Team Up With Cruise Reps To Increase Sales

If you’re not working with cruise line business development managers or district sales managers, your cruise sales are nowhere near what they could be. From product knowledge to marketing support, cruise reps’ raison d’ etre is to help travel sellers grow their business.

“The smart travel agents – our million dollar and hundreds of thousands of dollar producing travel agents – all rely on their district sales managers,” Bill Smith, vice president of sales for Crystal Cruises, told Travel Market Report. 

It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. Added Smith, “Our DSMs rely on those travel agents as well.” As Cheryl Hudak, regional BDM for Costa Cruises, put it, “If you succeed, I succeed.” Hudak is a former travel seller and immediate past president of ASTA.

Julie Scott, of Dallas-based Sharon Carr Travel, told TMR she speaks with her Norwegian Cruise Line BDM at least twice a month. “I think they’re absolutely invaluable to business,” Scott said. “We just can’t work without them and they need us, so it’s a great combination.”

Travel agents who ignore their BDMs are left out in the cold, Smith added. “If they’re not using that resource, they’re missing huge opportunities to find new ways to promote and market.”

“If I were an agency owner or manager, I don’t see how I wouldn’t want to work with the DSM,” Bob Fredman, a district sales manager for Princess Cruises told Travel Market Report. “The information I send them, they very likely wouldn’t get otherwise. From a marketing standpoint we can help them with ideas for marketing, groups, advertising. It really is endless.”

Overcoming Obstacles
Fredman acknowledged that not all agents take advantage of what he has to offer. “I can’t give you a percentage, but I must say the percentage is not as high as it should be, could be, or I’d like it to be.”

What’s standing in the way? “Sometimes I think they’re just so overwhelmed, they don’t have the time,” Hudak said.

Additional challenges to the travel agency-BDM business relationship are that the agency might not be interested in working with the cruise line the BDM represents. Or the travel seller could be intimidated by the market, or the idea of working with the BDM.

Sometimes agents simply aren’t open to new suggestions.

To illustrate, Hudak told of a recent experience with a travel seller who requested co-op money for an ad. Hudak could not give her the co-op funds, but offered to work with the travel seller to come up with other ways to drum up Costa business. The agent declined.

“She just had one thing in mind that she wanted to do,” Hudak said, adding that some agents are fixated on one avenue of business development that they believe works and aren’t willing to try something new.

Real Results
Travel sellers who overcome the obstacles and are open to working with their BDMs see solid, tangible results.

“Interaction with my BDM took me from an individual who did one or two reservations a year to someone who now does groups with ease,” Suzette Finlayson, owner of Miami-based Island Expert Travel, told TMR. She began working with her Royal Caribbean International BDM two years ago and has grown her total revenue with RCI from just under $11,000 to more than $50,000 this year.

Lourdes Balado of Quinces Cruises & Tours, also in Miami, told TMR she’s increased her RCI bookings this year by 25%. Balado said her BDM has helped her learn how to increase her advertising using Facebook, Twitter and e-mail blasts.

Another Miami-based agent, Michelle Lehman, owner of Cruise N Travel, a Cruise Planners franchise, has increased her RCI bookings by some 30% since she began working with her BDM on cruise events like shipboard tours, and charity and wedding events.

“Those that are using the business ideas they get from us are getting results,” Princess’ Fredman said. “Are they all getting huge results? Not necessarily, but they are getting bookings.”

Fredman cited a cruise seller who followed his suggestion and put a small ad in her local paper advertising Princess’ world cruise and world cruise segments. Her original plan had been to advertise significantly less expensive Mexico cruises. “As a result, she sold three cabins,” he reported.

Co-Op and More
Princess did offset the cost of the ad for the world cruise, Fredman said, one of the many ways in which BDMs can support agents’ efforts to market cruises.  

Cruise line BDMs and DSMs can help agencies gain access to co-op money, collateral materials and special promotions, as well as make marketing recommendations and educate agents about cruise products. 

Business development managers can also teach agents how to build a database, how to segment the database, and how to cross-sell and up-sell. They’ll also offer suggestions on how to cultivate new clients.

In some cases, BDMs will actively partner with a cruise seller in order to reach out to new clients. Lori Goldspiel, a business development manager for Royal Caribbean International, told TMR she’ll sometimes get on the phone with an agent during a cold call to a company or non-profit.

An agency’s relationship with a BDM can also have a positive impact on a client’s cruise experience. “If we’re close with our BDM it translates across the board as to how we sell the product,” said Scott, of Sharon Carr travel, adding that a good relationship puts agents in a better position to ask for something extra for a client.

Roy Lazenby, owner of a Texas-based Cruise Planners franchise, told TMR he calls on his BDMs when he has a problem or needs an issue resolved. His BDM is his safety net, always there to make sure his clients’ bookings and travel go smoothly.