Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 200: Getting your packages in front of the right travel clients
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome back to the Travel Agency to Year podcast. We are at day two hundo. What? 200 days in. I have recorded 200 episodes for you guys in less than like seven months. So today, yes, I batched content. Okay, that's what I do. Today we close out this whole mini series about ⁓ tiered service packages by talking about something that trips up. Even advisors who've built genuinely great packages, nobody knows about them because they're buried in a PDF, nobody sees until they're deep into a consultation. What are we doing here? And that is tied probably to a limiting belief that advisor has where it's like, I'm not worthy to showcase my services. First of all, no, you totally are. Your packages. The pricing I don't recommend. Okay. Your packages should be visible on your website. Okay? That doesn't mean you need to have the doll hairs locked in stone forever. A couple days ago I talked about how I used to have the pricing for my service packages listed on my website until about like 21 or 22. I raised my prices and then I forgot to update the freaking page on my website. I updated all the contracts. I was like, I'm ready to go. And then I forgot to update the page on my website and I got a consultation. It was like within a week of me updating the pack pricing. And the client was like, well, the website says it's this. And I was like, ⁓ yep, well, gonna honor that. Special pricing for you. So I don't like to put the pricing on the on the ⁓ page itself. I do think that I did do a couple posts where my planning services start at. But that was like back in like 21 or 22, like TikToks I made. Anyway. Starting at pricing, I do have that I think on my page now. I put starting at these packages, start at but to give them an idea. But also, and I used to teach this years ago, even if you don't have pricing on there and people see that page and they're reviewing the packages or whatever, on the consultation they'll be like, How much is your fee? I really like. The premiere package. If you don't know, I'm gonna refer to my packages. It's classic is my low, premiere is mid, and elite is my top package. You can name yours whatever you want. But I've had many couples ⁓ when I was doing an excessive number of destination weddings be like, Well, how much is your premiere package? We really like those services in there. Okay. All right. Starting at pricing does work if your fees do kind of like. shift throughout time because you're like, ⁓ this is I need to start hiring VAs and this fee was a little bit too low as an example or something like that. ⁓ but what matters, anyone going to that page can see the three-tier structure. So they know there's gonna be money up front. They might not know whether or not your lowest package is free, but they'll know they're gonna have to pick a package and it will come with a price, right? ⁓ they're gonna understand what differentiates each package and they'll get a sense of where they would land before they book a consultation or email you. Okay. A vague hidden price can create hesitation if you just put like fees starting at 250 and you don't have different service levels, that's gonna create hesitation. But a visible structure creates trust before the first conversation even happens. And you are setting very strong boundaries between you and your client. Like you are putting up front, this is what I do. Okay. I'll further socials and the emails. You don't need to post your literal price list every week. You should be consistently reinforcing the idea that structured options exist in your business. A post explaining here's the difference between working with me at each level. Here's what the classic package includes. Like, here's what our premiere services include. Here's what our elite services include. That builds familiarity, and they may they don't even have to go to your website. But by the time someone reaches out, this isn't new information to them. It's a system that they already trust. And like, my I'm thinking back to my old. Old tiki-talkies. And I remember being like, hey, my fees start at a thousand dollars. I have a variety of planning services and they're structured based on how much help you need. Because I know some couples don't want any help at all, and some need me to be there in destination. So I was already laying out on the table like there are multiple options to working with me and it starts at a thousand dollars. Okay. All right. So you could do posts like that. That's for me doing destination weddings. ⁓ if you're doing like cruises, you could have your base package for European or ocean cruises. You could have your base package be free and be like, put you into a group if you have group space held. Ooh, no wait, stop, back it up. Back the truck up. I know nothing about cruises, but I just had this come to my brain. The free package would be like, we will get you the itinerary that you want. ⁓ and we'll send you up to three proposals, whatever. I don't you know, the basic stuff. The middle tier for cruisers, you could charge like a hundred bucks and you could do something like get you into exclusive group space if you hold a crap load of group spaces, right? I don't know if group amenities are better than FIT cruises, you know what I mean? Like independent. I don't, I don't book cruises. But this just kind of came to my brain. And then your higher tea and then like optional, like the pre and post pre or post stay is included in this mid-tier package. One or the other, not both. And you could do that for like an extra hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars. And then your higher tier package would be everything in the middle if group space is available. Like I would put if available for that, if you're gonna put