3/2016
THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS 4
EDITORIAL
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VIDEOBLOCKS Special Offer – Save 90%
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THINKING INSIDE THE BOX
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20 E-GUIDES OFFERING HUNDREDS OF IDEAS
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SELLING CUSTOMER SERVICE
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FULFILLING YOUR PROMISES
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THE YEAR OF THE PROFESSIONAL – THE TRAVEL INSTITUTE
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TAKING THE CURVE
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DE-CLUTTERING YOUR MARKETING PLAN
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POSITIONING YOUR AGENCY
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GILLICK’S WORLD
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THE JOHARI WINDOW
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READ MORE ME HERE!
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MORE IDEAS HERE!
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CLASSIFIEDS
The DESIRE to travel starts early and continues throughout one’s life – are you marketing to Generation Z?
Share your money making ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. CONTACT Steve Crowhurst steve@sellingtravel.net 250-738-0064 www.sellingtravel.net
Publisher: SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net
Contributors Steve Crowhurst, Anthony Dalton, Steve Gillick.
Attention Suppliers: Advertising in SELLING TRAVEL reaches the serious business-minded travel agent. Promote your products and services using Selling Travel’s unique promotional formula – you write the articles on how to sell your own products offering step-by-step selling tips, tools and techniques that you know have worked for your agency accounts. Full page rates range from $300 to $425 based on number of insertions. Remember, if you can’t sell it to them, they can’t sell it for you! Please note that Selling Travel, owned and published by SMP Training Co, is not connected in any way to Selling Travel magazine published by BMI Publishing Ltd., and based in the UK. The latter publication focuses entirely on destination and travel/tourism product training and is circulated solely to the UK and Ireland travel industries. To benefit from this resource visit www.sellingtravel.co.uk and be sure to subscribe.
SELLING TRAVEL is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. SELLING TRAVEL can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in any way monetized. Using any images or content from SELLING TRAVEL must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net” SMP Training Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada, V9K-1G1 Note: Steve Crowhurst is not responsible for outcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. T: 250-738-0064.
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10/29/13 2:18 PM
SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS
Steve Crowhurst, Publisher
ON THE MOVE! At the time of writing this issue of Selling Travel I am moving homes. I know you’ve been there and packed that and that’s exactly what’s going on here and now. Up to my neck in boxes and packing tape! When you pack, you tend to enter a Zen like state of mind and in that fog I came to think about the need to move in a business sense, especially when it comes to selling travel. It pays to move in terms of what you are selling and focused on. It pays to move whatever you do, up a notch. Take customer service for instance… how good is yours? Could it use dusting off and a polish? Could you de-clutter certain aspects of your sales and marketing plan? Do you have a collection of stuff or ideas that have never seen the light of day? Is it time to purge the old ways and grab hold of the new? Should you be thinking inside the box as opposed to outside? Well you’ve got an idea as to what this issue of ST is all about. Let’s get busy and generate some new business opportunities by moving and shaking your current business model here and there to sharpen the ROI. Don’t forget you have a series of e-Guides you can purchase from The Travel Institute that will help you move ahead in most things related to selling travel. Here’s to your continued success in SELLING TRAVEL. Best regards. Steve Crowhurst, CTC, CTM Hon. steve@sellingtravel.net www.sellingtravel.net
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One of my favourite topics to train on and it’s much easier than thinking outside the box. Thinking INSIDE the Box for a travel agent is where company tools and creativity come together. You just have to know what those tools are.
Before we get to those tools let’s quickly explore the Thinking OUTSIDE the Box model. The phrase itself has become a metaphor for thinking somewhat differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to creative thinking, however it is overused by management consultants and senior management and an activity that can cost you an arm and a leg whether the plan goes well or not. Thinking OUTSIDE is often taken literally and interpreted to mean buying talent, new equipment and even expanding the premises. You get the picture. Very few companies or individuals think outside the box without spending money.
Conversely the SMP model, Thinking INSIDE the Box, makes use of the existing tools and talents and here’s the key point: hardly any company makes use of all the tools and talent at their disposal. It’s true. When you ponder this for yourself, go back in time to when you worked for someone else, you will know that management hardly listened to the talent they had hired. Employees gave up ideas that never made it to the discussion table. It’s just one of those things inherent in corporate life and now in small business life too. So you learn from this OUTSIDE the box thinking and you go INSIDE to find the gems. Let’s take a look inside that box that you have access to.
