Selling Travel January 2016

1/2016

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS 4

EDITORIAL

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CREATING YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET – In production

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THE YEAR OF THE MONKEY

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OWN YOUR ONW NEWS

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THE TRAVEL INSTITUTE

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TIME MANAGEMENT: WHO’S GOT THE MONKEY?

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COFFEE TOURISM

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REVOLVER CAFÉ by Alex Knight

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ACTA.CA

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PODCASTING – THE NEW RADIO

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MORE IDEAS HERE!

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MAY THE TRAVEL FORCE BE WITH YOU IN 2016 by Steve Gillick

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THE FOUR PS: SELLING ON PRICE!

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GET MOVING WITH VIDEO

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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.

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10/29/13 2:18 PM

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

WHO HAS SOMETHING NICE TO REPORT? Smiley face, happy face… where are they when you need them and when will our news ever turn to something nice, happy and heartwarming. Not talking kitty up a tree saved by local fireman… we need something more global, more in step with a planet that should be moving in the right direction and not imploding through mismanagement.

I’ll tell you who. YOU! That’s right. You have all the goodness wrapped up in your files, bookings and client’s travels and, you might guess, I am back on my horse called: Own Your Own News.

That’s it – if you are not drowning out CNN and FOX and any other mass-market, repeat-it-untilyou- believe-it news stations, then you will be buried under the negative commentary. Wind will whistle around your agency along with the tumbleweed as your clients stay home, afraid to get up and go forth.

First off you need to bring out your smiley button, give it a whack to get your own head out of the doom and gloom mindset your TV wants you to be in. The goal is to get good news back in vogue and get busy before the YEAR OF THE MONKEY steals your thunder. We have no idea what monkey business 2016 will deliver, so we must be prepared to have something good to say and send when another mass shooting or act of terror is unleashed. So, what’s in your blog that’s nice to read? What’s going viral on your social media? Let’s work on that and more in this issue of ST. 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

IN PRODUCTION NOW

There’s no business like the travel business and when monkey business leaps into the frame look out! Scouring various websites focused on The Year of the Monkey, The Fire Monkey, zodiac combinations such as someone born in a Cow year heading into the year of the monkey, well that’s a whole lot of sifting and sorting. In short, if you understand the personality of a monkey, or at least have some idea about it, you can discern what 2016 might deliver in terms of opportunity. Let’s explore some more:

Before we get into the pros and cons of 2016 being a monkey year, I am drawn to check out monkeys as a tourism idea. You know, like Gorillas in the Mist, book, movie, tour.

So here’s what I found out: There are more than 260 different types of monkeys. They are separated into two major categories: New World and Old World. The New World monkeys live in the Americas, while Old World monkeys live in Asia and Africa. (http://www.livescience.com/27944monkeys.html) As this is the year of the monkey what comes to my mind is to jump on the bandwagon and arrange tours to go visit the areas where monkeys still roam. That’s it. It ties in nicely with all events starting with Chinese New Year. Gung Hey Fat Monkey!

THE YEAR OF THE MONKEY 2016 Time to get serious about the coming year.

All in all it would seem there is plenty of opportunity but you have to expect that wily monkey trait bursting in unexpectedly to upset the situation. This suggests expect the unexpected. Something we’ve explored before. Selling travel is always based on that well known warning.

To understand the Year of The Monkey a little more I visited the following website: http://astrologyclub.org/chinesehoroscope/2016-year-monkey/ Here’s some of the advice you’ll find there.

So click there for the full explanation.

The positive and negative quality of the Monkey Year 2016 culminate in a year that anything can happen. The influence of the Monkey puts everything into flux. Things will get accomplished, but largely through personal and individual efforts.

This cheeky animal bursts with exuberance, bringing a lightning fast pace and fantastical motivation.

The Monkey increases communication, humor and wit, helping us get through stressful times with grace and ease. Business flourishes and risks tend to pan out. The Monkey’s gift is the ability to find unconventional solutions to old problems. Daring to be different can lead to success.

Talk is fast and cheap, so be on the alert for deceptions.

Although a lively, optimistic and progressive year where finances, politics, and real estate should see an upturn, there will be a decided undercurrent of insecurity. Everyone wants to work the shrewdest angle, get the best deal, and win big. However, business decisions made this year should be based on fact, not emotion. Problems and chicanery abound, so nothing this year should be taken for granted, whether politically, financially, professionally, domestically or emotionally.

A particularly auspicious time for new inventions, the Year of the Monkey is for taking risks and being rebellious, a year where agile, inventive minds, sheer guts and bravado will win out. Now is the time of courage, action, anarchy, and true devotion to even the wildest of schemes, a time to

start new endeavors, for they are destined to succeed under Monkey’s influence. But a word to the wise: those who can hang on for the wild ride, outsmart the confidencetrickster, and bluff their way through will come out unscathed. Those who are dull or slow witted, and can’t handle the stress will come unglued.

Here’s a silver coin from Canada. Now this costs close to $100, but then you could use it as call-to-action for expensive tours. You could also generate a raffle and let your clients enter to win the coin for $2 a shot.

After 50 clients have purchased a ticket you have recovered your investment.

On the individual level, do go ahead with your life. Move forward, make strides, and stretch out for what may lay ahead.

The Year Of The Monkey 2016 is a time for business considered as risky, and here the seeds of unplanned success lays. Run with ideas, embrace the inventive, and don’t look back.

Remember that this year will reward the individual effort and those who place their trust in the group collective will face disappointment.

Sounds like my kinda year! Creative, risky, new ideas, WOW! That’s where I live. How about you? What do you see and sense that could turn your sales into an upward trend despite all the bullets flying around the world?

For starters you could start working on the following: 1. Wildlife tours that are monkey centered.

Most countries publish a series of stamps per each New Year – especially America, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and many Asian countries too.

If you want and need monkey images, don’t forget you can always visit GraphicStock and subscribe. Or search on line making sure to read the copyright rules.

Chinese

If you are selling into a product that already exists they would have their own images of monkeys that you should be able to use in your marketing activities. Just get their okay before doing so.

You can also check with your local post office to find out what if any Year of the Monkey stamps and coins they might be issuing.

These low cost items make for excellent giveaways upon final payment.

Over to you. Year of the Money Making Monkey. Swing into action sooner than later and that means now! 

2. Chinese New Year… in China!

3. Offer tours mythology.

to

explore

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.

OWN YOUR OWN NEWS OWN YOUR OWN NEWS OWN YOUR OWN NEWS

If you are new to selling travel and perhaps have just invested in setting up your own agency be it street front or home-based you may be wondering as to whether or not it was a sound business idea, given the Paris attacks and more. It’s a worthy thought to have as you are in an industry that shudders when a rifle is fired no matter how far away from where you are standing at the time.

After all these years of being in the travel industry, I am amazed at how far, as a planet, we have regressed. Through the rosecoloured glasses I like to wear, I was hoping “we” as in mankind, would be further down the road of humanity than we are at present.

It’s true. I honestly thought we would be living in a world that had had its share of war, and religious strife and mass killings, terrorism and despots. But I guess not. I mean where would CNN be without a daily dose of bloodshed to feed us, until they find something else to chew on, like another massacre?

The sad truth is this: North Americans like their daily dose of bloodshed and tuning into it to listen to those off the cuff revelations by so-call experts, must deliver some kind of solace. It must give them a sense of something, what could it be, perhaps a sense of, I’m alright jack. Didn’t happen here.

