We’ve just hired Hayley and created a new position – Channel Partnership Manager – to help consultants skyrocket their travel business.
Hayley will head up our unique Partner in Travel initiative which enables you to partner with a local business, person, sports club or charity.
With over 20 years working for Virgin Atlantic in corporate sales, partnership marketing and supply relations, she can’t wait to help you find customers in your local area.
Read our Q&A to find out how!
Q. What is the company’s unique Partners in Travel (PIT) scheme?
A. Partners in Travel is a great way of providing leads to travel consultants to help boost their bookings and grow their business. Sign up a partner and they’ll get commission on every lead that converts to a booking.
Q. What’s the best partner to sign up?
Partners can be everyone you’re surrounded by every day. So hairdressers, nail technicians, taxi drivers and sometimes it’s those smaller businesses that can really support you and give travel consultants the leads that they need. Just having a small amount of partners, say five partners in a year, can really help grow their business and provide leads.
Q. Why not partner with a big huge company?
A. In the past, we’ve seen that travel consultants don’t get much from larger companies, perhaps because maybe it’s harder for them to remain visible to those companies. So it really is those small companies who talk every day to their customers, like hairdressers, who can really talk about holidays, find out if they’ve got someone who can help them and can easily refer travel consultants to help them book holidays.
Q. So what do partners get from the relationship?
A. The partner earns commission every time they make a referral and a booking is made. So those commissions can be 10% or 25% depending on the package that they sign up to. So it’s a great way for that partner to make a little bit of income on the side just by referring business to that travel consultant who can then help their client book a holiday.
Q. Your role is brand new – how do you plan to improve the scheme?
A. I’ll be responsible for the collateral that agents can give partners. So posters, business cards, QR codes, etc. Essentially I’ll help the travel agent to remain visible within that business and help them boost their communication channels and also give them the tools to support that partnership and set goals between them and just be a constant reminder that that travel consultant is there to help customers with their holidays.
Q. And are there any agents currently making money from partners?
Yes, we have some travel consultants out there, like Lloydie, who rely very heavily on their partners in travel and it works really well. We also have lots of agents who have partnered with charities (Kelly, for example, has raised over £12k for her chosen charity and Joanne, just made a booking worth £53,000 via a partner!). School PTA groups work really well as well because they always need to raise money. So it’s a great little way for them to just refer people and have a regular flow of income trickling in just from those referrals to the travel consultant.
Q. What training will you offer?
A. I will offer evening webinars and presentations at events to give consultants hints and tips on Partners In Travel, how it works, get a better understanding of how to approach a potential PIT and sell the benefits. Essentially I want to provide the tools to ensure agents have a strategic plan in place to grow existing partnerships and grow their partner portfolio.
Q. How will you help partners?
A. I want to help better communicate directly to partners and give them an idea of how many referrals they’ve made, how much revenue they’ve achieved by making those referrals and then also giving the same update to the travel consultants as well so they can continue to see the benefit of the partners in travel.
Q. What’s your biggest tip for someone thinking about partners in travel and who to choose?
A. My tip would be to sit down, have a think about who you could approach locally. Even if you use Google Maps, have a look at small businesses that are around you, people or businesses that are out there talking to people every day. They don’t have to be big businesses, the smaller ones actually work better. And either drop them an email or call in with a poster or a leaflet. Try and arrange a coffee and a chat. Maybe approach your school – does the PTA need a way of making some money on the side? That could be a great way for you to be featured in their newsletters to parents. Think of those easy channels that can help grow your business and get you leads naturally on the side, so they’re all there to support you. We don’t need many of them but those partners that you can bring on will naturally feed your business and give you bookings that you might not have got if they weren’t there.
