new opportunity that you must develop. With the current economic situation in North America there are options to sell more Americans to Canada, Canadians to Canada, Australians to North America and on it goes. Inbound, outbound, cross border and niche… decide your opportunity and fund it.

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When a world currency takes a dive, your clients might tend to cancel their trip or hide under their bed sheets hoping for the situation to resolve itself. If you let your clients react to the mass media TV stations then you’ll be watching them stay home instead of booking those long awaited and much needed trips with you. Here’s what you need to do:

The Canadian to US Dollar At the time of writing the Canadian dollar is around 69 cents to the USD with chatter saying it will, might, could go down to 59 cents. Okay, so before anyone leaps off tall buildings in a 1920’s retro activity, here’s how Canadian travel agents can carry on selling and sell Canadian travellers on that much needed vacation to America and American travel agents can promote a very safe country, i.e. Canada, to vacation in during 2016 and save a bundle. Outbound From Canada Your outbound clients will be wondering about whether or not they can afford a vacation this year and the answer is, yes. Followed by one or two lines of large print written by you. The large print as opposed to fine print will contain your ideas for helping your client achieve maximum return on their travel spend. Start looking for supplier promotions as they will surely be happening sooner than later. Hotels will be introducing pricing deals to attract Canadians south of the border and chances are airlines will too. Your tour wholesalers could be shaving their prices here and there, however, as you may well know, they have already committed to X number of rooms, tours and tour buses etc. The same promotional mindset will also

happen with cruise suppliers. All of this to help the Canadian traveller offset their extra costs due to currency fluctuation. The Same Money - Less Days Calculator in hand. Total up your clients trip to America. Calculate the exchange rate. Divide it by the number of days travelling and calculate that figure into Canadian funds per day. Total USD: $3,540 x 30% = $4,602 CAD ÷ 12 Days = Per Diem of $383.50 Once you know the numbers you can start selling your client on the same trip trimmed back by a day or two until you reach the price they can afford. For instance if they only wanted to spend around $3,800 CAD then that would mean cutting back just two days. So they can still have that wonderful vacation, spend the same amount of money they had planned to spend and all it is costing them is two days less vacation. End result: a nice 10-day vacation is waiting for them. If you do not show your clients the facts and figures then all they hear about from their local and national news station is the fact that their dollar is dying and they should not be travelling. Be sure to practice your

calculations and plan on how you will explain the concept. From Package to FIT Some packages are priced to include air, hotel, car, transfers etc., and cannot truly be broken down. When the package your client wants is now overpriced, you can suggest a customized travel arrangement (FIT) and then you can build their vacation using the same per diem idea above and you make their trip fit to their budget. Stay Home The so-called ‘staycation’ is another offer you can make and by travelling at home, your clients will get full value for their money. Now, key thing to note is this: it ain’t cheap travelling across Canada unless there’s a special round of low cost airfares your clients can take advantage off. Once again, you’ll need to do your research and start listing where the savings are. Travelling Canada means tours of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and of course the Maritimes, staying in Quebec City might entice your foodies, and for your open expanse landscape photographers, the Prairies cannot be beat. Americans and the Great Canadian Trip American travel agents have a gold mine in their grasp and it’s all about promoting the low Canadian dollar to your clients. With the current exchange rate 30 points in favour of the USD, your clients can take a Canadian vacation and go somewhere else on the money they save! Now there is a promotion waiting to happen. Key question: are you up to speed on your Canadian landscape? Do you know where to vacation in Canada?

Travel agents are renowned for travelling overseas more than at home which means your “local geography” may be a tad light. Now would be a good time for all North American travel agents to chat with Tourism Canada and see if they have any funding initiatives to help you market the stay-athome vacation idea. You may want to order in the brochures for each province and visit each tourism website to watch the videos posted there. If you have not lived through a low Canadian dollar selling scenario before then the ideas here will help you think around the situation in your local area and perhaps help you create your own ideas and promotions. Here’s one that you should do regardless – the consumer event. The Inbound Opportunity As a Canadian travel agent you might just want to promote across the border and entice Americans to book with you. You are on the spot, you know the local area. Then tours up north for instance may even be an opportunity, and you can create your own tours working with local firms. The Consumer Event It takes time to send emails and post to your social media, so the best thing to do is to attract as many clients as you can to attend a, what shall we call it? How about a ‘town hall’ meeting. Rent a hotel room for a midmorning seminar of 90 minutes. No breakfast or lunch required, just coffee. A supplier might chip in to fund the coffee and treats. Theme your event around the low Canadian dollar and inform your clients how to travel wisely whilst this currency situation is happening. 