Now, as the mass media news stations are not going to go away, or stop their incessant repeat of all things bad –you can bet on any given anniversary of an event ranging from 911 to 77 to Columbine to Paris… you will hear it all again and see it all again. And they will repeat those terrible events without a second thought of the deceased families still trying to overcome their grief.

So now, have you got the picture? Do you have the concept of who and what is destroying your business and causing some to many of your clients from booking this year and perhaps next? Yes indeed it’s those ex weathermen turned mass murder experts

who unashamedly pitch destruction into your space.

death

and

Hold that thought and think about what you are going to do, now, yes now to combat this daily dose of mayhem that is ruining your business. I’ll help you: you are going to find something true, something nice, something grand, something happy and you are going to deliver YOUR NEWS to your clients through every media channel you manage.

You must OWN YOUR OWN NEWS and I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve written that phrase and talked about it to my past audiences. It is the one phrase that continues to rise up each time the mass media start their campaigns and inadvertently scare your clients into not travelling and also perpetuate the message of the terrorist.

What you need then is access to good news.

You need to look for it because it’s not going to find you. It doesn’t sell TV time or newspapers.

Where are you going to look? What are you going to pitch and how loud are you going to pitch your pitch? Remember YOUR NEWS must drown out the mass media outlets of the world.

Do you blog? Do you Facebook? Send Tweets? Are you posting anything anywhere? How about your website? Can you control space on your home page and launch a campaign there?

Surely there’s an outlet for your news?

If it doesn’t come to mind in an instance then it’s time to create that channel so that you can launch your good news message.

Video is one medium you can use and it’s as close as your webcam which for most of use is right there sitting in front of you probably aiming at you right between the eyes.

Switch it on and start recording. Talk about your recent travels, talks about some of the great trips your clients have returned from safe and sound and then close off your video with a message of “Come and see me soon!”

Positive news. Happy news. New events. Let your younger clients know they can now marry onboard a cruise ship. Let your corporate accounts know they can hold their AGM on a cruise ship. 

Tell your cruise clients, after so many ports of call, they should actually see the land side of where they’ve cruised to.



Got a great deal? That’s GREAT NEWS! Get it out there. Any TWO 4 ONES? That’s also GREAT NEWS. Get that out there too.



What are your suppliers doing to make things nicer in the world? Take what they are doing and mention it.



Get yourself on talk-radio and deliver on some of the GREAT NEWS ideas mentioned here. Better yet, launch your own radio show online. You be the star and make others happy when you tell them about the savings they will make by booking TODAY!

Are you still with me? Excellent. If you want your travel business to survive through the coming turbulent times, you must pay more

attention to what’s being presented as news and the detrimental effect on your business.

When there is talk about new airliners taking to the skies or new destinations to visit or new travel apps for your iPhone this too is worth adding to your GREAT NEWS travel show.

What you pitch just has to be taking the high road versus the mass media low road. You might recall travel guru Rick Steves comments after the Paris attacks when he mentioned that America loses 30,000 people to gun related incidents a year.

Of course someone would counter with a comment about not knowing where or when the terrorists will strike again in Europe, but then one more mass murder was just reported in San Bernardino and by the time you read this, there could well be another home grown slaughter in North America.

Perhaps travelling overseas is safer?

Okay, back on track. We want good news.

We want happy news. We want great deals.

We want YOU, the travel professional to start selling travel to places that are exotic and wonderful and where the people are easy to talk to and where religion is something to celebrate.

Let’s get every travel agent talking up, posting, uploading, pitching and selling GOOD NEWS. Your mission is to drown out the mass media depressing news. 

ON THE AIR

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“I know I could sell more travel if only I could get this time-taking monkey off my back!�

This PDF has been sitting in my collection for some time now. Years in fact. Decades I’m thinking as the publication date was 1974. Reprinted in 1999 but I’m sure I had this before then. Cannot remember how I acquired it other than I did, and after reading it I made it an integral component of my time management workshops for travel trade management. So as we enter the Year of the Monkey… let me share this terrific review of how anyone managing others should manage their time and manage their monkeys. Enjoy!

Why is it that managers are typically running out of time while their subordinates are typically running out of work? Here we shall explore the meaning of management time as it relates to the interaction between managers and their bosses, their peers, and their subordinates.

To accommodate those demands, managers need to control the timing and the content of what they do. Since what their bosses and the system impose on them are subject to penalty, managers cannot tamper with those requirements. Thus their self-imposed time becomes their major area of concern.

Specifically, we shall deal with three kinds of management time:

Managers should try to increase the discretionary component of their selfimposed time by minimizing or doing away with the subordinate component. They will then use the added increment to get better control over their boss-imposed and systemimposed activities. Most managers spend much more time dealing with subordinates’ problems than they even faintly realize.

Hence we shall use the monkey-on-the-back metaphor to examine how subordinateimposed time comes into being and what the superior can do about it.

Boss-imposed time—used to accomplish those activities that the boss requires and that the manager cannot disregard without direct and swift penalty.

System-imposed time—used to accommodate requests from peers for active support. Neglecting these requests will also result in penalties, though not always as direct or swift.

Self-imposed time—used to do those things that the manager originates or agrees to do.

A certain portion of this kind of time, however, will be taken by subordinates and is called subordinate-imposed time. The remaining portion will be the manager’s own and is called discretionary time.

Self-imposed time is not subject to penalty since neither the boss nor the system can discipline the manager for not doing what they didn’t know he had intended to do in the first place.

Where Is the Monkey?

Let us imagine that a manager is walking down the hall and that he notices one of his subordinates, Jones, coming his way. When the two meet, Jones greets the manager with, “Good morning. By the way, we’ve got a problem. You see….” As Jones continues, the manager recognizes in this problem the two characteristics common to all the problems his subordinates gratuitously bring to his attention. Namely, the manager knows (a) enough to get involved, but (b) not enough to make the on-the-spot decision

expected of him. Eventually, the manager says, “So glad you brought this up. I’m in a rush right now. Meanwhile, let me think about it, and I’ll let you know.” Then he and Jones part company.

Let us analyze what just happened. Before the two of them met, on whose back was the “monkey”? The subordinate’s. After they parted, on whose back was it? The manager’s. Subordinate-imposed time begins the moment a monkey successfully leaps from the back of a subordinate to the back of his or her superior and does not end until the monkey is returned to its proper owner for care and feeding. In accepting the monkey, the manager has voluntarily assumed a position subordinate to his subordinate. That is, he has allowed Jones to make him her subordinate by doing two things a subordinate is generally expected to do for a boss—the manager has accepted a responsibility from his subordinate, and the manager has promised her a progress report.

The subordinate, to make sure the manager does not miss this point, will later stick her head in the manager’s office and cheerily query, “How’s it coming?” (This is called supervision.)

Or let us imagine in concluding a conference with Johnson, another subordinate, the manager’s parting words are, “Fine. Send me a memo on that.”

Let us analyze this one. The monkey is now on the subordinate’s back because the next move is his, but it is poised for a leap. Watch that monkey. Johnson dutifully writes the requested memo and drops it in his outbasket. Shortly thereafter, the manager plucks it from his in-basket and reads it.

Whose move is it now? The manager’s. If he does not make that move soon, he will get a follow-up memo from the subordinate. (This is another form of supervision.) The longer the manager delays, the more frustrated the

subordinate will become (he’ll be spinning his wheels) and the more guilty the manager will feel (his backlog of subordinate-imposed time will be mounting).

