When we say we invest in our consultants, this is what we mean. We have just flown a group of our Elite franchise owners to Mauritius for a week of in-person coaching, resort tours and business planning, all fully funded as part of the Elite package.
This week it was the Elite Experience, one of two fully funded overseas retreats our Elite consultants are invited on as part of their journey with us. This one is built to help an established consultant grow their business further, and it recently took some of our Elite franchise owners to Mauritius with our head of sales and training Dave Pope, to explore the island, tour the Beachcomber resorts and work on the future of their businesses.
The retreat has just wrapped up, and everyone who went has come home with something special. Our training gives consultants a huge amount, from online content and webinars to ongoing coaching, but there is a certain kind of knowledge and confidence that only comes from being somewhere, seeing it and living it, and that is exactly what this week delivered.
What the Elite Experience is
The Elite Experience combines two things that work beautifully together. Consultants spend time in the classroom with our co-founders, senior travel experts and trainers like Dave Pope, working on how to grow their businesses.
That covers one-to-one coaching, business planning, social media and the kind of practical strategy that moves an established business up a gear.
Around that, they explore the island and the resorts themselves, on this occasion the Beachcomber collection, taking hotel tours, experiencing the food and facilities, seeing the rooms and building genuine product knowledge, with plenty of fun along the way, from treasure hunts to driving across the island.
It is the second of the two retreats included in the Elite package, and it is built for consultants who are ready to think bigger.
Selling a destination you have lived, not just read about
One of our consultants, Nick, explained how the week changed his confidence as a business owner, starting with how he now sells a destination like Mauritius.
“We talked about confidence in a product. Would we actively promote somewhere like Mauritius, with these four and five star hotels, if we’d never been, never experienced it? Someone could come to you who’s been here and ask questions you can’t answer.”
By the end of the week, that had completely changed.
“We’ve been all over the island, we’ve had our own car, we’ve done dodo hunting challenges, we’ve had tours of the hotels, experienced the food, the facilities, seen the rooms. An amazing amount of product knowledge and confidence. I’ve even had an enquiry this week and I’ve been sending the client room tour videos and answering all his questions with real confidence.”
Nick also learned something that will shape the way he advises clients. There are eight Beachcomber resorts, and they are all different.
“Don’t just guess at home. There are 17 or 18 of us here and every one of us has a different favourite. You get that vibe when you walk in, and you match it to the client. Mauritius has a bit of everything, families, couples, honeymoons, multi-generational.”
There was a commercial eye-opener too. As Nick put it, he and Dave were amazed when Stuart from Beachcomber shared the prices. A week in Mauritius can cost about the same as a week in Crete, which means consultants can confidently offer it as an alternative to a European holiday, something most clients would never expect.
Growing the business, together
The classroom sessions were built around taking each consultant’s business further, and everyone left with a growth plan they committed to in front of the room, with reviews and ongoing support from their Business Consultant to follow.
For Kaila, the focus was the breakthrough.
“Today was fantastic. We looked at planning, focusing on specific areas. I’ve always found the whole thing quite overwhelming, so being able to focus really, really helped me.”
Lou came away with fresh belief in herself.
“I learned that I’m awesome at talking to strangers, which will help me sell my business. I’ve identified some areas of growth and ideas of how to achieve that. I came out much more confident and really optimistic for the future.”
Nick left thinking about how to stand out in his own area.
“The most important thing is being the go-to person in your area. Why would someone come to me and not their local high street shop? What do I offer that’s different? You’ve got to think outside the box. I’ve got a lovely golf course near me in North Devon, so why not approach them and do a sponsored golf day with Beachcomber? Just get yourself known.”
A community that lifts each other up
Another huge benefit of the Elite experience is that consultants who are at different stages of their journeys, learned as much from one another as from the training itself.
“What I love about Not Just Travel is that we’re not in competition with each other. We genuinely want to help each other’s businesses,” Nick said. “We had a lovely chat this morning, three of us, just about each Beachcomber resort. That’s really important, we help each other.”
Many left with accountability partners, fellow consultants who will hold them to the plans they made. Others simply left with friends for life. As Dave pointed out, a lot of these consultants had never met before the week began, and they flew home with relationships that will support their businesses for years to come.
Support that stays with you
: we genuinely care about the success of our franchisees and we continuously invest in training and experiences to help them grow their business. Flying our consultants to Mauritius, putting them in world-class resorts, coaching them in person and sending them home more confident, more capable and more connected than when they arrived.
Everything about the Elite Experience, the coaching, the planning, the product knowledge and the community, is there to help our consultants build businesses they are proud of, and it is included, fully funded, as part of the Elite package. Our franchise owners flew home from Mauritius with new plans, new friendships and a renewed belief in what their businesses can become. That is what real support looks like, and it is what every one of our consultants can expect.
