Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 115 - How does a Travel Advisor Cold Approach Partnerships?
Transcript
- Rachel K: It's day 115 of the travel agency in your podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. If you don't know who I am by now, A, why, but B, maybe it's because you just found us. Head over to elevatewithrachelk.com to learn more about how I am here to help you build a travel business that builds you up. So today's episode is how do you cold approach for partnerships? How do you cold approach? We've done many episodes about networking. and how you should be constantly looking at creating and or maintaining partnerships in a variety of ways. And I often get from travel advisors that I mentor, even agents on my team. I don't know how to approach this small business owner to see about a partnership. So that's what this episode is about. First of all, let's talk about types of partnerships you can have as a travel advisor. Partnership number one is going to be if you are hosted, your host agency can be a partner and there should be someone within your host agency that you can call if not just generally like calling the general office and be like, Hey, I kind of need help with this and they can direct you to someone on the team to help you. Sometimes they offer like mentoring programs, a few mentorship meetings. Every host agency is different in how they do this. And if you are like a sub agent under an agency in general, that's not like a big host, ⁓ your host or your agency owner should also offer some advice and mentorship. Now it's very difficult because unless you are an employee, they can't tell you exactly what to do. They can just say, this is what I would do in this situation. And if you are like considering a career in travel, and you think you're going to need a lot of mentorship, a check to see who you're going to be partnering with to build your travel agency. Do they actually mentor and help or B there are plenty of us in like the educational space. I'm a little mad because right now someone's blowing leaves around as I record this. So if you hear that, ignore that anyway, there are people like me and others. This is my gray hair that offer. mentoring regardless of whether or not you're with their host agency or on their team. Okay, so that's one possible partnership. Suppliers or brands via their BDMs if you aren't sure know familiar with that term its business development managers They help develop the business of the brand or the wholesaler slash supplier and they also in turn help you Build your business up so you can create a partnership with them. I will say Many times if you're brand new they're willing to help you and they're willing to provide like some guidance or advice They're not going to be there 24-7 to just, how do I manage this client or how do I manage this trip? That's not their job. Their job is to help you understand the possibilities of marketing their products, okay? But that is another partnership you can form. ⁓ Especially if you really, really niche down, then you can build very, very strong relationships. Not only with the BDMs for those brands, but if you go on like specific Well, in my experience with specific resort brands and like go down even from that resort brand to specific properties, can start to develop with, nope, can't talk. You can start to develop relationships and partnerships with those on the management team directly at that resort. I can't say if you can do that with cruise lines. It'd be real cool if you did though. Another partnership opportunity are local complimentary businesses or organizations. They can be complimentary to your niche. If they're organizations, they can be complimentary to your personal values. And they can be local. I've done episodes in the past, like if you want to do adventure, travel, you could have a complimentary local business of like a scuba shop, dive shop, rock climbing, ba da da da da. I'm not gonna get into that in this episode because I try to keep episodes shorter. Another partnership opportunity are online, nation or worldwide complimentary businesses or organizations. So don't just limit yourself only to local and don't just limit yourself only to online businesses. There are opportunities either way. I will give you an example. I've decided to completely revamp my niche from my travel agency. Complete opposite. It used to be all about like just like pushing business through, go, go, go, get money, make the bookings, right? Now it's completely different and it's expanded from my original thought of like, I'm just going to change niches and now it's turned into this whole thing. And so I was doing some research for like... how travel agencies can work in the nonprofit sphere. And I stumbled upon, believe, who is a travel agency owner who does this sort of thing. Their mission and their value for their nonprofit organization is not aligned with mine at all, so we are not in competition with each other. I made one phone call, then we set up a phone call from there, and from there I was referred to a DMC. who is also somewhat aligned and from there she's referred me to another TA who's very aligned with what I do and it just kind of snowballed from there. And that was all just for me doing a Google search and then calling and leaving a voicemail. So don't think it's not