CRUISE EXECS GIVE
YOU TIPS FOR TURBOCHARGING CRUISE SALES
When it
comes to cruises, more is more. Sell
more, earn more. But how, exactly, do
you unearth new cruise prospects and kick-start your cruise sales?
We turned to
several top cruise line executives to pick their brains. After all, they know which agents are
stand-out sellers and what they do to reach those lofty sales levels. Here is their advice
Cruise lines
and host agencies today offer home-based travel agents a wide array of sales
and marketing tools and advice.
“My
number-one piece of advice is to leverage the marketing you’re getting from
Cruise Lines and AARC host agency,” says Dondra Ritzenthaler, senior vice
president of sales for Celebrity Cruises.
“You need to
make sure that you’re taking advantage of not only the marketing tools they
give you but also the marketing tools that we give you. We have a travel agent resource center that
is your one-stop shop for all your marketing needs.
“It has
e-kits, how to dell, how to prospect, how to promote FIT and groups, but also
incentive groups. It gives you a whole
how-to-sell-from-home in one stop.”
Ritzenthaler
adds, “Then we have what we call the Trade Show in a Box, and it has everything
you need in order to produce your own tradeshow. It literally walks you through, step by step,
on how you can have a very successful cruise night.”
What’s more,
Ritzenthaler says, the electronic quote function in www.cruisingpower.com is proven to
increase your chances of closing the sale.
“When our
travel partners send an e-quote, they close that deal 40 percent more often
than when they don’t,” she says. “It’s
very condensed and tells them everything they need to know. It’s personalized to that particular agency,
so it’s all buttoned up right there for you.
It makes the consumer react.”
Paul Davis,
President of AARC host agency, agrees that most cruise lines want to help.
“Any travel
agent who is looking to grow cruise sales is someone we value. We’re there in whatever way they want to be
helped, from online support to face-to-face meetings, from over the phone to
interaction with our senior executives,” he says.