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By Steve Gillick

You’ve heard the expression “passing an exam with flying colours”. It’s based on the practice of boats and ships flying colourful, small flags in a race or when they are sailing into port. It’s a celebratory feeling mixed with exuberance and positivity. So with the theme of ‘colours’ in Selling Travel’s February Issue, let’s relate the flying colours analogy to your sales and customer service ethic. Do you pass (with flying colours)? Let’s see. True Colours Yes it’s a Cyndi Lauper song but it’s also an expression that questions your authenticity. If you’re showing your ‘true colours’ then you are being honest, open, and up front with your clients. This is also a nautical expression that harkens back to pirate days when they would fly a friendly flag in order to convince other ships that they posed no threat. After the pirates pillaged and plundered and did what pirates do best, they would haul up the Jolly Roger—their true flag and their true colour. In the travel agency you show true colours by not only by knowing your stuff but also by being honest with your clients. If the resort they want is going through a down phase and the service and facilities are not very good, then you need to tell them. If the destination they have their heart set on doesn’t jive with the type of vacation they want (wild, party, drinking destination vs. calm, quiet, relaxing goal of the trip) then you need to tell the clients. You may be wondering whether this ‘full disclosure’ will end up losing the sale. Remember that honesty always wins out. Every traveller is seeking value for their dollars and your emphasis on matching their needs to the value they will receive is one of the stellar traits that distinguishes you from the masses out there selling travel. Show your true colours every day and your client base will thank you. True Blue Someone who is ‘true blue” is loyal and considerate. Every sales transaction you make should be done in the spirit of being ‘true blue’. Sure these are your clients, but they are also the source of your livelihood. Selling is all about relationship building and looking out for

the good of each other. This means recording your clients’ likes and wishes and wants, and then when the opportunity arises, letting them know that the cruise ship they want is having a special deal or the destination they love is holding a special festival. Green Thumb We think of gardeners as having a ‘green thumb’ when they are able to grow flowers, plants and vegetables seemingly without effort. As a travel consultant, your version of the ‘green thumb’ is your ability to not only maintain your client base but grow it through diligent attention to detail, creative planning of product that suits all generations, and staying open-minded to new ideas, new niche markets and trends. Gray Area A gray area is an area of uncertainty; something that needs clarification. Your job as a travel consultant is to not only explain all the facets of the travel arrangements you have put into place for your clients, but also to anticipate what kind of questions they may have—and then you have the answers ready for them. Do we need visas, how far is it to the hotel, will we have Wifi on the cruise, can I get a vegetarian meal on the flight, is tipping expected, can we do some horseback riding, is it safe to walk around at night, and on and on. You don’t want to leave the client in the gray area. This is how to lose the client’s trust and confidence in your services. Red Carpet Treatment This term refers to treating your client’s to the very best, not necessarily in terms of an upscale product but in terms of respect for their thoughts, feelings, methods of communi-

cation and time restrictions in working on their travel details. The red carpet insists that you address the clients properly (none of those emails where you launch into the body of the email without even starting with Hi Bill or Dear Sue). Red Carpet insists that you dress the way your clients expect you to dress (jeans for a super-luxury cruise? Tuxedo for an adventure tour?) And the red carpet means that when you tell a client that you’ll get back to them by 5:00 pm, you actually do get back to them even if you don’t have the answer yet (Hi Jane, just letting you know that I contacted the resort to find out about the special meals you require. They did not get back to me yet. As soon as they do, I’ll send you an email and then I’ll give you a shout tomorrow morning to review the information) Tickled Pink This term refers to someone who is 100% happy and excited about something. Your clients should be ‘tickled pink’ by the 110% effort you put into customizing the itinerary to allow them to dine at the three star Michelin restaurant. They should be tickled pink that you were able to get them first row seats for the premiere in London. They should be tickled pink that the flight you were able to arrange allows them to arrive during the day, check in to the hotel and have a leisurely dinner that evening. And you do all this through your experience and the expert contacts you’ve built up over the years. White Hot The expression “white hot’ refers to something that is excellent, exciting, enthusiastic and engaging. Just like the attitude of your staff and their customer service ethic? Well you hope so. Your job is to exude ‘leadership by example’ and show your staff and your peers, through your consistent actions, what good customer service is all about; from the personal greeting of the client to bringing them to your desk (whether it’s in an agency or the local Starbucks), to interviewing them to determine their needs,

to suggesting how to respond to their needs, and to using your travel savvy, your destination knowledge and your eagerness to have this client book travel with you for the next 35 years or so. Black Belt We know that in many martial arts, the black belt is the level to which you must achieve (and then there are degrees of black belts to further heighten your determination, effort, skill-level and leadership prowess). As a travel consultant are you striving for your black belt or are you happy with your orange or green belt achievement? If you are not striving to be the best, then your clients will tell you by walking away from your services and either going to someone else or throwing in the towel and going the DIY route. To put it mildly, the entire travel industry is looking to you to determinedly go for your black belt in travel counselling—to raise the bar of professionalism, to know your stuff, give your clients the red carpet treatment, remain true blue to your goals, show your true colours and engage in your career with flying colours. True Colours And what of our friend Cyndy Lauper who made the song “True Colors’ famous? Listen to some of the lyrics and relate. Don’t be afraid to let your colors show. They are part of your flag of success. … I see your true colors, Shining through… don't be afraid to let them show, Your true colors, True colors are beautiful. 