that in the middle tier. but then your highest package would be pre and post day, and then you could list additional concierge services like dinner reservations. I don't know how cruises work, but maybe on the ship. But if not, you could do dinner reservations for pre and post day or dinner recommendations and option to make dinner reservations for your pre and postday. And I would have explicit terms for this. I don't know anything about cruises, but I know a little bit about pre and post day. and then you could do like All tours are private tours. Like they get the upgraded private tours. They're gonna pay for it, but they get that access to the upgraded private tours. something like that. For that higher package though, you wanna have limitations. Like for me, my elite package I limit to no more than four a year. I do not do more than four a year. My premiere package I did a crap ton, like thirty a year for a while and that's too much. So now I've got it bumped down to no more than twelve a year, I think. My classic package is unlimited. Okay. You could do the same kind of similar thing for your higher end if you're doing cruises. And you could put a requirement like this package is reserved for people who want to extend their pre and post stay more than two nights in des in destination. And then That way, we'll talk about this on the consultation, because we're about to get into that. But that way when you're on the consultation and they're like, yeah, we do want pre and post day, and we want to do four nights beforehand and two nights post, you already know in your head, ⁓ my elite package is the perfect fit for you. It's five hundred dollars up front, and it does not go towards the cost of your trip, and I will do all of this for you. Okay. All right Anyway. Sorry about that. ⁓ Went on a tangent, email funnel. This is even more direct, like a welcome sequence for any new subscribers. If there's like a lead magnet or anything, like if you've got your lead magnet set up, you could plop in one more email and be like, you're being funneled into our newsletter. And by the way, check out our service packages or just add that line into your funnel already. You know, we offer structured service levels. based on how much help you need for your trip, like make it about them, duh. Check out the link here and just link that page on your email. when they sign up for a consultation, you can have a funnel set up or like thanks for booking call. Friendly reminder, we have service packages. Check them out here. Let us know what you're thinking on the call. We will guide you to what we think is the best option. Something like that. you could even do a separate like three more if you have three packages. You could do you're being funneled to your news to our regular newsletter, but first we're gonna send you three more emails going exactly over every single service package and who they're best for. Okay, with your lead magnet funnels. So then the first one's gonna be your low one and be like best for whatever the heck they're best for, right? And then just do that for the next three emails, make it short and sweet and have a call to action to book a call like ready to ready to book this package, schedule call. Okay, by the time someone's ready to book a consultation, if you set this up via email, they've often already gotten a sense of which one fits them, which makes your actual sales conversation dramatically shorter and sweeter and easier. And they already know they gotta give you monies, Lebowski. You ever see the big Lebowski? Give me the monies, Lebowski. Alright. Now to the consultation. During the consultation itself. Your job isn't to present all three tiers and ask someone to pick blinds. You need to guide them. You gotta listen first how much support that they're hoping to get from you, how hands-on do they want you to be, what's their comfort level with a bigger investment, and then recommend the tier that actually fits. So back to that cruise mention if someone on the consultation is like ⁓ yeah, we want to do four days in Rome before we hop on this cruise of Italy and the Mediterranean, whatever. and then we want to do two more days wherever the heck they end up at. You know in your head by listening to that that your top package that requires them to have two nights pre- and post stay at a minimum, that's the one that they want, and that's the best fit for them. Okay. Whew. Alright. Sample script. So based on what you've d we've discussed, I'd actually remember That's not how you deliver that, Rachel. Based on what we've discussed on this call, I recommend, or I think, I tend to go to like I think the best package for you is the elite package. And here's why. And then you list out the highlights that match with what they want. And that's a completely different and more trustworthy conversation than reading off three options and asking them to choose in a vacuum. So think of yourself as like a doctor. ⁓ and you listen for to get the doc gosh, what is wrong with me? You listen for the diagnosis and you have three methods of treatment slash prescriptions. Which one of them is the best for that individual client? And that's why you say it like based on what we've discussed, it sounds like, or I think I used it sounds like two, it sounds like what you need. To get everything you want with my help is the elite package. Here's why. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Does that sound right to you? And then most of the time they'll be like, yeah, but how much is it? Well, it's five thousand dollars. My elite page package. Yeah. It's involves a lot. So you're like, what? Anyway. ⁓ and I think you are a good candidate for this, right? ⁓ if you think it's the premiere or you're like between if you're between, like, I don't know if like the classic or the premiere is a good fit, you could say, you know, I really think the premiere would be your best bet. However, I'm also leaning towards the classic. Here's the difference between the two. What do you feel most comfortable with? And you can mention the price point at that time as well. So Your package pricing isn't set in stone for ever. It's completely reasonable. This is the last bit I promise. To revisit your service packages, change what's offered in them, and adjust your fees, I recommend on an annual basis, as your experience, your demand, your costs all change. It's also completely reasonable to make them short-term adjustments when it serves a specific goal. Okay, so one move, I swear I just talked about this. on the podcast. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but what ups. One move that I like to do is tempor la la la I'll temporar nope, can't say that word. Temporarily. There we go. Run maybe like a soft promo, like a limited time reduced fee on the middle tier package. If I want to sell a lot of those packages, I talk about controlling the sale a lot, and this is done very strategically in any business. If they want to bring in more revenue, they put things on sale. They offer like discounts, right? Because they know that's gonna bring in more money and attention. So I haven't done it for like the mid-tier package myself. I did do it with my classic package because I was I had restructured what I was including. And so I reduced my classic package by half temporarily to see if I could just like turn and burn a lot of groups, like close a lot of groups. ⁓ but I also limited the services that I had. I took some things out of it. And I wanted to see if that would help me like double my sales. It was not a smart decision for me because I ended up with people who champagne dreams and beer budgets and they weren't presenting that up front with me, if that makes sense on the consultation. So then they had smaller groups, they had smaller budgets, the commission the ROI wasn't there for me. Okay. But if you do the mid-tier package, or you can like lower the price, you can move the middle package either up towards the higher package or down towards the lower package. If you do it and temporarily do it, be like, hey, our premiere package is limited time offering. We're only offering this to the next five people who sign up. at a lower price point towards your classic package, this does two things at once. It creates a real sense of urgency, potentially time bound, especially if you put a d date on it. Like you have to sign up by September 1st or whatever. But that's a time bound and a sense of urgency for someone who's somewhat hesitant to decide now instead of later to work with you because the price gap between your middle and your ⁓ low is shrinking okay. And more people are gonna upgrade to the middle tier package, especially if they were on the fence, and they're gonna be like, I get so much more value. Now, if you want to sell more of the middle packages, you bump it up towards the higher tier package pricing just a little bit, shift it a little bit closer and further away from your low-tier pricing. And I'll get into the math here I s in a second. Shift it the pricing a little bit closer to your higher tier package. Then ⁓ people will see the value difference of Hold on, I messed up there. I messed this up. If you want to sell a lot of the lower packages, my bad. You move the middle tier package pricing up towards your higher tier pricing. that way they'll be like, well, this is so much more, this is so much less money, you know? Okay. So here's an example, and I'm sorry I fudged that up. In my brain, I thought I was like doing my hands in the right direction for the mirror on the camera, and then I started sp. dissociating a little bit during that segment because I was like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm doing it backwards now. Everyone's gonna be confused. Okay. All right, my packages are 1,000, 1800, and 5,000. Those are my fees. Okay. So if I want to sell a lot, so at that price point. It's less than double for them to get so many more perks, right? Compared to the lower tier package. But then if they want that higher package that's on a limited basis, they gotta pay the bucks, okay? So I have a higher chance of closing that premiere package, service package, than not. Now, if I wanted to. If I really wanted to sell a lot of the classic packages, I could lower that fee to $500 temporarily, and I would just be like getting all these things. This is what I had done because there was such a huge gap from $500 to $1,800 that people were like, I will upgrade later if I want to, but this is perfect. Okay. So that's what I'm talking about, the psychology behind the pricing. ⁓ And it's just like if you have sodas priced, like the small is 79 cents, the medium is 89 cents, and the large is 129, $1.29, you're gonna sell a lot of those mediums. Okay? And if you know anything about sodas at restaurants, that like a soda costs pennies for them, and that's their biggest moneymaker in most restaurants, by the way. All right, anyway. That wraps up the elevating the service package review stuff. If you are on the fence about charging a fee, and you're not quite sure what to do there. I'm sorry. You need to listen to this whole series. Create service packages and know that your base tier of service can be complementary. Okay. ⁓ And if you're struggling with it, the know your numbers tool is like I I think I mentioned it yesterday, maybe. It's a tool I've created that helps you figure out. Based on your niche, your booking volume, your average commission, your revenue goals, if you even need to charge a fee, and what kind of fee do you need to charge to make up for any deficits? Okay. Fun fact you really don't need to charge a fee for groups if you can survive. Alright, that was day 200. We have 165 days. left. I can't believe it. Alright, have a wonderful day. I'll see you tomorrow.