To Find & Support Independent Agents, Suppliers Have to Make Big Changes

This is the second of two parts on IC-supplier relations.

A growing number of suppliers are finding ways to identify and connect with today’s burgeoning cadre of hosted independent travel agents who work from home.

In a world where geography no longer constrains agent-host or agent-client relationships, making these connections is of paramount importance to suppliers and agents alike.

For agents, it’s a question of getting the supplier support they need to grow their businesses.

For suppliers, it’s a matter of “recognizing who’s selling their product, so they can target the seller, reward them and work with them to develop the business,” said Ann van Leeuwen, president of the National Association of Career Travel Agents (NACTA).

Doing so isn’t necessarily easy.

The geography problem
One important piece of the puzzle requires re-thinking the responsibilities and compensation plans of supplier sales reps and business development managers (BDMs).

Historically, supplier reps and BDMs have been assigned to work with travel agencies in a given geographic territory. But with the rise of national host agencies and franchisors, an independent agent working from her home in, say, Chicago might be affiliated with a host agency or franchise located clear across the country.

And that complicates things.

If a supplier tracks that Chicago agent’s sales through her host agency only, it means the supplier’s business development manager in Chicago has no way of even knowing about the local independent agent.

In this scenario, the Chicago BDM doesn’t even have a reason to look for those local independent agents, since they won’t get credit for growing their business.

“There were suppliers that were structured––and there still are a few––where local BDMS aren’t necessarily motivated to work with agents in their territories, because they don’t get credit for the revenue,” explained Jackie Friedman, president of the host agency Nexion.

Another complicating factor is a virtual marketplace where an agent’s clients can be located anywhere. This means that a travelers’ point of departure is of no help in tracking the sale back to the individual booking agent.

“That’s why it’s so confusing to suppliers. The data says you’re located in Boston, yet most of your bookings are departing from Nashville. That’s been a real eye-opener for us,” said Jack Richards, president and CEO of Pleasant Holidays.

Supplier solutions
Some suppliers have tackled the sales territory issue by making one business development manager responsible for working with and supporting home-based travel agents across the country.

Pleasant Holidays went that route a year ago, when it hired a new BDM and made home-based and independent agents part of her portfolio. “She attends all the home-based trade shows. She invites them to fam trips. She communicates with them however she can,” Richards said.

“That made a huge difference for us. We now have several independent home-based agents who are among our top producers for the entire company.”

Crossing boundaries
Recently Pleasant Holidays began testing another approach. “We’re tasking our local BDMs to support home-based agents that live in their territory but who don’t necessarily book in their territory. They’ll do in-person trainings, support their bookings and act as their primary support,” Richards said.

That team approach has been working for Paul Gauguin Cruises, where members of its much smaller sales staff frequently work across territories to help each other support hosted independents, said director of sales Hope Deschamps.

Technological solution
One critical, if unglamorous, fix is for suppliers to add a secondary phone field to their reservations systems. This allows suppliers to capture the identifying information of an independent agent making a sale, while still linking the booking to the host agency.

The goal is to make independent agents selling their products visible to suppliers, so they can “recognize revenue at the independent agent level and encourage their sales forces to reach out to those agents to work with them and grow the business,” Friedman explained.

Royal Caribbean was among the first to add a secondary phone field to its reservations system. For the past decade, that’s been the cruise line’s No. 1 tactic in identifying and connecting with independent agents, said national account manager Theresa Scalzitti.

The line’s second essential tactic is to assign a local business development manager to every independent agent who becomes known to it.

“We know that’s the key to them building their  business, having that support person to sit down with to talk about marketing strategies, putting a group together––maybe they want to pitch an incentive group to a corporation,” Scalzitti said.

Giving credit where it’s due
Tour operators are beginning to do the same. The Globus family of brands began rolling out a secondary phone field program 20 months ago.

“We now know where that agent is, and what their level of booking is, so we can begin one-to-one communication at the local level, which helps them grow exponentially,” said director of sales Paula Hayes.

The change is also key to resolving suppliers’ internal compensation issues that arise when a sales rep works with an independent agent whose host is located in another sales region.

“Now our BDMs get credit for the sales of the agent in their territory that’s affiliated with a host. That’s a game changer. That was a huge barrier,” Hayes said.

Trust issues?
Not all host agencies are keen on giving suppliers direct access to their independent agents. “It involves a very trusting relationship with the suppliers,” Friedman said.

But more and more hosts are willing.

“They see that by doing that we are able to touch them, meet with them face to face and give them access to things like ship tours and local training,” said Scalzitti.