Or suppose once again that at a meeting with a third subordinate, Smith, the manager agrees to provide all the necessary backing for a public relations proposal he has just asked Smith to develop. The manager’s parting words to her are, “Just let me know how I can help.”

Now let us analyze this. Again the monkey is initially on the subordinate’s back. But for how long? Smith realizes that she cannot let the manager “know” until her proposal has the manager’s approval. And from experience, she also realizes that her proposal will likely be sitting in the manager’s briefcase for weeks before he eventually gets to it. Who’s really got the monkey? Who will be checking up on whom?

Wheel spinning and bottlenecking are well on their way again.

A fourth subordinate, Reed, has just been transferred from another part of the company so that he can launch and eventually manage a newly created business venture. The manager has said they should get together soon to hammer out a set of objectives for the new job, adding, “I will draw up an initial draft for discussion with you.”

Let us analyze this one, too. The subordinate has the new job (by formal assignment) and the full responsibility (by formal delegation), but the manager has the next move. Until he makes it, he will have the monkey, and the subordinate will be immobilized.

Why does all of this happen? Because in each instance the manager and the subordinate assume at the outset, wittingly or unwittingly, that the matter under consideration is a joint problem. The monkey in each case begins its career astride both their backs. All it has to do is move the

wrong leg, and—presto!—the subordinate deftly disappears. The manager is thus left with another acquisition for his menagerie.

Of course, monkeys can be trained not to move the wrong leg. But it is easier to prevent them from straddling backs in the first place.

to return to the office tomorrow to get caught up over the weekend.

Who Is Working for Whom?

Let us suppose that these same four subordinates are so thoughtful and considerate of their superior’s time that they take pains to allow no more than three monkeys to leap from each of their backs to his in any one day. In a five-day week, the manager will have picked up 60 screaming monkeys—far too many to do anything about them individually. So he spends his subordinate-imposed time juggling his “priorities.”

That does it. He now knows who is really working for whom. Moreover, he now sees that if he actually accomplishes during this weekend what he came to accomplish, his subordinates’ morale will go up so sharply that they will each raise the limit on the number of monkeys they will let jump from their backs to his. In short, he now sees, with the clarity of a revelation on a mountaintop, that the more he gets caught up, the more he will fall behind.

Late Friday afternoon, the manager is in his office with the door closed for privacy so he can contemplate the situation, while his subordinates are waiting outside to get their last chance before the weekend to remind him that he will have to “fish or cut bait.”

Imagine what they are saying to one another about the manager as they wait: “What a bottleneck. He just can’t make up his mind.

How anyone ever got that high up in our company without being able to make a decision we’ll never know.”

Worst of all, the reason the manager cannot make any of these “next moves” is that his time is almost entirely eaten up by meeting his own boss-imposed and system-imposed requirements. To control those tasks, he needs discretionary time that is in turn denied him when he is preoccupied with all these monkeys. The manager is caught in a vicious circle. But time is a-wasting (an understatement). The manager calls his secretary on the intercom and instructs her to tell his subordinates that he won’t be able to see them until Monday morning. At 7 pm, he drives home, intending with firm resolve

He returns bright and early the next day only to see, on the nearest green of the golf course across from his office window, a foursome. Guess who?

He leaves the office with the speed of a person running away from a plague. His plan? To get caught up on something else he hasn’t had time for in years: a weekend with his family. (This is one of the many varieties of discretionary time.)

Sunday night he enjoys ten hours of sweet, untroubled slumber, because he has clearcut plans for Monday. He is going to get rid of his subordinate-imposed time. In exchange, he will get an equal amount of discretionary time, part of which he will spend with his subordinates to make sure that they learn the difficult but rewarding managerial art called “The Care and Feeding of Monkeys.”

The manager will also have plenty of discretionary time left over for getting control of the timing and the content not only of his boss-imposed time but also of his system-imposed time. It may take months, but compared with the way things have been, the rewards will be enormous.

His ultimate objective is to manage his time.

Getting Rid of the Monkeys The manager returns to the office Monday morning just late enough so that his four subordinates have collected outside his office waiting to see him about their monkeys. He calls them in one by one. The purpose of each interview is to take a monkey, place it on the desk between them, and figure out together how the next move might conceivably be the subordinate’s. For certain monkeys, that will take some doing.

The subordinate’s next move may be so elusive that the manager may decide—just for now—merely to let the monkey sleep on the subordinate’s back overnight and have him or her return with it at an appointed time the next morning to continue the joint quest for a more substantive move by the subordinate. (Monkeys sleep just as soundly overnight on subordinates’ backs as they do on superiors’.)

As each subordinate leaves the office, the manager is rewarded by the sight of a monkey leaving his office on the subordinate’s back. For the next 24 hours, the subordinate will not be waiting for the manager; instead, the manager will be waiting for the subordinate.

Later, as if to remind himself that there is no law against his engaging in a constructive exercise in the interim, the manager strolls by the subordinate’s office, sticks his head in the door, and cheerily asks, “How’s it coming?” (The time consumed in doing this is discretionary for the manager and boss imposed for the subordinate.)

In accepting the monkey, the manager has voluntarily assumed a position subordinate to his subordinate.

When the subordinate (with the monkey on his or her back) and the manager meet at the appointed hour the next day, the manager explains the ground rules in words to this effect:

“At no time while I am helping you with this or any other problem will your problem become my problem. The instant your problem becomes mine, you no longer have a problem. I cannot help a person who hasn’t got a problem.

“When this meeting is over, the problem will leave this office exactly the way it came in— on your back. You may ask my help at any appointed time, and we will make a joint determination of what the next move will be and which of us will make it.

“In those rare instances where the next move turns out to be mine, you and I will determine it together. I will not make any move alone.”

The manager follows this same line of thought with each subordinate until about 11 am, when he realizes that he doesn’t have to close his door. His monkeys are gone.

They will return—but by appointment only.

His calendar will assure this.

Transferring the Initiative What we have been driving at in this monkey-on-the-back analogy is that managers can transfer initiative back to their subordinates and keep it there. We have tried to highlight a truism as obvious as it is subtle: namely, before developing initiative in subordinates, the manager must see to it that they have the initiative. Once the manager takes it back, he will no longer have it and he can kiss his discretionary time good-bye. It will all revert to subordinateimposed time.

Nor can the manager and the subordinate effectively have the same initiative at the same time.

The opener, “Boss, we’ve got a problem,” implies this duality and represents, as noted earlier, a monkey astride two backs, which is a very bad way to start a monkey on its career.

Let us, therefore, take a few moments to examine what we call “The Anatomy of Managerial Initiative.”

There are five degrees of initiative that the manager can exercise in relation to the boss and to the system: 1. wait until told (lowest initiative); 2. ask what to do; 3. recommend, then take resulting action; 4. act, but advise at once; 5. and act on own, then routinely report (highest initiative).

Clearly, the manager should be professional enough not to indulge in initiatives 1 and 2 in relation either to the boss or to the system.

A manager who uses initiative 1 has no control over either the timing or the content of boss-imposed or system-imposed time and thereby forfeits any right to complain about what he or she is told to do or when.

The manager who uses initiative 2 has control over the timing but not over the content. Initiatives 3, 4, and 5 leave the manager in control of both, with the greatest amount of control being exercised at level 5.

