Homeworking travel agency Not Just Travel is targeting closer ties with suppliers amid plans to double in size this year.
The company, one of the largest members of Hays Travel Independence Group, held its first Partners Day at the Radisson Blu hotel in Heathrow last week. It was attended by about 80 companies, including operators, hoteliers and tourist boards. The event outlined ways suppliers could work better with its 400-plus homeworkers.
Co-founder and managing director Steve Witt said the company aimed to double sales revenue this year and recruit a further 200 homeworkers.
His long-term goal is to reach 1,000 agents by 2020.
Part of this will be achieved by forging a better understanding with suppliers and encouraging them to partner with the agency through an incentive scheme, live streaming of industry updates and sales training for agents, webinars, trips and training events.
Witt said: “Two years ago we were banging on the doors of these suppliers and they didn’t know us from Adam; now it’s the other way round and we want to thank them for supporting us.
“About 95% of our homeworkers have never worked in travel before. Suppliers are used to working with agents with travel experience and make assumptions our agents know how to sell their product. We have given them pointers. We don’t want their standard presentation; we have created templates on the best way to educate our agents.”
Suppliers have been invited to some of the agency’s 10 training events this year and to get involved in live streaming events.
The impact of supplier incentives will be carefully measured as part of targeted campaigns, said Witt.
“Every event will have a campaign linked to it so we can track and demonstrate to suppliers our results,” he added.
Not Just Travel has also launched a revamped website with improved content, including videos.
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