Ian Silk

A recently shared “success story” from one of Travel Counsellors franchisee’s Ian Silk, only reinforces the high calibre of true business support offered from the company head office staff.  Shared on today’s live TCTV broadcast out to the entire Australian network of over 90 TC’s, the agency group was also keen to share it with the public as it is a real example of the level of support offered by specialist staff at head office, and the dedication of it’s agents to building a successful business.

“I wanted to share a story regarding a cold call I completed recently following a BD meeting with Tracy...I was expressing the want for a small to medium corporate account between $200-500K per year.  I had created an e-card but something I really wanted to use from my sales background was to cold call local businesses.  Tracy helped me work on a script and suggested that I jump online and look at my local shire business directory, then create a list of businesses that I thought would have travel requirements and start calling.    In short, I struck gold with my first phone call, I phoned a fit-out company that specialised in office and hotel fit outs and got an appointment straight away!”

“I introduced myself as a Personal Travel Counsellor and asked if the company had requirements for travel arrangements for their staff, client replied “yes” but he (the owner) does all bookings online.  I asked if he would mind explaining why he shops online and the usual “cheapest” and “quickest” replies were returned.  I asked if I could have an opportunity to explain my services and the advantages to utilising them against the web or booking his own arrangements and he said “yes I am always up for learning better ways to do things”.

I have since met and had a coffee, explained that I have the expertise, time, knowhow and world leading technology that allows me to get what is best suited for his business, the budget, and the planned business itinerary.  I explained I could also support his accounting team for financial paperwork thus alleviating the requirement for him to track and keep invoices of travel.  The client loved what I was offering and what I do but more importantly he said the fact that I am in the same area and available 24/7 to him made this a good business decision.  Planned travel for April is already in the pipeline.”

The business development support offered is just that, focussed and tailored to each individual agent, around their interests.  All of the marketing tools available to TC’s from head office are inline with the business development support to ensure the agents get the best possible outcome and stand out as true professionals of their trade.