No other travel speaker / trainer has written and published more articles, e-Books, and magazines on new business generation for travel agents than Steve. With well over 375 published articles in CT, 20+ E-Books and 50 issues of Selling Travel, he has given you a source of timely and cutting edge tips, tools and techniques to help you sell more travel.

Download the ISSUU app and read Selling Travel on your tablet.

If you have an artistic streak in you, you might be a step ahead in the marketing effort to win more business. If not then a little more study is required. The use of colour is not something that’s taught in our travel training schools and so management too are not always in the know. Thank goodness for marketing departments where the creative tribe hangs out. But what if you’re a DIY agency manager, commissioned agent or home-based? How do you get to understand which colour to use? Short answer, purchase a Colour Wheel. Read. Watch YouTube videos – better still keep reading Selling Travel. Yeah! Remember this saying: “Blue and green should never be seen?” Well there’s a few wild birds that disagree with that comment. But then perhaps it was a fashion statement versus a slogan or backdrop to a travel poster. The world you sell has all the colour combinations you need, so when you get stuck, just look around you. You must look below the surface of course as some grey colours are close to purple and those greens are blue and amongst the reds are oranges.

The Crayola Colour Survey The Crayola Company has conducted a couple of colour surveys one in 1993 and another in 2000. The top colour for all was blue. The RGB Code When you are creating your flyer or website you might be faced with a colour selection window like this one:

Now here comes the but… but, you are dealing with your fellow humans and they see things differently. Sometimes they are hindered by family traits and idiosyncrasies such as my dear ole Granddad. The colour green, for whatever reason was a no, no. If anyone turned up on his doorstep wearing green, family members too, he gave them the boot. Literally. Never knew why and his daughters, my aunts, carried on the “no green” policy. So I too, grew up with this “thing” about green. I didn’t take it on as it didn’t make any sense but some people are indeed wrapped up in these thoughts. So just know that these issues are out there in your clients heads.

The RGB boxes shown above in the red box are where you type a specific RGB code to get the colour you want. No need to worry as there are lists of colours and their

respective RGB codes like this chart below. Click on the image to view the full list.

sale Red on grey is difficult to read and even more so for any of your colour blind clients. Let’s check out other background colours using red text:

Once you start to use these tools more and more you will ultimately know the colours you prefer and the colours that cause your readership or viewership to respond.

More than a few surveys have shown that blue is the most favoured colour by men, women, boys and girls across all ages and generations. So using blue is a good bet. I did in fact change the colour of my email text to blue because of this fact. Blue is said to be calming and for us, selling travel, it can, if you support your images with the right text, mean sky and ocean. You know those things clients look at and dream about being there. One source states there are 52 shades of blue and then of course adding a little extra white would extend that range. The Background Colour This where you can mess up. If you are not aware of how your background colour choice will affect the text colour then stick to a white background. There are one or two never-dos and that is have pink or red laying over grey and the reason for this is right here….

sale sale sale sale One way to learn this craft is to look at what the larger travel firms are doing, and also head to the local book store and look at the covers of new hardcover books. The colour combinations you will see on those books are used that way for a reason. They want you to pick it up, read the title and open the book. Your major supplier partners operate a marketing department or hire in graphic designers. So make your colour education a quick study by noting what your favourite departments of tourism are using as well as your preferred cruise lines and tour companies. They are working with current information that you can learn from.

The Psychology of Colour Well, this topic is a little too deep for me to delve into other than what I know through being an artist and reading on the subject. So we leave the explanations to those who know. When it comes to travel however we do know what makes a client say “WOW!”, “Ahh!” and “YESSS!” Typically the WOWs come from a combination of colours that are most often shown in the form of a photograph or poster or a glossy travel brochure. Although it is a photograph of a mile long sandy beach with turquoise water lapping on that shore and wanting to be “there” is causing the WOW response – there are colours involved. This client WOWing over the photo is being seduced by the feeling of that turquoise water and their toes in that white sand… you know. You’ve been there.

That is pretty much what your colour combinations must do. They must, whether in a photograph, poster, graphic design, website, email or video, they must produce the WOW… followed by “I gotta go there!” The OOH and AHH… Text Over Image Now here’s where you can ramp up the ante. You do not have to wait for your prospect to ooh and ahh. No. You can do it for them in advance so when they look at that image and read the title / slogan they are nudged along to book with you. It just takes a little work on your part to manipulate your images. Below I’ve selected a free sunset from pixabay.com and added my text box and Word Art title and all that’s left to do, if you really feel the need is to add a body or two in the foreground or strolling along the water’s edge. Practice and you’ll get the right combination.

Other than the colour nature delivers to you every single day, the skies too, the clouds, latest fashions and of course the 2016 colour palette for interior design, you can take a look at your own images and those your supplier will allow you to use. Colour can inspire emotions and here’s a guide from The Logo Company as to how colour is used in their client’s logos and if you need to polish up your own logo and overall branding, you might want to give this company a call / email.

The Good OLD Black & White That’s me actually. Love black and white and in fact as an artist that’s how I started with pen and ink. I think mainly because pen & ink artists where the former photographers on expeditions. No iPhones for them in 1776 but a pen and paper for sure. Today what was, is now. Vinyl is back. Black & White too. The challenge is thinking colour in black and white. I’ll let you ponder that for a moment. I know. Deep, very deep. There is an angle to it though.