In relation to subordinates, the manager’s job is twofold. First, to outlaw the use of initiatives 1 and 2, thus giving subordinates no choice but to learn and master “Completed Staff Work.” Second, to see that for each problem leaving his or her office there is an agreed-upon level of initiative assigned to it, in addition to an agreed-upon time and place for the next managersubordinate conference. The latter should be duly noted on the manager’s calendar.

The Care and Feeding of Monkeys To further clarify our analogy between the monkey on the back and the processes of assigning and controlling, we shall refer briefly to the manager’s appointment schedule, which calls for five hard-and-fast rules governing the “Care and Feeding of

Monkeys.” (Violation of these rules will cost discretionary time.)

Rule 1.

Monkeys should be fed or shot. Otherwise, they will starve to death, and the manager will waste valuable time on post-mortems or attempted resurrections.

Rule 2.

The monkey population should be kept below the maximum number the manager has time to feed. Subordinates will find time to work as many monkeys as he or she finds time to feed, but no more. It shouldn’t take more than five to 15 minutes to feed a properly maintained monkey.

Rule 3.

Monkeys should be fed by appointment only. The manager should not have to hunt down starving monkeys and feed them on a catch-as-catch-can basis.

Rule 4.

Monkeys should be fed face-to-face or by telephone, but never by mail. (Remember— with mail, the next move will be the manager’s.) Documentation may add to the feeding process, but it cannot take the place of feeding.

Rule 5.

Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and degree of initiative. These may be revised at any time by mutual consent but never allowed to become vague or indefinite. Otherwise, the monkey will either starve to death or wind up on the manager’s back.

Making Time for Gorillas

by Stephen R. Covey When Bill Oncken wrote this article in 1974, managers were in a terrible bind. They were desperate for a way to free up their time, but command and control was the status quo.

Managers felt they weren’t allowed to empower their subordinates to make

decisions. Too dangerous. Too risky. That’s why Oncken’s message—give the monkey back to its rightful owner—involved a critically important paradigm shift. Many managers working today owe him a debt of gratitude.

It is something of an understatement, however, to observe that much has changed since Oncken’s radical recommendation.

Command and control as a management philosophy is all but dead, and “empowerment” is the word of the day in most organizations trying to thrive in global, intensely competitive markets. But command and control stubbornly remains a common practice.

Management thinkers and executives have discovered in the last decade that bosses cannot just give a monkey back to their subordinates and then merrily get on with their own business.

Empowering subordinates is hard and complicated work.

The reason: when you give problems back to subordinates to solve themselves, you have to be sure that they have both the desire and the ability to do so. As every executive knows, that isn’t always the case. Enter a whole new set of problems. Empowerment often means you have to develop people, which is initially much more time consuming than solving the problem on your own.

Just as important, empowerment can only thrive when the whole organization buys into it—when formal systems and the informal culture support it. Managers need to be rewarded for delegating decisions and developing people. Otherwise, the degree of real empowerment in an organization will vary according to the beliefs and practices of individual managers.

But perhaps the most important lesson about empowerment is that effective delegation—the kind Oncken advocated— depends on a trusting relationship between a manager and his subordinate. Oncken’s

message may have been ahead of his time, but what he suggested was still a fairly dictatorial solution. He basically told bosses, “Give the problem back!” Today, we know that this approach by itself is too authoritarian. To delegate effectively, executives need to establish a running dialogue with subordinates. They need to establish a partnership. After all, if subordinates are afraid of failing in front of their boss, they’ll keep coming back for help rather than truly take initiative.

Oncken’s article also doesn’t address an aspect of delegation that has greatly interested me during the past two decades—that many managers are actually eager to take on their subordinates’ monkeys. Nearly all the managers I talk with agree that their people are underutilized in their present jobs. But even some of the most successful, seemingly self-assured executives have talked about how hard it is to give up control to their subordinates.

I’ve come to attribute that eagerness for control to a common, deep-seated belief that rewards in life are scarce and fragile.

Whether they learn it from their family, school, or athletics, many people establish an identity by comparing themselves with others. When they see others gain power, information, money, or recognition, for instance, they experience what the psychologist Abraham Maslow called “a feeling of deficiency”—a sense that something is being taken from them. That makes it hard for them to be genuinely happy about the success of others—even of their loved ones. Oncken implies that managers can easily give back or refuse monkeys, but many managers may subconsciously fear that a subordinate taking the initiative will make them appear a little less strong and a little more vulnerable.

How, then, do managers develop the inward security, the mentality of “abundance,” that would enable them to relinquish control and

seek the growth and development of those around them? The work I’ve done with numerous organizations suggests that managers who live with integrity according to a principle-based value system are most likely to sustain an empowering style of leadership.

Given the times in which he wrote, it was no wonder that Oncken’s message resonated with managers. But it was reinforced by Oncken’s wonderful gift for storytelling. I got to know Oncken on the speaker’s circuit in the 1970s, and I was always impressed by how he dramatized his ideas in colorful detail. Like the Dilbert comic strip, Oncken had a tongue-in-cheek style that got to the core of managers’ frustrations and made them want to take back control of their time.

And the monkey on your back wasn’t just a metaphor for Oncken—it was his personal symbol. I saw him several times walking through airports with a stuffed monkey on his shoulder.

I’m not surprised that his article is one of the two best-selling HBR articles ever. Even with all we know about empowerment, its vivid message is even more important and relevant now than it was 25 years ago.

Indeed, Oncken’s insight is a basis for my own work on time management, in which I have people categorize their activities according to urgency and importance.

I’ve heard from executives again and again that half or more of their time is spent on matters that are urgent but not important.

They’re trapped in an endless cycle of dealing with other people’s monkeys, yet they’re reluctant to help those people take their own initiative. As a result, they’re often too busy to spend the time they need on the real gorillas in their organization. Oncken’s article remains a powerful wake-up call for managers who need to delegate effectively.

“Get control over the timing and content of what you do” is appropriate advice for managing time. The first order of business is for the manager to enlarge his or her discretionary time by eliminating subordinate-imposed time. The second is for the manager to use a portion of this newfound discretionary time to see to it that each subordinate actually has the initiative and applies it. The third is for the manager to use another portion of the increased discretionary time to get and keep control of the timing and content of both bossimposed and system-imposed time. All these steps will increase the manager’s leverage and enable the value of each hour spent in managing management time to multiply without theoretical limit.

William Oncken, Jr., was chairman of the William Oncken Corporation until his death in 1988. His son, William Oncken III, now heads the company.

Determine what your monkeys are, and who brings them to you each and every day. Could be a colleague, a friend, a family member… even YOU! Once you read through this document several times you will, trust me, be able to see that monkey as it flies through the air to land on your back. Before it does that, you’ll be taking aim and batting it back to where it came from. The words you’ll use will be something like this: “Hey, that’s a monkey and I’m not feeding it / accepting it….” Then you can direct the other person as to how THEY can solve the problem to get their monkey off their back. Understood? Good!

Some years ago I was chatting with travel veteran “Frank is here have no fear” Frank Plechaty who loved his coffee so much we hit upon a Coffee Lover’s Tour of Europe. Black tie all the way.

Travelling to and sipping at the best coffee houses, cafes in cities such as Prague, Berlin, Paris and more. I left the idea with our man Frank and carried on. The thing is, I’ve never forgotten our conversation.

I was reminded of the Coffee Lover’s Tour recently when my wife and I visited friends in Vancouver and enjoyed a pour-over coffee prepared by son Alex. My coffee is always taken with cream but after drinking what Alex prepared, black and that’s it, well the taste was amazing.