possible. You just gotta do it. We're gonna get into that in this episode and some others because I know there's a lot of hesitancy for people even if you are a very successful travel advisor of just building actual relationships and partnerships. It's scary. It's scary. Okay, another possible partnership. Influencers, question mark. UGC content creators are ⁓ very fast growing career, I guess. It's kind of mind boggling that that can be considered a career. However, you may be able to form a partnership with the right content creator slash influencer. Many content creators and influencers are kind of similar yet different. ⁓ But that's a possible partnership. Another one most people don't think about, colleagues in the industry, other TAs, other travel advisors, they may niche in something that you have no desire to offer and same for you. so you can set up a partnership referral system. They may be there for you if you have a family emergency or a personal emergency. It's very important to develop a very small network of probably three agents that you can just simply reach out and call upon if you need help. And they can help you with partnerships. They can refer you all over the internet if you want them to or if you just ask them to and you can do the same thing for them. ⁓ So that's another one. Friends, families, current clients. If you don't have current clients, because this whole podcast and a lot of what I teach is from the perspective of you don't have a huge client base yet. You're kind of like starting out new. So possibly friends and family could be another partnership opportunity. Any colleagues in previous careers or current, if you're working a current job and this is like a quote unquote side hustle, which if you really want to have the freedom, it's never going to be a side hustle. You need to treat it like a business, even if you're doing it after hours. Okay, so those are different types of possible partnerships. Friends and family is not gonna be a cold approach, right? Colleagues, it's kinda like when you started a new school or whatever. You gotta think back to elementary school. And I've used this example before in other episodes. But you started a new school and you're like, who do I sit with at lunch? You may have colleagues who've started at the same time as you or some who have been in the industry a little bit longer than you, but it's kinda scary to be like, can you help me? Can you be my friend? Everything else is going to be pretty darn cold approaches. Your host or if you are working under an agency owner, that shouldn't be cold either. But if you are like brand new or considering this career, that's going to feel kind of cold approaching. All right. I'm sure as I listed those off, you're like, oh, that person could be a partnership. That person could be a partnership if you've been in the industry for like six to 12 months or more. And you're probably feeling reluctant. Feeling reluctant? That's most likely tied to the fear of rejection, which if you want to know about the top 10 fears entrepreneurs and travel advisors face, I think it's day 74. Let me check my notebook. Don't worry, I got a whole notebook of every single episode here. No big deal. ⁓ yep. Nope, that's mindset chatter. Nope, that is the top 10 fears. And then fear of rejection if you want to do a deeper dive episode. Head on over to day 80 is the fear of rejection. Don't worry, I got my handy dandy notebook. Okay, now let me make sure I'm on the right page here. A fear is not you. Please remember that. Any fears you have is not you. It is your ego protecting you because it's doing something unfamiliar. Okay? At a minimum, it's that. Think about whether or not you have that fear of rejection. It's hard making friends as adults. We're all adults, hopefully, listening. This is not child-friendly content. I mean, it's not bad, but it's not like for kids, clearly. And it's harder for us to make friends as adults, right? So it's gonna feel scary to make these partnerships, because you're like, what if they reject me? What if they say no? Well, guess what? There's so many other people in the world who are gonna say, possibly say yes. So overcoming objections, know that people are going to say no and be okay with that. Don't simply approach someone with a what's in it for me, but what's in it for you. This is a partnership. Like that's like the grossy, Josie dude sliding into your DMs asking for gross pictures and he doesn't even know you. Like that's, don't do that. Don't be like, you wanna give me business? You wanna give me your energy and time? And I'm not gonna ask anything in return? So I've talked about this with networking in general. You wanna have a solution. You wanna have understanding their pain points when you want to approach this person at an organization or a small business or whatever to create a partnership. There has to be benefits for them to even talking to you. before you even approach. And we're gonna get into that. We're gonna get into the signs. It's time for you to cold approach here in a minute. Also, I want you to remember, you aren't bothering anyone. How many emails do we get, whether they're bought emails or real authentic emails of people asking, yes, it's a bother to me because I've never applied for a business loan, but someone's given my information out somewhere. I constantly