Generally black and white imagery is somewhat refined. It can be used so well to market upscale travel such as world cruises and high end tours.

Speaking of black & white travel posters here’s what came up when I typed the search term into Google images:

You could even use black and white to create a tour promo piece like the one below. Sure there’s bird watching tours, but not like yours. Not like this one that hikes into the higher peaks to take pictures of eagles, condors and hawks too.

You could also set yourself apart from the rest if you changed your logo to a stylish black and white design. More or less guaranteed you would be thought of as exclusive, high end and expensive, which means you would not attract those low ball customers who want deluxe for fifty bucks. Beware where you add a drop of red though. Might come across as “selling travel with a bit of a blood lust”… OR, you might become known as the best Vampire Tour Company in North America! Who knows how your clients will interpret your creative design and that’s why supporting text is a must. A picture is worth a thousand words, but still better to tell your clients exactly what you want them to think about when they view your imagery. Don’t leave it to chance. Tell them in concise clear language that this area is pristine. Let them know the shopping is fantastic. What about the waves? Yes, three metres high. Tell them and show them and leave a note about booking now, too.

Now that’s a mess of B&W ideas staring back at you. Come classics there too. So here’s your mission if you’re up to accept it: start studying colour combinations and work your magic so that you can include your images, add text and print posters as needed. Right, over to you. 

Some colour surveys and studies suggest that we, as in us humans tend to make our purchase based on colour, 60% of the time. If that is true then it’s an important segment of your marketing. The world you sell gives you every colour combination there is however, that’s not how some of your clients see it and the reason for that is this: they are preconditioned to what certain colours mean and that interpretation could come from their ethnic background, their religious beliefs, family tradtions or something else. Let’s explore some more. As you read Steve Gillick’s article you will quickly gather just how much we use colour in our speech patterns to add to what we are saying. You might even be quoting an age old saying that has a colour metaphor. You Can Tell The Book… Some years ago I was given the advice that if I wanted to know which colours to use ‘this year’ in my marketing, I was to visit the local book store, stand in front of the new arrivals shelf and let my eyes take in all the colours on the book spines and the covers facing outwards. One of the reasons for this is that hardcover books, if they are going to be successful, usually sell X millions within so many weeks and to make that happen the colour, the design, the title and the name of the book are what draws a person to pick it up and read the cover. Colour is the draw. This Year’s Home Décor Colour My next piece of advice came from an art selling workshop. Being an artist I wanted to know more about how to sell more art. The advice from the speaker was to paint or create works of art that match the current year’s wall paint, furniture colours etc. The reason for this: so that your artwork matches, fits the home décor. Who knew? Some artists in the room said no way, they

will paint in what colours they choose. From my point of view they could do both. Anyway, the main point was made, colour is important in generating the art sale. Which colours and combinations do you like? If you are not sure check your wardrobe to find the colour you are drawn to. Look around your own surroundings and you’ll find the colours that you like.

The colours featured above are from Pantone’s colours of the year 2016. Not sure they work for promoting all travel, but they could do well for weddings & honeymoons. When you look at the collection of travel magazine covers on the next page, a screen shot off of Google Images, you can see the enormous use of blue as in sky and the yellow titles show up before the white ones do. This is all based on our acceptance and interpretation of colours.

Just Because… When I found out that most people prefer blue I changed the font colour of my emails from black to blue. Tough to measure response, however it has to be doing something based on the research.

The Colour of Hardcovers

Your Next Ad, Poster, Posting… You might feel daunted by the many choices you have when it comes to marketing with images… but as you can see, you’d be safe with a blue background as shown above.

Here’s a few book spines from my business book library, which colour do you see as prominent? There are two in this bunch of books – blue and white with flashes of red. The books for Dummies series as you will know are recognized anywhere by their yellow and black cover.

Notice also that some of the models featured on the covers are also wearing blue. Just a thought for when you shoot a selfie or have someone take a few images of you by the castle, on the beach etc., ditch the lime green and pink clothes (!) and dress in blue, or have some part of your clothing blue. Blue jeans would work it the science is correct. Survey Your Clients One way to find out which colour you should use when marketing to your own client list is to ask them, which colour they prefer.

It’s Worth The Study To spend a few hours reading about and exploring colour will go a long way to promoting your travel services and focusing your marketing efforts. Key activity then is to start looking at colours, really looking and when you do you will discover amazing combinations. Tree trunks are not always brown, rocks have pink and blue in them, the sky of course can be all shades and rainbows are up there too.

You may receive a few hundred responses and when you’ve done the sifting and sorting you would have a decent chart of colour preferences. Use one of the free online survey programs to do this.

You can even discover secrets of your personality by colour… perhaps we won’t go there just yet! Right, over to you. Study up and give your sales and marketing efforts a colourful boost. 

