Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 181 - How to un-pitch to corporate & retreat clients
Transcript
- Rachel: So maybe you are thinking of getting into like corporate retreats or corporate incentive groups, or maybe you want to do like wellness retreats. And you've done all the training on groups, you know exactly what you want to offer, but how do you even freaking land a corporate client or like a wellness retreat client? That is what day 181 of the Travel Agency in a Year podcast is all about. So join me. We're gonna go on this journey. Trying to keep it under 20 minutes, because I know some of my episodes have been running a little longer lately. So that's what this is about. It is the officially, officially, official, official last day of the second quarter of the year on day 181. Day 182 marks a whole new quarter. And with that, a whole new season of the Travel Agency in the Year podcast. So this is something I hear a lot. ⁓ specifically with the students that are in group travel made easy, like that is they don't necessarily want to do weddings. They don't necessarily want to just do like family reunions. They want to get like a couple of corporate clients. Or like they really are passionate about something and they want to start hosting retreats and how in the heck do you do that? Well first of all you shouldn't be what is up with my hair, by the way? This weird cowlick in the back. Anyway, they shouldn't Be doing all of the aspects of the retreat events, by the way. Like you don't want to put together something yourself and then offer it to the masses, because that kind of puts you in tour operator country. So when it's the second half of the year, which starts tomorrow, and maybe you want to get into groups, and you've been like Well, I'll do weddings or I'll do family reunions or ⁓ something and it just doesn't seem like it's working. And so now the panic's setting in and you're like, I need to get one group. And you just maybe have maybe you've been mass emailing like or LinkedIn the DMs in LinkedIn. Small business owners, you're like, Hey, I'm a travel agent, I could totally do your next retreat. That is ⁓ not the best way to do this. And we're gonna talk about The unpitch. So if you know me, you know that we have the unfam retreat. So now let's talk about the unpitch. And in previous episodes I do talk about networking. And ⁓ I'm Pretty I'm just like, you know, build that relationship, which is great and all. But when it comes time for the unpitch, which usually I like to do like two to three meetings in, like once you get to know them a little bit better, it this is when you do the unpitch. And this is a method where you never ask for their business. Instead, you highlight a problem that they didn't even realize they had, and you position yourself as the natural solution. So if you know anything about marketing and sales, like you have a value proposition that you offer that solves a problem, right? So when you are looking into like any kind of group thing where it's a business owner hosting the group. or someone to hire up at a company. You should definitely do the unpitch framework because guess what? They get cold emails and cold DMs all the time. And this is a tried and true method. I've done like back in COVID times. Back in the COVID days, I would reach out and do corporate retreats. And this was the unpitched framework that I used. I am currently using it now, pivoting away from destination weddings. And I want to share it with you. And there's a number of ways you can do it. So this is like a real basic framework. Ready, SETI, go. ⁓ you need to spend like 10 to 15 minutes today, maybe, researching. Companies that align with your ideal client avatar for these types of groups. Okay. So you want to research search the mission of the company and like the head honchos. And you're like, that can't be done in ten minutes. Yeah, you only need like three to five people, honestly, like three to five companies. They can be local. ⁓ locals often best to start out with this and look for companies around fifteen to fifty employees. Like not too big and not super duper tiny. Because when the office is that small, fifteen to fifty employees, chances are the CEO, the COO, or somebody, like the real past the gatekeeper person. The decision maker is still reading these kinds of emails on a daily basis. Like, think about your inbox and all the cold emails that you get. Because you don't have more than 50 employees, right? Now, if you are targeting like corporate incentive trips for like franchise companies, whatever, like a big fast food franchise in your area. That company is still gonna be fifteen to fifty employees in the main office. Okay? And they may only have like I don't know, twelve to twenty franchise stores. You want them about that size before you reach out to them. because that'll mean there's gonna be one to two bigger managers at each store, right? If you're going that way. Okay. Where do you even look? You can research like on LinkedIn if you want to. You can even just Google, like say you want to go into like restaurant franchise owners and corporate incentive trips. Then just Google franchise owners of and then the national chain. Start Googling that in your city and state, right? If you want to do like wellness retreats, yoga studios in your city, you know, Reiki healers in your city, that kind of thing. And you can also like look at the chamber if you want to get an idea. Maybe, maybe you could find the head honchos through the chamber, their contact info. But you also want to like scan the websites and you go directly, you want to go to their mission statements. So that's usually going to be on their main page. It's going to be like, we're all about blah blah blah blah blah. If you're doing like yoga wellness retreat stuff and you're researching. And then you click on the about and read the about about the owner. If the owner is still there, this This is good-sized company to go with. Like the owners on the about page. And you could do like real estate companies, all kinds of things. And then you wanna look and see if there's any news that they're sharing on their social or on their like maybe they're featured in the local business journal and an