We were hooked. Into the car we went.

Downtown our friends drove and then we did a couple of stops. One was at the Pure Bread bakery as you can see on the opposite page my wife Kimiko and I and friend Cristina hogged the window counter.

Purebread Bakery is located at 159 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC. http://www.purebread.ca/

Exploring the Black Tie tour idea online recently I find the concept has taken off. So many mentions of coffee related tours such as the top ten cafes and the World's Best Cities for Coffee Lovers.

But there’s something missing.

So far any mention of coffee is only advice.

No such actual tour for coffee lovers to those top ten cafes exists. Or do they? Do you have one on the go?

Plantation Tours When you search online you will find several coffee tour websites however they are mostly half day tours of plantations in Hawaii, Costa Rica, Guatemala etc. Still no fully escorted tour of those best coffee houses and cafes around the world.

The Opportunity Like all things in life, sometimes we can be just a bit too late or just a bit too early with our ideas and concepts. I’m thinking today is a prime time to launch anything related to drinking coffee as it is prepared and served at the best establishments.

That said, we’re not talking about a 5-star hotel that serves that grey looking liquid that’s being sitting for 30 minutes. We are talking about the right amount of beans, freshly ground, using the pour-over technique with the water heated to the precise temperature for the bean. No cream or sugar required.

The pour-over phenomenon is way ahead of the kitchen top gadgets. Time to smell the coffee and then wake up to a brand new niche market – Coffee Tourism. 

By Alex Knight

“If you’re putting cream and sugar in your coffee, not only are you doing it wrong, but what you’re drinking is not coffee.”

Vancouver is known for many things: it’s delicious and diverse array of foods from a virtual cornucopia of cultures, gorgeous seaside cycling and walking via the Stanley Park Seawall, a happening night life on Granville Street, and a Starbucks on what seems like every other city block. After landing at YVR, head to the hotel, drop your luggage off, and just this once, resist the urge to indulge in a high calorie coffee based beverage. That’s right, I said coffee based beverage, because as I proclaimed in my opening statement, adding sugar and cream to coffee is simply not coffee.

An overwhelming majority of people on a day-to-day basis, right now, are drinking substandard coffee. If it’s not Starbucks, it will be Tim Hortons, Dunkin’ Donuts, or the off the shelf store variety. To be fair to Starbucks, before they came along, we didn’t have better options available.

Starbucks did a good thing by raising the quality bar for mass consumption of coffee on a global scale.

In a post-Starbucks world, you have so many more options and can do much better, so let’s get straight to it. If you’re buying beans from a grocery store, there’s a high probability that you’re buying low grade beans that have been sitting on the shelf for far too long. The issue with the beans at your local grocer is two-fold: They don’t provide a roasting date and are likely to have been festering on a shelf for more than three months. Why are roasting dates so important? They’re important because you want to ensure absolute freshness. The beans I purchase have typically bean roasted within 2–3 days prior to landing in my hands.

As most beans don’t have a roasting date, you can ballpark the freshness by checking the expiration date.

Until you experience freshly roasted coffee, you haven’t experienced what real coffee tastes like. Contrary to popular opinion, coffee doesn’t have to taste bitter with a burnt aftertaste. To get a taste of perfect, you need to make your way to Revolver

Chris and George Giannakos, co-owners of Revolver.

Coffee, located at 325 Cambie St, between Hastings and Cordova. It’s just a hop and a skip from Gastown.

Revolver is a cafe with a rustic vibe. There are two seating areas, the secondary called “Archive” which has a large spacious communal table and features a showcase of various coffee brewing paraphernalia to satisfy any coffee nerd.

All of their coffee is imported from a variety of coffee roasters–mostly from North America, but some from overseas. They’re all freshly roasted within a few days of

landing on their shelves. If you don’t know much about coffee, I encourage you to ask your barista for their signature “Brew Flight,” which is one coffee brewed via three different methods (French Press, AeroPress, and Clever). Make sure to grab a pastry as well, since they’re baked fresh and brought daily from their sister bakery, Crema in North Vancouver.

All of their coffees are very lightly roasted, which surface the natural flavours of the coffee cherry. On first sip, flavours of stone fruit such as plum, cherry, or peach may touch your palate–others of chocolate; these are flavours that are frankly missing for low grade coffees.

Revolver sets themselves apart from other cafes by opting to not serve coffee from drip coffee machines. Your choices are something from the pour over bar or something from the espresso bar. This is intentional because one of the greatest things that work against our best interest, is the drip coffee machine. Invented to solve the ever growing problem of getting coffee

into our mouths in the least amount of time possible, the drip coffee maker produces one of the most bitter and flavourless cups of coffee. And therein lies the problem: drip is what we’ve acclimated to.

Pour over is the most popular brewing method for the main reason that it produces a very smooth cup of coffee with the least amount of acidity–both characteristics that you want in a cup. You’ll find Revolver’s staff, including co-owner George Giannakos, extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I learned almost all of what I know about coffee sourcing, roasting, and brewing from him.

You’re sure to leave Revolver and our lovely city armed with more knowledge than you’ve ever had about coffee, a pleasant aftertaste in your taste buds, and a spring in your step from the incredible experience that few cafes are capable of offering, in Vancouver or otherwise.

Traveling can be a lonely thing if you do it often by yourself, but at least the next time you’re in Vancouver, you’ll be surrounded by good company and will be able to warm your heart with something that’s truly delicious.

AK 

Alex Knight is a writer and Product Manager at FeedPress. He lives in rainy Vancouver, British Columbia and founded the Hologram Radio podcast network. You can follow him on Twitter @ZeroDistraction – he is also a podcast editor.

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If you’ve ever listened to talk shows on the radio then you are halfway to understanding what a podcast is. In my past and probably in yours, is the talk show host chatting to you by telephone or in the studio and that conversation is going out live to the radio station’s listeners.

Keep that image in your mind and add in digital, online, iPods, headphones and drive-time. It’s all been done before, however today the technology and the medium and the access has changed way beyond turning that Bakelite knob to “On” and then using the dial to locate the radio station with the talk-show. Let’s explore this “new” travel marketing medium.

As you will read many times here in Selling Travel that the best, current, medium for marketing travel is video and that hasn’t changed. There is another format however that is gaining ground and although low on the social media marketing chart for travel agents at the moment, podcasting is going to be a medium you need to explore. To deliver a professional podcast you need both technical assistance and an editor.

My interest in podcasting was renewed recently when I was chatting with Alex Knight who contributed the Coffee Tourism article about the Revolver Café. He is an avid podcaster and also consults and advises and edits other people’s podcasts.

The present day podcast is just a nudge beyond what we used to do. Well, actually more than a nudge. The equipment is very sophisticated and there’s even an APP for that podcast for when you wish to indulge.

The social media charts do not show podcasting as a major influence on selling travel at this point in time. Its piece of the pie is very slim compared to the use of Facebook for instance be it text posts or video – and that to me says opportunity.

Upon researching the world of travel podcasts and podcasting, many travellers are doing their thing on a grand scale. Travel agents not so much.

The traveller podcasts are mostly by millennials who have just found travel and present themselves as travelling pioneers and that’s okay. The truth of the matter is so many true travellers have been there and done it all waaay before these newcomers.

But they speak the language of the younger generation with more than enough “like”, “ya know”, “I get it” phrases.