When choosing a speaker for your travel event, always check the speaker’s provenance…

250 published travel articles covering destinations, niche markets, travel trends, travel scams and humour 150 live keynotes, seminars, breakouts, webinars and training sessions at travel industry conferences and events 8 e-magazines, selfpublished in photostoryboard style covering Japan, Ireland, China and Colombia

50 + Interviews by the national press, travel press, consumer magazines, television and radio covering all aspects of travel.

For a speaker who has truly been there, done it and still doing it and can talk about it, book Steve Gillick for your event. ♦ Traveller ♦ Speaker ♦ Travel Writer ♦ ♦ Photographer ♦

Tel: 647-291-4370 steve@talkingtravel.ca www.gillicksworld.ca

81 Countries visited and explored 625 Destinations Over 30 Travel Consultant and Travel Media Familiarization Tours 32 Years of being a very Active Ingredient in the Travel Industry

Come on in, the coffee’s great!

Everyone is talking selfies, and some people are saying enough with the selfies, already. No matter which side of the selfie image you stand on, you need them because once you have them you can do so much with them. You should also shoot some studio shots, which for me means hamming it up in front of my webcam, clicking the mouse to shoot myself. Well you know what I mean. What then you ask? Well after the mug shot, here are the next steps to using your studio and selfie images to put you IN THE PICTURE. After you have taken your mug shot, you then open it in a photo editing program such as Photoshop Elements 14 (PE14) to remove the background and after saving your image as a PNG, which you can read as ‘transparent background’ you can then place your transparent self over another image and it will look like you were there. Using MS Word or PowerPoint Sometimes the editing program such as PE14 can get a little tiresome trying to work out the tools. So a quick way to place yourself over another image is simply to copy and paste the background into a Word document or a clear PowerPoint slide and then lay your transparent self on top.

#3: shows the cropped and transparent PNG image superimposed on the background. I then Snagged It to capture it as one.

Enter the use of SNAG IT: It’s at this stage when you have your background positioned and your mug shot laid on top that you can use Snag It to capture the combined images as one. Snag It is the best! Here’s the demo: #1: There I am sitting in front of my computer using my Logitech 910 webcam. It shoots a 10 MP image. #2: shows just me, cropped from the main image and with the background removed.

The above screen shot shows the PE14 Editor and under the Draw tools you will see the Eraser. By clicking on that icon and setting your scale as shown in 1 and 2 you should be able to zap the background in one.

If not then you can use the Eraser with the scissors and that will give you a small to large tool and by using your mouse, erase what’s left. When you use the Eraser with the yellow burst in the icon it looks for same colour values and could sometimes creep into the image you want to save. So if that happens UNDO and use the Eraser with the scissors which means you’ll be removing background as you go. Once you finished you’ll see the background is checkered like the image below.

This is called a PNG and needs to be Saved As PNG – if you save as a JPEG then the background will return to white in the case of the cartoon face above. Using Snag It One of my favourite tools is the Snag It screen capture (and much more) tool. It allows me to create my images using Word or PowerPoint and then capturing that new image without using complicated editing programs. Here’s how:

Above, I have copied and pasted or inserted my background image onto my Word document and now, to add your agency name or logo you open a Text Box and type away – see below.

Your next step is to select No Fill / No Outline (1) for your text box, this will remove the background behind your text, allowing your text to float over the image you have chosen for your background. To the right of your Text Box you will see an icon for Layout Options (2) and you’ll want to select the two options opposite the arrows shown below. 1 2

Let’s say you want to place your logo and agency name over an image you took on your recent FAM or vacation – here’s a quick way to do it in MS Word, and you’re using Word as a blank canvas. So open Word (orPowerPoint) and select Portrait or Landscape to suit the image you intend to create and capture. With that done you can now copy and paste your background onto your Word document.

Now you should have your agency name or logo or slogan or another image positioned over your background image.

Now you use Snag It to do just that, snag it and Save As. Here’s how it works once you have Snag It downloaded and saved to your computer. Usually it will come alive when you hit the PrtScn key (Print Screen) on your keyboard. With your combined image on your screen you tap the Print Screen key and an orange dotted line will appear, clicking and holding the left button on your mouse, you capture your newly created image and release the mouse button.

Here’s a couple of my trick shots I use to show case how you can use transparency images, layering them and then Snagging them. Two components: shot from window seat and superimposed ME.

Three components, background, rock from garden and ME!

STEVE’S TRAVEL

When you first tap the Print Screen key you will see two lines appear – vertical and horizontal. Using your mouse drag a box (the dotted line) around the image or any part you wish to select and release your mouse button and you have captured your image in to Snag It – which will then open the Snag It editor where you can trim your image.

So many tools you can use to crop, turn and change the image you’ve created.

Three components, background, seagull, and ME!

This one is REAL! Everything in one shot.

So now you know if you have not seen the Pyramids, you can / could insert yourself “on location” as it were. Have fun! 

You might often read in my articles a suggestion to take a quick look over the fence to see what another industry is doing to attract clients. It always pays off, that wee peek and a tweak. The tweak comes from taking that idea found across the fence and changing it to suit your own agency sales and marketing plan.