article online. Who knows? Who knows? And see if they've gotten Like any major anniversaries, like a milestone, like ten years in the industry anniversary coming up, or they're opening two new locations or one new location, something like that. Because that means there's gonna be a hiring surge. Something important's going on, right? and their culture is currently shifting and their team might need a little pick me up. Like if you're going like the corporate side, go in the retreat side, if they have those announcements, this actually worked for me. I like found an open house for their new yoga studio and I went and the owner was there and I was like, Look at all these retreats. You ever want to do international? anyway. Once you have your list, have a list, and these are your cold contacts. This is your cold outreach. They don't know you, so you can't just be like, by the way, I'm a travel agent, I'd love to do this. Like you've gotta like do the unpitch, okay? Where you are just presenting a solution to your to a problem that may or may not be actualized in their minds. So you wanna start off. Not just building rapport, but like giving them a compliment. And you also might be able to s meet them at like network meetings, by the way. You don't have to cold email them. But like see if they're gonna be at events anytime soon, like local fundraisers, or like maybe they're hosting an open house, or if it's like a wellness related thing, like go invest and take a class at their studio. Something like that. Spend that money and see what they're all about. ⁓ that will really give you an idea if it's It is something like a wellness retreat, or you want a partner for some other kind of like foodie tour or something like that, definitely invest in what they have to offer. And if it's like a restaurant, even like see if you can get to any special events that they're offering. Like some restaurants will be like, ⁓ join our chef for this cooking class or something like that. Go pay for it and do it. Because you might realize, like, ⁓ this is these people are not my scene. Right. And also you're supporting your local small businesses. Fantastic. Okay. When you do finally like reach out and like make that connection, whether it's via email or I feel like DMing is just creepy. But maybe it is maybe you want to do it via DM. Me, I would never DM. I'd never be like, I'm just sliding in your DMs. Anyway, but maybe it's email, DM. Maybe you're attending some kind of ribbon cut ribbon cutting or milestone event that this company's doing, open house, so on and so forth. Maybe you attend a class, whatever. When you meet that owner person or the person that you're like, okay, this is the person I need to talk to, which if you can try to get to the owner, give them a compliment. Like show that you've done your homework and be like, wow, this is fantastic. You've been in business for six years and in your seventh year you have this whole new location. How did you grow so quickly? Like I want I'm a small business owner. But don't mention what you do unless they ask, and then just be like, ⁓ I have this little thing going No, don't say, ⁓ just this little thing I got going on. So you wanna give ⁓ a compliment. Okay. Then Build a little bit of rapport and then you start hitting the pain points, the agitation. So it could be like, wow, you know, I bet it's really tough now that you've opened your second, third, fourth, tenth, whatever location. like retaining employees, like employee retention, and you and I both know that it costs more to hire new employees than it does to retain them, right? And you could even go like full crazy and research the industry and be like, I heard it costs, you know, fifteen thousand dollars to replace an employee in this industry. Is that true? How do you how are you managing all of that? Right? Something like that. Like that's a pain point. Like, that's money. That is speaking their language. And here's the thing. I don't know if that number's true. I'm just throwing it out there. If it costs fifteen thousand dollars to replace, like, mid-level upper management, like the time it takes for the ⁓ you know, interviewing, running the ads for the interviews, processing the applications, HR to onboard everyone and to do the training. I'd say minimum 15 grand is what it costs for like new employees in most industries. All right. So that's why that number came into my brain. So You don't go into a sales call from that. You just like listen to them. Because they're going to open up and be like, ⁓ man, yeah, when we merged or when we opened this location, we had a hard time but da-da-da-da-da-da. And listen to them. I know I said but da-da-da-da-da-da. I don't know what's coming out of their mouth is why. Don't just turn off your brain and just hear that. Listen to them, okay? And then You can offer something for free for them. Okay? So once they're finished and you're like, man, that's tough, you know, I've got this like have this done already. All right. I've got this one page or three-page real easy proposal for something that would cost you less than to replace these employees. And it's still like a tax deduction if they care about that. Most of ⁓ do. But like, you know, you can do this. And it would be half the price. Like you could spend the same amount of money or a little bit less and they can bring a plus one and do this, you know? And they handle corporate incentive retreats. And you can get part of your trip costs covered as well if you want to. ⁓ things like that. Just let then that's when you kind of go into the pitch and be like, hey, why don't I send you this information over? Because this would cost you less than replacing this entire team. And year over year, it's just gonna cost less and less and less because they're gonna get this free thing, right? And then you can just say, ⁓ there are zero strings attached. I'm not asking you to work with me. I just want to show you the benefits because this is what I do. Okay. Most likely they'll at least take a look at it. I'm not saying you close the deal. They will most likely take a look at it. When you are working on like, I'd like to put on a wellness retreat and you're doing the same unpitch, you could be like, Would you ever be interested