Thinking INSIDE the Box means to know and to use as is, change to suit, blend, update, turn to a new use the tools you currently own, the tools of your host agency, association, your suppliers, and your own talents. Your box is jam packed with “stuff” and we haven’t even tapped the combined knowledge as yet of everyone on your “team”. Your team includes you of course, plus each and every colleague in your group, franchise, consortium, host, friends and social connections. So far not a new dollar invested. That is a huge library of knowledge that’s available whenever you need it. Your “cost” would be an email or a phone call.
They are yours to use, IF you intend to sell the brand that owns the tools. How are we doing? Do you see in your own mind how large this box is? Are you aware of all the tools in this box? Do you know the skills and talents of your colleagues, of the HQ team, of your supplier BDMs, of your host’s BDMs? The bells are ringing I know. They always do. You’re thinking to yourself, “Holy bookings, how can I ever get to know about and use all of these tools?” What a nice challenge to have. So many money making tools at your disposal and no time to use them all. What you do first is make a list. List each and every tool in the box and make sure you know where to find them and how to use them. Once that list is completed, you can analyze how you will use them, or not. To help you analyze the changes you might invoke, let me introduce this decision making grid.
Next we check out the tools that your agency / host agency provides and generally we’re talking about marketing know-how, plans and activities that are happening whether you partake or not. Your preferred suppliers also have dozens of tools in their box, and you are always invited to play with them.
THE SMP THINKING INSIDE THE BOX MODEL WHO
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
WHY
SUBSTITUTE COMBINE ADAPT MODIFY PURPOSE ELIMINATE REARRANGE
Type in your challenge here and apply the W5-SCAMPER model to your thinking, planning and revamping.
HOW
Here is the description of your decision-making headings: SUBSTITUTE: Replace your current sales / product focus with something else. COMBINE: Consider how a combination of products / strategies might boost sales. ADAPT: Change some part of your marketing strategy to include / exclude social media, old media. MODIFY: Revise the attributes of your salesmarketing-business plan. PURPOSE: Think about what your promotion is supposed to do. Refocus, repurpose. ELIMINATE: Remove elements of your plan that reduce sales / marketing functionality.
WHO: Helps you identify individuals and groups who might be prospects for your travel idea or those who can help you i.e. suppliers, colleagues etc. WHAT: Helps identify all the things involved in this action: the requirements, difficulties, rewards, red tape, numbers, specifications… WHEN: Schedules, dates, durations, start times, milestones, checklists… WHERE: Places, locations, focal points, departments, processes… WHY: Helps identify the understanding and reasoning behind the action.
HOW: Identifies how the situation developed, REARRANGE: Change directions. Recreate. Turn it actions taken, to be taken, steps for success, upside-down, inside-out. Reverse it, modify the process, implementation… order of operations or any other hierarchy involved.
Next Step: Decide what your sales or marketing challenge is. Review each W5 heading and make your notes such as WHO is involved (clients, suppliers, staff) then continue on to WHAT and through to HOW. The next step in the process is to review your W5 notes as you apply each of the SCAMPER headings. Questions that pop up might be: should you substitute one brand for another, should you examine the purpose of your promotion – is it to drive sales by email or drive prospects to your website? Could you, should you combine this promotion with another? Using this decision making model is not a quick win. It will take many hours for you think through each combination. The outcome will be worth it and you will be more than confident that you have indeed been thorough in reviewing your idea or plan, noting the upsides and the downsides. You are good to go. If in doubt, ask a colleague to review your work with you. The end result will be a page full of ideas that you must then prioritize and re-write into a doable timeline. Thinking INSIDE the box will become second nature and you will speed it up over time. Better if you can work with a colleague to bounce the ideas around, to question them, and then decide on your plan. At the end of the day, you should be implementing your new plans without much financial investment. Better than those million dollar outside the box ideas! If you have any questions about using this grid you can contact me here.
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It’s true. Service has become a product and it should be marketed just like any other product you sell. It is a product you have complete control over. The type and level of service you deliver is usually customer driven. The more they demand the higher your level of service. Although every travel agency believes their service to be better than what the competition offers, in most cases the services are the same. The difference if any, is the level of delivery. In many cases, customer service will beat out price. How about that? Let’s find out how you do this.