Once you wade through the quirky podcasts, you can find and listen to media savvy travellers like Rick Steves. More suited to the Baby Boomer and late Gen x traveller in terms of language.

The travel trade supplier is getting there and here we have a case of one cruise line, Carnival Cruise Lines, opting into the new media – look below:

The success of audio only, voiced based marketing is based purely on the sound of your voice, its tone, pitch and more.

The learning curve is steep and that’s why it’s a good thing to find yourself a podcasting consultant like Alex Knight. You may feel you have all the talent you need, but I’ll tell you now you have no idea how you will sound until you try it.

Back In The Day of Webinars I’m recalling the time when Steve Gillick (Gillick’s World) and I pioneered Travel Agent Webinars for CITC. In my first year I had over 2,000 people tune in. That first webinar which lasted 45 minutes, I must have practiced for a week and I’m talking the full session, clicking the PPT slides ahead, and then repeat it all again and again until I had it right. Then came the day and I’m speaking to my computer screen, not knowing if I actually had an audience. It helped to imagine a room full of people right there in front of me and the job was done.

That was back in 2001 or somewhere around that time.

When you start to create podcasts, you can work with a professional, record it, edit it and then when it’s correct, post it. Just like recording a webinar for playback online. The webinars I delivered were all live.

If you have the presence of mind to monitor your words before they exit your lips (very important!) then you can take a hard look at live podcasting. A warning though, you must be well practiced.

Pod Cred When you read a script your listeners will know. When you remember your script, your listeners will know. When you speak from experience and support your claims with stats and facts your clients will know – and that’s when they buy into you.

Your credibility is key here. You must be able to prove what you have done, what you have seen, accomplished etc. As you may know, Selling Travel does not deliver fluff.

What we write about has been done in real time and this is important with all your marketing. The selfie photo for instance is your proof that you have been somewhere and met someone… i.e. the destination you are talking about on your podcast.

It’s important to build your provenance as I call it. Think of an antique - its value is based on its provenance, proof of its journey. It is the same for you when related to your marketing.

If you say for instance “I’ve been to many places…” or, I was this, or that… and you do not substantiate your claims then your credibility is zero and your audience will slowly disappear – and don’t forget, today, anyone can find out anything about someone else in an instant. If you fog the mirror, you’re dead in the water.

Build Your Podcasting Provenance How many flights have you taken? How many miles flown? Countries visited? Rivers cruised? Mountains climbed? Miles walked?

People met? Temples visited? And based on the coffee article for instance, how many cafes around the world have you actually sat down in and drank the brew?

You may not relate these stats during your podcast, but you will use the stats to market yourself and your podcast. That’s why you need to build that travel history file and record your travels by video and image.

When you get into podcasting, then you need to substantiate how many podcasts you have presented, how many listeners you attract and then when posted, how many views or clicks did your podcast receive. The stats tell all – well most of it anyway.

A simple screen capture is all you need to show that you are listened too and your audience consists of well-travelled clients.

Let me demo with the TED image here…

Here’s a promo for a TED talk. It caught my eye because the talk is about our planet which tied into Steve Gillick’s article. The main point I want to make here is that the speaker is a proven (keyword) astronomer and has the credentials to support her talk.

Now I want you to eyeball the number of

views this TED talk has received. Over 778,000! Now imagine that response to your podcast about travel.

All you need is that 1% to click ahead and email, or make the call and then with your superior closing skills you would have, should have enough bookings to last 2016.

And that’s what this is all about. You are not going to start podcasting to hear your own voice. No sir.

You are going to podcast to spread the news about your talents and services and then as you sign off, ask your listeners to do something. You want them to visit your website, join your tour, e-mail their travel

ideas… something. You need them to engage with you post podcast.

So once again – your sole mission here is to deliver a captivating talk that inspires your listeners to travel, and to contact you when they decide to book. Job done.

Podcasting Equipment The equipment has changed since we were webinaring and creating audio tracks. Using the free Audacity download and basic microphones doesn’t get the job done. Well

it does if you intend to deliver a certain level of chat. To create a professional level podcast that you would be proud of you’ll probably not want to invest in your own devices. Use the tools of the pod pro.

I’ve mentioned Alex Knight a few times and he’s based in Vancouver, BC, Canada however you can check locally where you live to find your own podcasting professional. Click the icon to find out how to use QuickTime and post your podcast to iTunes.

Good luck and may all your pods explode into new clients and bookings galore. 

If it works for Rick Steves… podcasting can work for you!

I know most travel agents are not shy of trying something new and exciting to get their marketing message across. Generally however, your voice is not included unless you are featured on a video.

I also know that so many travel agents are shy of being on camera and also using their own voice to promote themselves. So it’s a bit of a catch 22 – however with a little to a lot of training and following that sage advice that practice makes perfect – you can and will succeed.

Up above you can see Rick Steves doing what he does and if you ever watch his TV shows, and catch some of the outtakes you will know that even the pros practice until they get it right. And that’s the message here really – practice with a podcasting coach and work hard to get it correct and then you’ll be flying.

Try It You Might Like It Here’s a couple of ways you can test out your voice without investing any money. Click on Start, Accessories and then Sound Recorder and you’ll see this tool bar appear:

Click on Start Recording and just natter away. It’s very simple. Play around with it voice-wise and then try a dedicated presentation.

Next up is the QuickTime. Open it, File, New Recording and this tool bar will appear.

Now you are a few grades up from the Windows Sound Recorder. Once again play with it and test it out.

The idea here is to get comfortable speaking and recording your voice. There will be a huge difference once you use professional equipment. The hissing and background noise will be gone and every lip smack, um and ah will be heard. Hence practice and also the need for a podcasting editor.

For coaching and editing contact Alex Knight, Product Manager at FeedPress and Founder of Hologram Radio podcast network. With 79 episodes published and over 86,000 downloads to his name – contact Alex here: producer@hologramradio.org

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.

May the Travel force Be with you in 2016

By Steve Gillick

By Steve Gillick

This article does not require a spoiler alert. While some characters are discussed, the overall force of the movie has not been disturbed.

In a castle on the planet Takodana, Rey, the heroine of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, gets a dose of philosophical insight from the pirate Maz Kanata who cautions “The belonging you seek is not in the past but in the future”.

Like many inveterate travellers, I see travel analogies in just about everything and this includes the movies. I wrote many years ago about Avatourism and the power of the message in the movie Avatar as it relates to sustainable ‘higher ground’ travel. And Star Wars: The Force Awakens is no exception.

The filming of the movie at iconic sites around the globe, for example the final scene on Skellig Michael off the coast of Slea Head in southeastern Ireland, is a positive travel message in itself and will, no doubt, result in pilgrims following the Star Wars trail. But more than that, the very fact that they are travelling may be due to the

subliminal messaging and the philosophy that the movie offers.

Star Wars philosophy has always emphasized empowerment, overcoming mental and physical obstacles, and working and playing with others who may look and act different but with whom communication and relationships are possible (just look at Hans Solo and the Wookie). Star Wars involves travel and some of the inherent inconveniences (being fired on by star ships).

It showcases serendipity—the unexpected; it emphasizes quick thinking and talking yourself out of situations; it highlights evil elements--scam artists, thieves and the like; and it underscores the ability to use your own talents, skills and wits to overcome adversity.

Sound familiar? Travel has many similar attributes! May the travel force be with you!