get texts that's like, you need funding? We can get you 300K today. Over 12 months, your payment's only $70 million a month. And I'm like, I didn't even ask for this. Why are you contacting me? That is a bother. But that's, think about that. That's the cold approach. I never requested their information. They're just blabbing at me. And me reading it is like, ⁓ yeah, you can get me lending, but look at this interest rate, look at how much money you're making, and also I don't need any of this. This is not helping me in any capacity. So that's like bad, cold approaching. And also, you may get an email, especially if you're hosted, from a random supplier or brand that's like, hey, we're hosting a webinar, would you like more information about how to work with us? I mean, and that's... kind of a cold approach, register for this webinar, get to know me a little bit better, and you can make that decision. You're not like reporting them as spam and hopefully not. Hopefully you're not like, they're the worst thing ever because they sent me an email that I don't even have to read, but I chose to anyway. ⁓ So that's an example of like signs it's okay to cold approach and you're not gonna get a yes every time, right? Okay. Signs it's a good idea to cold approach. Now I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. ⁓ gosh, I thought this was only going to be a 15 to 20 minute episode. ⁓ sign number one, can you help them now? Can you send business their way right now? Can you buy something from them? Can you purchase a service from them or product? Or can you send someone their way? Can you do that right now? If yes, that's a sign it's good idea to contact. As an example, say you have a client planning their honeymoon, they're very, very recently engaged and they're very, very type A people and so they're like, we want this honeymoon knocked out immediately. They don't have their wedding venue, they don't have a photographer. That's a sign that for certain local photographers, if your client's local to you, you could cold approach them and be like, hey. I'd like to learn more about your business. have some honeymoon clients that may need some engagement photos and wedding photos. Do you offer packages like that? That's a cold approach. That's a very cold approach. That's here's me benefiting you. Okay. Do you feel comfortable setting up a phone call, Google meet slash zoom or an in-person meeting with this organization, business owner, whatever. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you need to probably take a step back and like work on building your confidence up a little bit because it will show up. I mean, you can do it uncomfortable. Just know you might need to practice. you're feeling, if you're like, okay, this is okay. If it's just 15 minutes and they say no, or they say yes, I don't really care. I just want to get to know them. Then that's a sign you can cold approach them. Do you know what? Do you understand what is important to them? Like many businesses, if you look at their website, will have some information regarding their values and mission in the copy of their website. They're not just gonna be like, bye bye bye, bye bye bye bye. They're gonna be like on the about section. This company was founded and da da da da da, because blah blah blah owner felt to fulfill whatever need in their community. It's almost always in the about section. So that will give you a good idea. Have you even looked at their website? Or are you just like, oh, it's a photographer, or oh, it's a scuba shop or dive shop, whatever. I don't know why I use those two examples so much. Just like complimentary businesses to travel agencies, it's fine. Based on that about section, can you glean that your morals and values are aligned? Now if you are like a very faith-based or Christian-based, like you don't have to be like, I'm Christian in your business and we only, you know what I mean? But maybe that's a very important part to you. It's probably not a good idea to go to like a yoga studio that also has like witch doctor stuff and like we can cast spells, like probably not aligned morals. You may have similar values. But there's a big separation in your spirituality which could come in conflict. And conversely, if you are of like pagan, like you want to practice, like you're into pagan spirituality stuff, there's so many different pagan traditions, it's probably not a good idea to align yourself with anyone who is anti-pagan, right? Because the morals are just different. You can get along with them, you can possibly have a partnership, but that's, you really need to be sure that your values and your morals are very, very closely aligned. It's almost like, no, I'm not gonna say that. So I'm not saying like, ⁓ if they're different religions, don't work with them, right? Or if they're a different political party, don't work with them. But you just wanna be sure. Like if you are like adamantly, capital punishment or adamantly, the whole, any political situation, if you are adamantly on one side, it's probably not a good idea to partner with someone who is adamantly on the opposite side of the spectrum. Because that will eventually, that division that you are already facing, like if you're anti-gun and they are like, we are pro-gun, we are pro-Second Amendment. That could cause an issue down the road. It could