What do you do for your clients? What do you offer them in the name of service? Can you list the features and benefits of what you offer under your customer service plan? If you do not have a list, stop now and start one. Once you determine what services you can actually offer and deliver then you have the makings of a product called customer service… the DAZZLING kind. The Dazzle comes into play when you can actually make good on everything you promise your customers and like the image to the left, the customer can “hear” your smile. That’s a skill you need to develop. Smiling on the phone. What Your Service Model Should Include Your service model must include accessible customer service, social media customer service and other levels of customer service that are aligned with your specific client base. Accessible Customer Service can be as easy as using large print in your e-mails and specific web pages, too. The text colour can be a quick win. Red or pink on gray cannot be read easily by most people let alone someone who is colour-blind. Building a wheelchair ramp to enter your agency might be required. Clearing snow from the agency front door is a service (and bylaw) requirement. Sell it: “We make booking travel Accessible to ALL!” Sell it: “We Clear The Snow, So You Can GO!”
Your meet & greet skills also sells your service. That smile in person, on the phone or the written version in your emails and texting. Selling the smile can work. Also the placement of your brochure rack and the functionality of your website constitutes a level of service. Make it easy to do business with you. Make it easy to enjoy your service. Any action or activity that requires effort from your customer is not helping you sell your customer service product. Review with your agency team to plot the best of all outcomes then train everyone on the team to produce that desired outcome each time every time. You are working towards DAZZLING your clients with your customer service and that means 100% of effort. Not 110%. Not going the extra mile. When you say that, it means you were not doing your job in the first place. Of course you go the extra mile. That’s just part of the Dazzle. You might read a little retro service and buy "Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge" lots to learn there I am sure.
Once you have your customer service plan in place with all staff trained to the Dazzle level, then you can promote your service as if it was a revenue product – which it is if you charge service fees. If you do not charge fees, then we need a serious chat!
The jury is still out as to whether or not the retail travel industry is a sales or service business. I lean towards sales industry. I believe that DAZZLING customer service is a component of the sales process. After I’ve delivered a DAZZLING sales experience my DAZZLING customer service continues. Without a sale, you have nothing to service. If you service that sale, you will win back that original client for their next trip and grow referrals, too. How about you? Is this a sales or service industry?
There are some people who just do not understand their service role. It could be that they have not been trained properly or harbour a certain point of view about servicing a fellow human being. Action Item: Ask your team to create service benchmarks for themselves. Complete a walk through based on the customer’s service path and decide the service criteria for each stop along that path. Your criteria should match what your advertising, website and social media promise. From the moment a customer makes contact with you, your agency, the customer service plan should click into gear and do so at a DAZZLING level. Not everyone has the talent to fulfill their service role. There are travel agents who are excellent at selling and poor at servicing and vice versa. The challenge is this: no one has the luxury of one without the other – which means everyone on your team must be well rounded as the sales person and the provider of customer service. What’s Your Promise? Have you promised your clients anything? Is there any statement or offer that purposefully or inadvertently offers a promise to your clients? Your clients will know whether or not you do - so you’d better check if you are not sure.
The ‘promise’ is usually found in your company name, your slogan, your social media content and very often hinted at during conversation. If your tag line includes the word experts, or #1 in… or one of your team said, “… it will all go well, I promise…” then you have made a commitment to which you and everyone on the agency team must now live up to. If you have a documented Mission Statement, Vision Statement, a Customer Service Statement, a corporate slogan or Pledge on your agency wall, then these are all promises you must deliver on. As you can tell, the service benchmarks are now forming and each one must be fulfilled. During staff meetings, ask the team, one by one, did you achieve what we promise? Did you achieve the benchmarks we all agreed on? If things are not working out you cannot downgrade the promise! You must upgrade the skills of your agency team so they are comfortable in fulfilling their service role. Start by deciphering how many promises you make. Are they all necessary? Can they be rolled into one promise? Both team and customer input can help here. Important: When you make changes to what you promise, be sure to update all documents, web pages, social pages etc. Check for old content which damages your reputation.