Star Wars Lessons for 2016 and Beyond Travel More/Travel Differently The line that Maz Kanata spoke is really a call to action for travellers and travel consultants. Let me explain. The counsel that “The belonging you seek is…in the future”, is really a clarion-call to travel and explore more, and further. Those who have travelled in the past and feel they’ve developed a synchronicity with a destination or a part of the world, are challenged to break away from the comfort zone of always heading to the same place and try on a new

destination. Your sense of belonging way be due for a sudden shifting of priorities. I know of many people who have never ventured to Asia, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps 2016 is the time to move in that direction. By the same token I always remember Dennis, at the end of our adventure trek in northern Thailand, who announced that he wished he had discovered how fulfilling an adventure experience was a long time ago, as he would have opted for this type of travel all the time.

The message of the Maps In a very real sense, the plot of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is based on a map. While the old reliable ‘folding paper map’ is still used in our earth-bound world of travel, we now have apps, GPSs, Google World, plus Google glasses, Google watches and Map Quest (owned by Google) to help us find destinations. Travellers, however, still need map-reading skills in destinations where cell phone signals may not exist. Getting a general idea of the layout of a city or a country helps to ‘ground’ a traveller and gives them perspective on distance (many

visitors don’t realize how close Niagara Falls is to Toronto or Whistler to Vancouver); or give them perspective on natural features (rivers, lakes, mountains) and direction (is Kuta north or south of Denpassar?). The quest for the map in Star Wars is an affirmation that no matter how sophisticated travel becomes, we always need to get back to the basics and visualize ‘place’ on that simple navigational tool we call ‘a map’. For starters, pick up a map, close your eyes, point your finger and go there in 2016!

Deserts are Pretty Cool In Star Wars the adventures continue on Jukka, a desert planet. For those who haven’t experienced a desert, 2016 may be the year to do it. You may wish to consider Scottsdale, Arizona or venturing further south to Chile’s Atacama Desert (sunset in Moon Valley or the early morning geysers of El Tatio are simply breathtaking). The Sahara Desert touches the southern extremes of Morocco and provides the venue for

Tunisia’s famous International Sahara Festival in Douz, each December. And of course there are many other desert opportunities. The sand, the winds, the dunes, the sports (dune surfing, dune bashing, trekking by foot or on horses, donkeys or camels), the “Lawrence of Arabia” mystique, all add up to incredible experiences.

Drinking it all In The castle on the planet Takodana has a bar, very similar to the one that Star Wars fans were treated to in the first Star Wars film in 1977. Creatures from all over the Galaxy are drinking, playing instruments in the band, fighting, arguing, and engaging in real, live social networking. Make 2016 the year that you discover the latest culinary trends.

Adopt the slogan “trips too rad for mom and dad” and start to taste and try things you were ‘cautious” about trying in the past, whether it’s Yak Burgers in Lhasa, Fugu or Horse Sashimi in Kagoshima, Ceviche or Guinea Pig in Lima, or Marmot in Mongolia.

And don’t forget about the growth and sophistication in the world of alcoholic beverages. Just about every major type of alcohol (Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Tequilla, Sake etc) now enjoys not only listings of all the varieties and brands available for that one type of alcohol, but each beverage also boasts sommeliers who can suggest the best people and food pairings. And the craft beer movement, throughout the entire world is hopping (excuse the pun). 2016 is the year that you can become an aficionado of the travel culinary scene.

Saving the planet In the new Star Wars, let’s just say, without giving away any plot lines that some planets do better than others and this has more to do with types of death rays than it does with climate control, sustainability, conservation and education. With 7.3 billion people on our planet (Earth) it is easy to justify doing something negative (such as leaving the car running for 15 minutes or throwing a cigarette butt on the sidewalk or not turning off lights when you leave a hotel room) with the excuse that how can ‘little me’ make a difference. But there are 7.3 billion ‘little me’s” out there and we only have one home base (Earth). I’ve written before about

adopting the Higher Ground of travel to engage, experience and relate to the planet as sincerely as possible. This too is a goal that needs to be set for 2016. For those who haven’t yet begun to take stock in their travel practices, the New Year is a good starting point. For those who are simply carrying on with the good deeds, friendly local encounters, and involvement with the globe, keep up the good work.

The travel force is that power that draws us to physically move from one part of the planet to another. Let the force be with you in 2016 and beyond. 

“The belonging you seek is not in the past but in the future”.

Steve Gillick, the president of Talking Travel and Gillick's World, loves to travel and loves to write and speak about any and all things related to travel. He’s been at it since 1967 when he visited nine European destinations on a school trip and kept a detailed diary of all his experiences. A complete list of Steve's travel articles (including Avatourism and The Higher Ground) may be found at www.gillicksworld.ca/stevewrites.html Contact Steve@gillicksworld.ca

Reading a recent trade article there was someone that stated very clearly that you should never, ever sell on price. All I can say about that comment is that the advice is good up to a point. Yes, you can sell on price and yes you should sell on price when it suits your marketing plan and selling situation. Missed by many is the fact that you need a Price Based Marketing Plan, separate and aside from your generic marketing plan.

I have no clue as to why these comments are made in the travel trade press as they are misleading and especially to those new to selling travel. Of course, if you can, you’d want to generate full commission and charge a fee of some kind to maximize a return on your skills, talents, advice, information and overall effort.

With a little due diligence you could search out and find out who those travel agents are who have become very successful selling on price. For a similar but different education, look outside of the travel trade and see which retailers are price focused. Check out how they attract their clients. Visit the dollar stores in your area. Everything selling for a buck! Well if that’s not selling on price, I don’t know what is.

Right to the issue at hand: here’s how you sell on price.

1. When your suppliers promote a two-forone, or a 20% savings or a discount of 30%... you jump all over this price based program, and redirect it to your own clients via email, social media and post it on your website too.

2. When your client requests a certain type of vacation and you present your three offers, and each is more or less the same in features and benefits, then the sale is made on price and savings which can be applied to a few dinners out on the town.

That will work most of the time, unless let’s say, the location of one property is closer to where your client wishes to be.

“Here’s my three suggestions… and as you can see they are each so similar in what they offer there’s hardly any difference other than the price. At the time you wish to travel, this package is offering a $200 saving… is that of interest to you?”

Yes you are giving up $200 of commissionable money, and at 10% that would be twenty-bucks and the twenty bucks could be termed a customer retention investment. It could also lead you to say: “… that’s a great saving isn’t it? Let me know if any of your friends want the same package and same savings, I’d be happy to arrange a trip for them too.”

Your twenty-bucks has now given you the chance to request referrals from the clients who haven’t even left the agency yet!

You get the idea, yes? Prices are everywhere, they play a very important role in the sale and the enjoyment of the trip your clients will experience. A deal is a deal and even to the rich and famous, a deal is a deal only their deals are at a higher level.

The Luxury Price Promotion Rich people are rich mostly because they appreciate money, understand money, and know how hard it is to make, generate and retain it. So a price based program at their level is something you should study too.

When you check into world cruises for instance – look at the savings a couple can make if they purchase a certain category before a certain date. Some of those deals save enough money for the client to purchase a new BMW! This is Price Based Selling at its best and to people you might think don’t need the money, but of course they do. Who wouldn’t want to save $60,000!?

In this instance it’s all in how you say the world “Price” or “Deal” – which you don’t.

What you do say is “Promotion” or “Offer” or you word the savings, the price, the discount in a cleverly constructed slogan like this:

Take advantage of this special offer and boast about it to your friends!

