Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies believes Travel Counsellors agents can “double their business” by following her advice, which includes identifying their unique selling point, focusing on their core customers and using social media effectively.
The entrepreneur, who has appeared in six series of the BBC programme, told the agency’s annual conference that agents needed to think about what made them unique and this should form the basis of their marketing.
By using social media successfully, she said, it was possible to turn clients into “raving fans” who would deliver more customers.
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However, she stressed it was important to vet any potential customers to avoid “time-wasters”.
“You’re a premium service and you don’t want customers who want somebody to find them the cheapest holiday,” she said.
It was vital for agents to use both Facebook and Instagram, she said, as those platforms will most likely be used by their current and future customers.
“The biggest tool we have is social media,” she said, urging agents to ensure their account names make it clear that they are travel agents.
She added: “If you had a personal account and it’s morphed into a business account, you need to clean it up. You can set up another account for your personal stuff if you want.”
Agents should be commenting on their clients’ holiday posts, she advised.
“You need to make sure that all their friends know you’re the person who booked their beautiful holiday,” she said, adding: “There’s no reason why every single one of you out there can’t double the size of your business.”
Travel Counsellors revealed it would be working closely with Davies over the coming year to help agents boost their sales.