The Travel Institute celebrates YOU, and has declared 2016 to be
“The Year of the Travel Professional” We celebrate our certified graduates, as well as those who dedicate themselves to continued education and ongoing professional development. And this year, we support you with a full year of webinars, promotional events, and other training opportunities to keep you positioned as a trusted source for professional travel advice. Professional pro·fes·sion·al — prəˈfeSH(ə)n(ə)l/ (of a person) engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. Kicking off the celebration is our “Advice from the Experts” webinar series that started on February 17th. Free for members ($19.99/session for non-members) this 10 week series will delve into some of those foundational issues that those who are new to the industry will be facing – as well as a great refresher for those who are industry veterans. The presenters chosen for this series are true leaders in their respective areas of expertise and include: Joanie Ogg, CTC, MCC, Carol Parsons, Anne MacIntyre and Nolan Burris.
For over 50 years, The Travel Institute has been the industry’s source for the industry’s most recognized professional certifications. The Certified Travel Associate (CTA) focuses advanced training in the area of sales and customer service and can be earned by individuals with a minimum of 18-months work experience. The Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) has been the gold standard for top counselors and has evolved to be the designation favored by those in management positions – in their own companies or part of larger organizations. The Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) is leadership training for today’s travel professional and is the newest addition to the certifications offered.
What your colleagues are saying: We have enjoyed a long and productive partnership with The Travel Institute. Their certification and specialist programs have enhanced our overall training offering for both Nexion and Travel Leaders of Tomorrow. We look forward to growing this partnership in the years ahead. Jackie Friedman, CTIE, President Nexion, LLC My testing and preparation to receive the Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) serves as a heads up to my colleagues that they are dealing with a person who is experienced, ethical and knows what they do, with accomplishments to prove it. I urge my colleagues to certify to the level that best suits their current skills within the industry. I am quite proud of those four letters, worked hard for them, and they are noticed! David Vass, CTIE, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Cruise Business & Operations Abercrombie & Kent Destination Management I encourage each of our agents to plan on taking advantage of the Travel Institute’s certification programs early in their career. The programs are thought provoking, extensive and offer a wealth of information to help them become more effective as a Travel Professional. As the Director of Operations, it has been very rewarding not only taking the courses and certifications myself, but watching the growth of our agents as they complete the certifications and utilize what they have learned to further grow their business. Laura Schiely, CTA, Kingdom Magic Vacations I encourage continued education for all of my travel agents whether it is attending the yearly Virtuoso Week or getting their CTA certification from the Travel Institute. I require all full time employees to have their CTA or CTC certification and to take travel related webinars to keep current. I am working with the Travel Institute to educate my employees and independent contractors to better serve our clients. John Upchurch, CTA Candidate Owner/Advisor - Odyssey Travel
As a travel agent one of your roles is to watch the curve and know when to take it without crashing into the barrier. That curve is the Bell Curve and every agency or department will reach it at some point in time. The ‘curve’ is that bend in your business road and it comes at a time when your business has peaked and you are driving towards the crossroads wondering what to do next. Here’s the graph:
You will be very familiar with the start up and growth phase if you were the original manager who launched the agency for yourself, or the company that you work for. Somewhere along the way your agency will max out, the sales flatten. At this point in the life of your agency you have one or two options. At #1 you could re-think your business and decide to change, add, subtract or merge what could keep you profitable, or what could make you more profitable. Once you initiate a ‘more profitable’ plan you will endure the start up and growth phrase once again PLUS somewhere along that new line, you will flatten out and at #2, you will need to once again, rethink your business model and what you are selling and to whom. Both 1 and 2 moments in time, require new ideas. A new plan must be written.
That new plan may not be too ambitious other than “to train all staff in how to sell more cruises…” and that could be the turning point. You might decide to sell luxury travel, however if you do not have a luxury client base established, then your business will curve towards #3. To stay ahead of the curve you should meet often with your team to discuss the ‘where are we going next’ topic and how you could all get there. Keeping the curve going in the right direction does not have to be expensive either. A little training, a decision to charge fees, a move to a social media platform, writing a blog or hosting consumer events – all of these are ideas that can keep you profitable and on the right side of that upward trend. Study now when that curve will swerve for your agency and plan ahead.