cause opportunity for a very healthy debate and it could also cause a lot of division. So you need to be very careful in understanding why are they so against your beliefs in a certain area. Maybe you have aligned morals but different opinions. I hope that makes sense. That was a long, this episode is gonna go over. It's fine. ⁓ have you done your background research? Kind of hinted at that the last three. Have you even looked up who these people are? Can you lead with an intriguing question during an in-person meeting or phone call? Not like a sales pitch, but just like, hey, do you want to know how corporate incentive travel could really transform the productivity of your business? Do you want to talk about that? But you don't want to bring that up right away. So another example, would you want to learn how creating an effective partnership can lead to ba-da-da-da-da? for your business or organization. Whatever goal that you want to create with this partnership, make sure you've done your research per last point. Have you done your research on it? Do you have the ability to provide stats? Like this has been statistically proven to help your organization or business achieve this goal if we partner and do this. Would you be interested? They might be like, yeah, and then like backslide and go work with another travel agent. It's fine. Who cares? you've at least given them the idea. ⁓ Ask questions when you do meet them in person, like ask them questions. If you are offering a partnership or selling anything, and this is like important for your general consultations with any clients as well, ⁓ the first conversation with that person that you want to partner with, whether or not they're going to book a trip with you or whatever, they should be doing 80 % of the talking and your 20 %... The majority should be questions, learning about them. ⁓ Before you meet, provide some thoughtfulness and preparation. Like, learn about the industry that they're in. Learn about their mission statement if it's like a non-profit organization. Like, why are they doing what they're doing? Have an understanding of upcoming projects. It shows you care because clearly you do. And I'm not saying fake all of this just to make money either. Show you that you understand their concerns even if you don't fully understand them at the beginning. But as you learn about them you're like, that is a huge concern. answer any questions that they may have up front. Example, you get to the point where you're hey, do you want to learn how corporate incentive travel can help? Like, you could have a long discussion learning about their business, how they're wanting to scale, so on and so forth, the first 30 minutes. And then you could say, hey, do you want to know how I do corporate incentive travel? And they're like, well, what do you do? My niche is corporate incentive travel. Would you like to? learn a little bit more about how that could really help with what I'm hearing you're saying. and then you go in because they'll be like, sure. And then you say, well, statistically, blah, blah, blah, blah. It costs about this much, but the result in revenue production and productivity in general and employment satisfaction is this, this, and this, which will in turn save you more money in the long run. But you got to have all that information, but you are answering all their questions up front. Always provide some kind of value in every interaction with anyone you might want to have a partnership. yes, clients can also be a partnership. I think I mentioned that before, but maybe I didn't. But always provide as much value as you can in every interaction. When it's time for you to cold approach, have an understanding that certain businesses, many businesses have a gatekeeper. Who is that gatekeeper? And how do you get through the gatekeeper? Maybe I should do an episode on that later on. Or maybe you can Google it. Either way. But the gatekeeper is often like the executive assistant to the CEO. ⁓ It could even be like in a dentist office. It could just be the receptionist at the dentist office. Like she's gonna deem, you worth? time for a meeting. And finally... How can you help them with your partnership? I've already stated that. How can you help them? That's the last tip. When you are questioning or feeling nervous, if you have these steps like kind of checked off, that's when you are gonna be able to more confidently cold approach someone and be okay with them saying no because it'll be like, okay, well I'll find someone else who actually wants this sort of a partnership. And you want to like, every business is different. Even every travel agency is different. Everyone has different values, whatever. So you even want to like tailor this for each business just a little bit. So you can't just do research on one business and then they're like, no, I don't want to work with you. And then just assume every, again, I'm to go back to photographer, every photographer operates that way. Or every whatever restaurant operates that way or thinks this way. Because that's not true. Alright, that's this episode, day 115. ⁓ Tomorrow we're gonna expand on this topic and talk about how to create win-win partnerships once you get that cold approach meeting set up. Thanks for listening, subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll talk to you tomorrow, bye.