I’ve borrowed this idea from Lori Allen, Director, Great Escape Publishing who posted her idea about creating a seasonal chart for her readers and customers advising them where they might go in the off-season to take photographs. I thought the concept one of the best visual marketing ideas I’ve seen for a long time and it translates well for retail travel. Click here to view: http://www.greatescapepublishing.com/cal endar-best-shoulder-season-destinations/ Here’s how you might create your own ‘Seasonal Map’ and pitch it to your clients. Know Your World Veteran travel agents can pretty much sketch out a world map in their heads and pin-point locations in the same thought. If you are new to selling travel then you might want to swot up on the world map and where your clients could travel to, given any of the twelve seasons – yes, twelve. We have the Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall plus, within each of those seasons, Low, Mid/Shoulder and High seasons usually governed by date, price, elasticity and whatever is going on in the world at the moment of booking. Marketing Your Map Here’s the thing. You send out a bunch of text and you’ll receive some clicks. You send out an interesting image, and you’ll receive a ton of clicks. Add a furry creature and stand back! Okay, just kidding about the furry critter. No need. The Seasonal Map/Chart will do it and I might suggest that your artistic efforts could go viral. Back To Mapping Your Year Ahead By the time you read this it will be February 2016. We’re down a month. Seasons are on the move. Weather is doing its thing.

The Seasonal Activity Map You might consider adding to your season map, the types of vacations, tours or cruises that would be available. Let’s go for May/Japan on Lisa’s map. You could add in fine print a comment about Touring Kyoto, or Visiting Sake Shops in Tokyo. In this way, you further nudge your clients to think, aha, or ah-so and ponder “Yes, we could visit Japan in the off-season and, well look at that, there’s a tour of Kyoto we’ve always wanted to do, but peak season was so expensive…” The Video Seasonal Map For the more out-going amongst you, you could stand in front of your agency’s wall map and talk about where your clients can go in the off season. If you do this remember to use a microphone (wired or wireless) so that as you turn to face the map, your voice is not lost or muffled on the video. Keep your video to around three minutes or less as this is meant to be a call-to-action activity not a 10-hour travelogue. The Social Media Meet-Up If you are posting to any social media outlets that offer you a chance to stream live, as in on camera, then dust of your showmanship and strut your stuff as per your video, but live. A word of warning, always a good idea to practice and that means the entire “program” and repeat it until you can deliver it like a pro. No gaffs. Reduced ums and ahs. No stunned looks. Winging it never works out. Be sure to dress for the occasion too. Go for full business attire if you’re not sure about your wardrobe to match your presentation. Suppliers are working their pricing, especially the rates based in the US dollar which would be 99% of the tours you sell.

There might be some excellent specials coming up. Just like knowing your world, you need to know the lay of the land here too. Be sure you are 100% on the ball when it comes to current and potential price deals. Not everybody is looking for a deal but for

those who are, you need to speak their language and have something to offer them. If you wish, you could work your map around one supplier and in so doing engage their knowledge and build a map together. Start mapping out your seasonal concepts and be ready to do what you do so well. 

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YOU’VE GOT 14 DAYS. BETTER GET MARKETING!

How’s that St. V. Day marketing plan coming along? Got your social hearts all in a row, ready to post to your Facebook page, whip of a few snazzy tweets, blog a little lurv and oh yeah… perhaps a smoochie video to pop out there too. Way to go. And as the previous page tells you, you’re countdown to something or nothing is 14 days starting NOW! Most travel agents will try to sell a Lover’s Package to a resort or a hotel, or a short stay vacation somewhere and usually that somewhere has a beach. This is a good plan, however you can use St. Valentine’s Day to boost future sales and chill out in the process. No need to get yourself cornered into a two week marketing frenzy.

St. Valentine’s Day is for Everyone With Oscar being so white (!) you may want to show your own true colours and show all races, colours and creeds in your promotional materials and posts. Lifestyles can be accommodated too don’t’cha think? Yes I knew you’d be there. So rainbow flag it and do it with pride.

Using the Feb 14 Build Up When you know well in advance that an event like St. Valentine’s Day is coming up you can plan around the marketing that everyone else does, and gain spin off recognition from it. The ‘everyone else’ being the major firms like Coke Cola, and the chocolate companies eager to sell those heart shaped boxes by the millions.

Your Niche Market If you are a niche type of travel agent, then focus on your product and launch it as a St. V. Day product, or a love and… product.

You’ll be seeing St. V. ads on TV from now til the very day. What you need to do however is jump on that bandwagon and sell further, have something to sell way beyond Feb 14. What Products Tie Into St. V Day? As you well know St. V. Day is about love, current, past and future as in dating now, marrying soon. Feb 14 is a great day to say to your spouse, partner, lover, friend… “Here’s out tickets for that cruise we talked about!”

Are You Ready for the Big Time Got your game face on? Okay then… be outside your travel agency with a box of chocolate hearts wrapped in red and hand them out to walk by traffic with a comment such as: “The way to your partner’s heart is via a trip to Las Vegas / London / Paris / Kyoto… “ - you know the places you love to sell so use those. Can you do it? Sure you can. Don’t forget to video yourself out there, then post it, send it to the local TV station…

Feb 14 is a great day to show someone you love them by taking them on a trip of a lifetime… perhaps at the end of the year?

