5 Habits for Agent Success in a Disruptive World
by Mimi Kmet /“You will be extinct within months if you are not approaching the world with complete reinvention,” says Bill Jensen, author of the business book Disrupt! Think Epic. Be Epic. 25 Successful Habits for an Extremely Disruptive World (Net Minds Corporation, 2013).
That’s especially true in a world where continuous disruption is the norm, a world where there is no one way to be a travel agent anymore. To succeed in this environment, you must take advantage of it, Jensen said.
Jensen is a consultant, international speaker and CEO of The Jensen Group, a change consulting firm. He wrote Disrupt!, a 2014 Small Business Book Awards winner, after speaking with 100 of what he called “great disruptive heroes,” including CEOs, scientists, entrepreneurs, firefighters, and others.
Travel Market Report asked Jensen to discuss the habits from his book that most pertain to travel agents. Here’s what he said.
Habit #1: Question everything
In a digitized world where rapidly evolving technology is moving consumers in the direction of serving themselves and being their own advocates, agents need to ask tough questions, Jensen said.
“Every week, ask, ‘Why do we exist as travel agents?’ You need to be honest. While travel agents feel their business is amazing, the world is going in the direction of every middle man being destroyed.”
Constantly ask how you can reinvent yourself, he advised. “You will be extinct within months if you are not approaching the world with complete reinvention. Our job is to keep changing our own rules.”
Meanwhile, travel agents can offer a number of benefits right now that the Internet and social networks can’t provide, such as:
• relationships with resort concierges who can do things for your clients on your behalf
• problem solving, where you become a client’s go-to person, like a personal concierge, should anything go wrong on a trip.
Habit #2: Do ‘epic shit’
“Epic is the new norm, because all the basic services are instantly available to the consumer,” Jensen said. He urged agents to focus on two dimensions as a way of dealing with that challenge:
1. Provide “wow-level” service – access to services and amenities that clients can’t get unless they go through you. For example, ask who you know that can provide event tickets that no one else can get. It may take a year of relationship building to gain access to these types of perks, but it’s worth it.
2. Look to high-level, non-travel agency models. What are they doing? “Examine the best of the best that are providing services at a platinum level. It’s a way of thinking and a way of creating services that no one else is providing.”
A four-person travel agency should be able to provide the same level of service that a Ritz-Carlton provides, Jensen said.
Habit #3: Make a mess
“You need to be more willing to fail, because that’s where epic thinking takes place,” Jensen said. Instead of playing it safe, which is what most businesses do, “we need to do things the Silicon Valley way.”
“Try it out. Launch it with a few bugs, and then improve upon it. Be more willing to try something that doesn’t work.
“Think of all your products and services as a portfolio of investment. For every 10 things that are going to bring in money for the agency, think of one or two that are more risky.”
Habit #4. Resilience matters
To build personal resilience, develop a personal network of people, including friends and family, who you can talk to and rely upon “when business sucks and you go through that downturn.”
When downturns in the marketplace are ongoing, it’s important to meet with other travel agents to share your experiences, he said.
While travel agency groups and professional associations are helpful, Jensen said that “the biggest support we need is personal, because the economy and technology will keep coming up against you, asking you to reinvent your business.”
“With personal relationships, you can keep bouncing back.”
Habit #5. You are the ‘powers that be’
Rather than react to forces beyond their control, such as the next disruptive technology that reinvents the travel industry, agents should be proactive.
“You can create your own TripAdvisor on Pinterest. You can create your own services.
“You don’t have to wait for someone else to come up with these things,” Jensen said, adding, “There is no one way to be a travel agent anymore.”