Or…

When you pay for your world cruise before December 1st, you’ll save enough money to buy that BMW! Price Also Matters Here When you sell travel, you are of course following the centuries old pattern of attraction, asking the customer about their needs and wants, then telling your story about the features and benefits, then suggesting an offer, then closing the sale. This process happens whether you are selling fruit at a market stand or travel in your agency. It, as in the process, hasn’t changed. And then there’s price.

Honeymoon couples who do not have a Mum and Dad to pay for their wedding are concerned about price. Seniors and baby-boomers are concerned about price (and don’t worry, it’s coming to you later in your life too… living on pensions, makes you price sensitive).

The issue of price based selling is everywhere and it is a specific sales and marketing mindset you need to study. Some travel agents refuse to give a discount when requested. So that means they lose a $5,000 sale and $500 in commission for the sake of not giving away $100. That’s a business plan for eventual starvation.

As and when you do discount like that, you ALWAYS request something back, such as referrals and that happens before your clients leave your agency. Here’s how you orchestrate the request: “Sure, I can do that for you, but I need you to do something for me in exchange… take a minute to refer two friends you know who travel // send a Tweet to your friends that they get the best deals here, at Steve’s travel…”

Sell on Price when it makes sense and plan it!

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

How’s the home-movie conversion coming along? All those old Super 8 cartridges in need of being transferred to a format you can watch online and on your preferred device. Once you’ve made the conversion you can relax, chill out and watch those images of Ma and Pa and their Ma and Pa and you can also watch your own videos of your past travels and that’s the place where we start this article.

You see most people today are very familiar with video as an entertaining format and they know video content can be played on any of the five screens in their life.

For you, knowing that your clients have the means and the gadgets to watch whatever video you send out to them, means it’s time to pick up the cam and start recording.

The reason you need to go “Hollywood” is simple – videos are the main, current and best format for delivering entertaining and engaging information such as a travelogue.

In fact it’s so important to your success, I’ve produced an e-Guide for you. Click the image below to review.

When shooting video footage from here on, consider how you will use it to help generate more travel sales. Even the smallest, shortest clip can turn a head in your direction.

There are some video based websites / social media channels that allow for a six second video. If you can tell your story in six seconds good on you!

Then there’s the comment that Facebook attracts more than 8 billion video views daily! Now, for more on where to pitch your video and some need-to-know stats click on the image below.

When you visit the webpage attached to the linked image you will find more than enough stats and facts to help you decide which video outlet to use. You’ll have video duration choices from a few seconds to 30 minutes. Just keep in mind you want to engage and inform not entertain and bore.

Too long and viewers will click away, too short and your message is missed.

Test run your videos with a couple of trusted clients on your advisory team.

Animoto One of my favourite tools of my trade is Animoto. It keeps getting better and better.

Not only that, it is so easy to learn and once you’ve got that down pat, next comes your skill in arranging your content.

The skill is in how you connect your images, video clips, text and audio. Naturally you are trying to tell a story and you are using visual aids to do so. You are not there in person – however, with much practice you can include a very informative 10 second clip of you delivering a message. You can include several clips at the 10 second duration.

Best to use a storyboard when you plan on using video. The storyboard helps you plot the story and the imagery. The simplest of methods is to use yellow sticky notes, the larger size and arrange them in the order of your content. Something like this:

Title - Logo

Opening Image

Intro Video Clip of YOU

Text leading to next image

Image

Video clip of tour group

The number of yellow sticky notes will represent each element in your Animoto video.

One key to Animoto is this: the duration of the audio track governs the video duration and the beat of the audio generates the ebb and flow of your content. So a punchy instrumental will have your video popping along whereas Bach’s 29th (?) will cause it to slow down.

Promoting an adventure tour you would source / select from the Animoto audio library a theme that is powerful whereas a tour of elegant European coffee shops might be best suited to something by Strauss.

The Animoto Account The mid-range account is great value and as you develop you presence you might want to upgrade to the Pro version which gives you full HD output, many more themes and access to more and much better layouts. The pro version is under $30 month.

Push Marketing Once your video is completed and you’ve tested it a few times you have the option of using a link, emailing the video, uploading to YouTube and Facebook, you can select the embed code and insert that into a webpage on your website… and there’s plenty more options.

Here’s a short video created for you. See how it works. Click the image to view.

Selling Your Videos Just one more thing you can do with your videos once completed and that is you can sell them. You might find that hard to believe given all the free stuff that’s available, however, if you target your niche clients, and you showcase footage of let’s say you out there doing what you’re selling…well!

People want to see you in action. People want to get the thrill that you are about to showcase.

Even a $5 hit adds to your commission income and you keep it all. No fees to pay out. It’s your content and your production.

You might want to investigate Sprout Video and review their offers.

Most video producing software such as Pinnacle and iMovie or Windows Live Movie Maker if it’s included in your version of Windows can export to DVD. Make sure when you do package your video that you have included your logo, and your contact and booking information – PLUS add in a list of your services. Sell! Sell! Sell!

Set up your video store on your agency website by using PayPal buttons. You can download them from the PayPal website once you have a PayPal account. So easy!

For access to an extensive source of video clips be sure to subscribe to VideoBlocks.

Cut! Print! Sell! 

Easy to read, no-fluff how-to marketing tips, tools and techniques.

Each guide comes with a one-hour coaching session via Skype.

You can preview and purchase any of the above guides from The Travel Institute.

Be sure to join TTI and save on your purchases by using the member discount.

When you need cutting edge, no fluff, how-to-do-it information, ideas, tips, tools & techniques‌ you can now shop directly at The Travel Institute store

IMPORTANT TO NOTE You can still view my eGuides on the Selling Travel website and then, by clicking on the cover images you will be taken to the Store page on The Travel Institute website.

You can also save 10% by joining TTI. If you are a member of ST and have a special discount with ST then your discount is still valid with ST. Just email the title of the guide/s you want and ST will contact you directly.

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS

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Looking for more fantastic graphics then click here for Presenter Media.

Get what you need to start using video in your travel marketing & promotions with this guide.

Animoto is the BEST and easiest DIY video creator.

Try it today.

When you need to write something and can’t – hire in a ghost writer like Steve Gillick. Steve produces scripts for your keynotes, webinars and brochures.

Had enough of working for someone else? Would you like to explore how you can sell travel from home?

If so then click on this link and explore.

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trip You involves canc ellation penalties in the unforeseen even that you canc t el/postpone your travel arrangements.

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• Carr your y Out-of-Count ry Hospital/Medic al/Travel Insur Policy with you. ance • awar Be e of luggage restrictions as weight, size and type of suitc such allowed on the ases inter national and domestic fligh ts on your itine rary.

Excess bagg age charges are steep and can caus e great incon venience • Ensu you re have obtained recommended or required inoculations.

Cert are mandatory ain inoculations for areas. Your trave travel to endemic l agent will have provided full details.

• Chec outkthe availabili ty of local ATMs in your destination and/ or purchase some local currency travellers cheq or ues.

• Give family/friend s the contact information at hotels/lodges you will be staying during your trave Information on l. your accommo datio is provided withi n your documen ns ts.

• reco We mmend that you put your newspaper subs cription on hold the duration for of your trip and have your mail colle cted held at your local by a neighbour or post office.

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

SELLING TRAVEL www.sellingtravel.net If you could refer us to your travel trade colleagues, we’d really appreciate it. Many thanks.