In your agency window… “Feb 14th is for lovers who love to travel… come see us today!” 

What do specialize in? Cruises, wine tours, clothing, architecture, ancient ruins… no matter, just tie it into “Take your love to… and show her your heart!” Or vice versa for showing him.

We had friends coming over so I went out to the liquor store to buy a bottle of Rose. My knowledge of wine goes as far as white and red so I was looking for something in between as I told the wino behind the counter. From the blank stare I guessed he’d been on a winery FAM so I left him to it and like the wine warrior of old, I kept looking.

The more I looked, the more intrigued I became. At one time another sales clerk came over to check on me as I’d let out a loud laugh coupled with a guffaw and a short and sweet “Cor blimey, I dunno!” He caught me with a bottle of wine with a K-A-R-A-Z-Y name. Anyway, the more I looked in each bin, read the labels, took in the brands, regions and then how the wordsmiths enticed me to buy it, open it and drink it… well, I thought to myself, we gotta sell travel like they sell wine. So, I’d just had an epiphany! And a good whine it was too. Recently trod and religious by nature. With a delicate balance of… the lesson went on and on. So many labels. Are You Selling The Same Old Plonk? Well are you? I mean are you selling same ole same ole or are you coming up with new and creative destinations, renaming and rebranding tours and giving them exciting and enticing names to attract the beenthere-done-that customer? You know what happens when you sell the same old plonk, no one takes notice anymore. Or if they do, after the second swirl they’ll be down the road looking for something more suitable to their taste.

Your Label? What Does it Say About You? Let’s return to the liquor store for a moment where I had my epiphany. The reason I was chuckling was because of the names on the labels. It’s the same thing as standing at the Hallmark card shop reading those crazy birthday cards. You get caught out and you let an uncontrolled laugh slip. Labels… yes, well we had the Big Red Truck, The Little Penguin, Twin Fin and there’s even a label saying “See YA Later”. Then there’s Two Oceans and MADFISH Cabernet, Wild Horse Canyon, 7 Deadly Zins, Nine Stones or how about the Leopard’s Leap Lookout? Whatever happened to Baby Duck in a box? Someone knows a thing or two about pushing wine. This explosion of wild name labels is very clever. The colours are wonderful, the graphics are eye catching and the wordsmithing is pure poetry. I have no idea whether the contents actually meet the hype or not which begs the question: Does your label tell your story? Can your customer get a taste of your service from the message you market? For instance if I borrow from the labels are you: 

“…fresh and fruity with a touch of acidity” which means you love to meet people until they ask for a cheap flight around the block!



Could you be “crisp and clean with tropical tones and a definite wallet saver”? You love the Caribbean and you know the hot deals.



Or are you, “a smart Sicilian with a crisp end”? I’ll leave that one alone!

Now this is pure silk. It’s describing the Nine Stones. “This easy-to-drink-with-anything Shiraz is smooth, bright and lively with jazzy plum and blackberry fruit and a slightly tart edge. Shaded, bittersweet chocolate and a hint of vanilla bring you to the soft finish.” Gawd I think I’m in love! It’s almost a knee trembler isn’t it? It sure beats a screamin’ “CHEAP FLIGHTS TO EUROPE!” banner doesn’t it? The Customer’s Taste One thing that becomes very clear when you compare the selling of wine to the selling of travel is that the wineries understand good taste. They know what they are striving for and they know when they reach it. They either appeal to the customer’s taste demands or they create the taste that creates the demand. Playing this formula in the world of retail travel presents another question: Do you know or have you documented what your customer’s tastes

are this year? Do you have their likes and dislikes, preferences and dream trips recorded? Are you going to create a travel flavour that will attract demand? Perhaps a new adventure, a new island to go to, a tour led by YOU! Find out and appeal to the travel tastes of your existing customers. Keep them drunk on your service! Cork it? Screw It? It’s a wonderful world we live in isn’t it. Changing every minute of the day. What was, now isn’t. What was once the only way to stopper wine has suddenly changed. Screw cap has hit the main stage. What used to be, “Pop some bubbly will you Lumley!” Has now become: “Unscrew the Champs darling.” If the wine industry can go from cork it to screw it, you can go from ITCs to Cruises to Adventure to anything that adds something new to your offerings and something new to be sampled by your clients. The Business of Wine Tours If wine is so popular and sold so well, why don’t you jump on the bandwagon? This is where the two industries cross paths. Yes indeed, wine tourism, cuisine tourism… both waiting for you to taste if you haven’t already. Sell travel like wine and the commissions will flow!

Create your own wine label by working with a local designer OR, visit your local liquor store and check to see what travel related labels exist. It’s more the imagery you are looking for than taste. However if you can find a great wine with a label that sells the area, destination, country… then you have a winning promotional tool. You host a reception, invite your supplier, the tourism department of the country you’ll be visiting and more than likely they will supply the wine for the event or at least for the wine tasting moment. Remember, tourism and trade always go hand-in-hand which means a collaboration to boost tourism and sales of products like wine.

