Most franchises train you once. You get your induction, a handshake and a good luck, and after that you are largely on your own. We have spent more than two decades doing the opposite, and our newest programme is another example of why.
This September we are launching the Elevation Programme, an advanced, application-only development experience built to help our consultants go further in the luxury travel market. It is the latest addition to a training and support offering that never really stops, and it says a lot about the kind of business you would be joining.
What the Elevation Programme is
The Elevation Programme is designed for consultants who want to raise their game in luxury. It combines advanced training, one-to-one coaching, exclusive events and premium marketing support, all focused on helping consultants sell high-end travel with real confidence and deliver the kind of service luxury clients expect.
It sits within our wider luxury strategy, which we launched earlier this year, and places are limited. Entry is by application only, because this level of training deserves proper focus and the right people in the room.
Why we keep expanding our training
Not Just Travel, the consumer brand our consultants trade under, has always been built on a simple idea. Look after the people, and the business follows. That belief runs through everything we do, and it is the reason our training does not end after your first week.
When you join, you get intensive initial training to launch your business. After that comes a continuous stream of development for as long as you are with us. Ongoing masterclasses, weekly webinars, supplier events, a dedicated Business Consultant in your corner from day one, and overseas mentorship retreats that take your learning around the world.
The retreats go further than most people expect. Elite franchisees are invited on two fully funded trips abroad. The first, the Millionaire’s Retreat, pairs a few days at a five-star destination with serious business training, most recently in Turkey and Crete. The second, the Elite Experience, goes further afield, with recent trips to Mauritius, Dubai and Japan, immersing consultants in world-class travel first-hand. As our co-founder Steve Witt describes them, they are not really holidays. They are life-changing trips that happen to feel like one.
The Elevation Programme is simply the newest layer on top of all of that.
A formula we have proven before
We have done this exact thing once already, and it worked.
A few years ago we spotted the potential of the cruise market. Rather than leaving consultants to figure it out alone, we built a dedicated cruise division, immersed them in the product, put them in front of the right suppliers and trained them properly. Our cruise sales tripled.
The luxury strategy, and the Elevation Programme within it, takes that same proven formula and applies it to one of the fastest growing areas of travel. Higher-value holidays mean bigger bookings for a similar amount of work, and we are giving our consultants the training and the relationships to serve that market with confidence.
Investing in the people who teach our people
A programme like this only works if the people delivering it are the best in the business. That is why our investment in training goes hand in hand with investment in the wider team.
We recently announced that we are expanding our head office team by 10 per cent, with new roles across operations, marketing and trade, and doubling the size of our franchise recruitment team. We continue to bring in experienced specialists from across the travel industry, people who have done this for real, specifically to train, mentor and support our consultants.
For anyone joining us, that means you are not just buying into a proven business model. You are stepping into a support structure that keeps growing around you, built for one reason, to help you succeed. It is a large part of why we have been named Best Lifestyle Franchise in the World two years running.
What this means if you are thinking about joining
You do not need any luxury experience, or any travel experience at all, to build a business with us. In fact, 98 per cent of our consultants joined with no travel background whatsoever. Our entire model is built to take complete newcomers and turn them into confident, capable business owners, and programmes like Elevation are there for when you are ready to push further.
Getting started has never been more accessible either. You can now join through our Lite Mentorship Programme from just £995, paired with an experienced mentor from day one who guides you through the industry and helps you build at your own pace.
The Elevation Programme is the newest expression of a promise we have kept for more than 20 years. We never stop investing in our consultants, and there is plenty more to come.
