Triton agents under the microscope

AGENTS from across the country have completed a painstaking month-long study to try to find out why some sell more holidays than others.

The results will be presented at Triton’s conference in Tenerife next month.

A total of 16 agencies from the three consortia which make up Triton are taking part in the study, with four staff in each agency measuring their work.

For the past four weeks, the agents have recorded the timings of every sale ­ from the moment a customer calls or walks in the door, to the moment a sale is closed or lost.

“It means we can start to see the average conversion rate,” said Advantage sales and marketing director Colin O’Neill. “The study will build up a huge bank of data. It might tell us whether there are things some agents are doing in the process that characterises them as better sellers, for example moving from the initial stage to the searching stage more quickly.”

The study, which has been carried out in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, officially ends today. Now all the data has been collected it will be collated, researched and analysed to find out key information such as at what point a sale is lost and the final net selling price.

“Generally, footfall is down, so although agents want to attract people through their doors, the conversion rate also becomes more important,” said Triton board director and managing director of Advantage John McEwan.

“This exercise will help us understand what the differences are between someone who is successful and someone who isn’t so successful.”

The findings are due to be presented to the Triton conference by PricewaterhouseCoopers head of business solutions Alan Morris on May 8.