Here’s where you find even more ideas on how to sell travel and boost your revenues. Ct is the destination information and how-to-sell trade magazine for travel agents and every article I write is always geared to new business generation for YOU and your suppliers. The content ranges from a step-by-step how-to article to a comment about a current topic. Many of the articles are worth reviewing with your suppliers should you be able to work together to generate that new dollar for all. Click here to read.

Are you racing this way and that, taking those hairpin bends and barely making it? Well that sounds thrilling! Next question: are you generating any new business when you fly by the chequered flag? Got to generate some extra horsepower then I would say. And to do that - to boost your selling horsepower means you need to have a sales formula. Let’s call it Formula One and check it out: I know more than a few travel agents who zip and zap, zoom and vrooooom and are forever busy going lap after lap around the same old track. Pretty soon they lose concentration and bam and wham out of business. No sales. So… what’s the answer? The answer is a sale plan. A sales formula you can work to. Suspects to Customer Stats The first thing you’ll need to do is work out and calculate your Suspect to Customer ratio. This refers to how many Suspects you speak to and how many of those Suspects you close, i.e. they are now a customer. Are you somewhere close to 5 to 1 or 60 to 1? Where are you on this chart? Here’s how you work it out: 1. Count up how many people you have spoken to, emailed to, met and chatted to. There has to be some conversation happening between you and your Suspect. 2. Now count up how many bookings you’ve generated “this” month. So now you have your ratios. You’ve connected to (in a serious business mode) 25

people and you closed 5 bookings. That’s a hit ratio of 5-to-1 isn’t it? From here on you‘ll keep that formula in mind and try to better it. You’ll be taking some of those bends in the selling road just a little sharper from here on. The Corporate Formula Some years back this would be something like 60 – 5 – 1. In other words, 60 calls, to win 5 presentations to close one account. Only you know what your closing ratio is. The Group Formula This selling activity is very close to the Corporate Formula. You have to drive hard and fast to find and talk to so many group travel directors in order to find the one who is in the planning stages now. The Social Media Viral Formula One challenge in counting your social media penetration and reach is that you really do not know if the numbers are true. I know there are stats and facts to be had, but I can tell you know, probably 80% of your so called “friends” and “followers” do not know what you do, and have clicked to friend you, well, for no real reason. You should contact each of your social contacts and check them out. It’s an eye opener let me tell you.

Revving Up Sales and the selling of travel is a numbers game and it’s always been that way. Sales is sales. Marketing is marketing. As you’ve read it here before, nothing has changed in the art of selling for centuries. Your role now is to fire up your marketing activity across all the channels you are comfortable using. The keyword for any channel is viral which would be also known as referral. You want, what you send out, post, blog about, and talk about to be passed along. You want to be recommended. You need your marketing to be forwarded.

Does It Lead to a Booking? That’s the big question. As 80% of your social contacts are with you for no real reason, then they are not travel prospects. That is something you must learn and commit to memory – especially if you are spending 6 hours a day blogging. Sure you will always get a hit. Someone will book with you. As mentioned it is a numbers game. Do not be fooled into thinking that 5,000 FB friends are going to travel someday. The people who will travel are in your database, connected by email and living within 5 miles of you. That formula has never changed.

Going Viral For your marketing to go viral it has to hit the mark. So what’s the mark? Well it means your offer is so compelling that no one can refuse it and everyone wants to share it with their friends.

Creating Your NEW Formula for 2016 Okay… times up. Got to put that foot to the floor, the peddle to the metal. The mouse to the mousepad! Time to focus on your known and existing clients and time to use that old, old technology called email. There ya go.

What Goes Viral? Unfortunately only daft and silly and stupid, dumbed down “stuff” goes viral. Now you could add in there a dancing cat… or a video of a massive fiery road crash “caught on camera” and that level of content will go viral and click up the millions of clicks and forwards and shares.

Now you could also factor in your website and if you’ve read my past articles where a website is mentioned you would know it has to be, must be, fully functional and a pleasant experience to visit.

It’s what we’ve been reduced to and as I say it’s unfortunate. But that’s how it works. So… here’s what you do…. you find a cute cat, you chat with your neighbour’s dog, you fall over in the waves… or you showcase something absolutely wonderful. Could be a video or an image that hopefully you actually took. The video is now outstripping the image for being “opened” and viewed. This would suggest that you learn how to use that smart phone of yours and capture something that causes people to say WOW!

You should also check your analytics whenever you can to study how visitors to your website are reaching you. Are they arriving directly, via a Google search, Yahoo… others? Are they using a desktop, tablet or other device? All of this data helps you fine tune your sales engine and set the sales formula you can actually achieve. Feeding The Pig Yes, to feed the PIG you have to work the numbers, the formula needs to be doable. There’s no pie in the sky here. You must keep your eyes on the road ahead and be ready for the unexpected. Check your fuel too! Okay coffee will do. 

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