in maybe like I have this amazing idea for a retreat. I have all the logistics. I just need a really good yoga instructor. And I need I didn't know if you'd wanna like offer this to your studio students, you know. I can go ahead and send you some information over, but it's like a really good idea, right? And then you send it over. And now you gotta close it, alright? So woo, congratulations. You have some interest. Probably not gonna close every single deal. And so you might if you really want to do this and be like, I just want one corporate incentive trip or one corporate retreat just started by the end of this year, you're probably gonna have to reach out to several different companies and hear a lot of no's. And that's okay because rejection is not a failure. Rejection just means you get a like, who cares? Water off your back, whatever that phrase is. So If they just say thank you, here's my email and then you send it and then nothing else. Follow up in like four days and just be like, hey, do you want this something that's a little more customized? Have you looked into this more? How about we grab lunch or how about we grab some coffee next Thursday or something? Like, give them some time, right? And if they reply to what you email over and they were like, We were actually really thinking about this, and I'm super duper excited. That's cold email. And then like If it's in person, because this happen this has happened to me in the past, where I propose this idea and they're like, This is my dream, and I have no idea how to do it. And that's when you know you've really got a good idea and you've actually you actually are providing a solution and you've hit their actual pain points, by the way. When they're like, Are you reading my mind? Yes. So they may come back with, ⁓ my gosh. The team is really excited about this. We were we've been talking about this. We didn't know where to go. We actually want to do this in October. Or November or December or January. ⁓ can you can you do this for us? How would it work to work with you? Do you do this professionally? And that's when you get to respond. And you are detached from the outcome and just be like, well yeah, of course. This is what I do for a living. ⁓ and I handle all the logistics from end to end regarding the travel. Happy to help you with checking on any spaces available for any speaking events or complimentary dinners, whatever the heck is in that proposal. I don't know what's in your proposal. and I would love to partner up with your leadership team to make sure that this goes as smooth as possible. Who do I need to be in contact with to get started? Okay. Great, awesome. Let's do a quick call and I'll show you my onboarding process. Something like that. And I'll send you, you know, my contract, all that fun stuff. Like, show them all that or say all of that to them. And that's how you get it closed. So they're gonna be very intimidated with how everything works. So especially if they haven't really done it before. Now if they've done it before. but it was like done in house and it wasn't really like the best thing ever, then they're gonna wanna know what would you do differently? Okay. And so that's kind of when you just go into the general, like the value that you provide anyway, which you should be pretty familiar. I d I would not recommend doing this. Just right out of the gate, you have zero experience with group travel. I mean I mean corporate incentive groups are pretty easy. but if you have zero I don't know if you'd be able to close it with a full presentation. But if you're looking for like wellness retreats and things like that, and you're familiar with FITs and you like are very like you've done a lot of FITs and you're very knowledgeable on group travel, you could definitely take that on. All right. So for the next 24 hours, well, the rest of yeah, yeah. I forget what day it is. I'm not recording this on day 181 at six o'clock in the morning, by the way. So for the next day, sometime today, if you were interested in hosting, or not hosting, partnering up with a company for like corporate incentive, corporate retreats, ⁓ wellness retreats, fundraising stuff, whatever. Whatever. There's so many different ways you can do groups with companies. ⁓ do the research, take that 10 minutes, find like five contacts that you're like, these are some solid contacts. Do your best if you can to get their the best email and phone number for that company contact. And you will have to maybe deal with gatekeepers. And in my experience, if you bypass the gatekeeper, worst case scenario, the gatekeeper is going to be CC'd in the reply and be like, hey, can you handle this and get more information? Right? Not that it's not that the decision maker doesn't want to make a decision right away. They just want to make sure like this is a safe bet, right? So any hoodle, five contacts. See if they got any events going on or will be at any events in your area in the next week or two. If not, you're probably just gonna have to email them. And then put together a standard proposal that would cover all five contacts. So don't, don't, don't do, don't do a restaurant, right? And be like a foodie tour and then a yoga studio and be like, ⁓ a wellness retreat. And then A business, like a mid-sized, smaller business, and be like, ⁓ incentive retreats. Don't do five different types of proposals. Have very basic proposal put together with your branding. Make it one to three pages, very easy to read. These people need to make decisions quickly, as you should, okay? And then start reaching out to them. All right? Congratulations, you have officially survived Q2. And you're gonna start Q3 tomorrow. I hope if you've like done your quarterly review. ⁓ and maybe if you're like feeling a slump, like I don't know what to do, I don't know how to grow my business, like I there's a framework for you right there. And there's some steps you can take today. And maybe you find a niche you really enjoy. So we have six more months after this. We're halfway through. Halfway through. If you know someone that's like, I'm struggling to get groups and I really want to do corporate or I really want to do wellness retreats, share this episode with them. And I will see you tomorrow.