Do you want to move your sales totals UP and to a level that pays more commission? Yes of course you do. Silly question. Decluttering your marketing plan will pay dividends and to do this you’ll want to take an inward and a backward look to determine what didn’t work and what activities you paid for that went nowhere. When sales are walking in the door and closing themselves which means the customer contacts you without any form of promotion from you, tells you they want to travel and asks you to book their trip for them. Oh heavenly joy! That’s how it was so many years ago. Things changed. Today you have to be well honed in so many promotional outlets that it can become overwhelming, confusing and frustrating especially after planning, arranging and investing your hard earned commission to realize no sales. What generally happens then is an all-out assault on all things related to travel advertising. We go here, we go there, we do newspapers, radio, flyers, social media, email and on it goes to realize only one or two bookings at most. And now we are flat broke and with little to show for it. So time to sit back, take five and review. The Big Reveal First things first: do not fall in love with your own hype. We’re in sales and it is well known we sales people tend to hype things up. Just a tad. But we do. When you hear yourself saying inwardly after selling three cruises, “I sold dozens of cruises last week…” better kick your own butt and realize, ya didn’t!
Got to keep it real if you truly want to move ahead. You must look at what you’ve actually achieved through your marketing activities and make the changes where needed. Forget giving away “stuff” as in anything that is a cost to you in order to win business. Give things away AFTER the client has booked and paid. Email is still your number one form of promotion. In fact it’s all you really need, IF you have a secure list of clients who have given you permission to send them emails. The customer list then is the most important aspect of your business. Perhaps you should concentrate on building your email list before trying to sell travel? Take a breather for two months and get busy attracting people to sign up, register, make contact, join the club, join your event… attract and close the person to be on your list. NOW you have someone to sell to. Segmenting and Surveying The List Once you have a few hundred people on your list who are actual travellers – remove the armchair travellers – again keep it real, then you can focus your marketing plan. You’ll want to know your customers travel habits plus where and when the want to go.
The Social Media Choice The world has gone social that we know. It’s a good idea to participate. The only social media outlet you need is Facebook. Keep your social media plan to one platform. That way you can manage it. Advise your list that Facebook is your preferred social media outlet and you use Facebook to market your travel products. This is not a chit-chat connection. You intend to monetize when you socialize. Tell your list and add this comment to your promotions: Like our Facebook page to receive advance notice of special travel promotions!
The Video This media has to be factored into your decluttered marketing plan. Video is now and has been for a while the only way to showcase travel products. Pay attention to your supplier’s use of video and follow their example. Start your YouTube Channel and save your suppliers video to your own channel plus upload your own video content. Once you have a few videos saved to your YouTube channel you can start to market the links. Watch this video and DREAM!
The Travel Event This one activity, can help declutter your overall marketing plan. It means you arrange a time and place to talk about yourself, your services and present your travel products. The marketing then is to promote your event and attract an audience. From a room full of fifty people or you may be surprised and have 200 people turn up, you can quickly determine who is a genuine prospect for your travel services and the niche markets you sell to. There is a small cost to hosting a 90 minute travel workshop, seminar, or whatever you would like to call it. Use your agency window and website to promote your event, send out emails, and post on your Facebook page too. Place and ad in your local community newspaper and also post a notice around the community at the library for instance. Toughen Up! Travel is a glorious product to sell, but it is a tough sale when the world is doing what it is doing. This too you must get a grip on. Some places although wondrous, are now dangerous, at least for the moment. There are home grown destinations that can be explored and there are adventures to be found in distant places untouched by terror and unrest. Do your due diligence and then focus on what you find. Beware the Latest Fad I’ve written about this in previous issues of ST and also in CT magazine. Do not get persuaded to jump on any “fastest growing” comments and pour your marketing money into a bottomless pit. Stay with the tried and true.
Click the image to review my Go Video eBook.
Your Revised Marketing Plan Follow the advice and declutter, then focus on building your client list, host events and sell YOU first. Add in your own creative ideas and go for it!
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To position your agency in the best possible light (image) you must be 100% aware of the latest promotional materials, latest venture, latest products, promotions, destinations, giveaways, specials and deals that your agency, the competition and your preferred suppliers are offering.
If you work for a chain organization you cannot position your agency against the company theme, you must support it. If you are independent but part of a consortium the same comment applies. If you are truly independent then you can push the message that conveys the positioning you desire. POSITIONING YOUR
LEISURE
Based on what you know, How Well Is Your Agency Positioned in the Local Marketplace? Rate your image on a scale of 1 to 5 with five being excellent. Write a brief note to support your rating. The single word “good” won’t do justice here. Try to explain the level and acceptance of your positioning. GROUP
NICHE
CORPORATE
Price Image Knowledge Image Customer Service Image Follow Through Image Reservations Image Quality Assurance Image Website -Online Image Social Media Image Management Image
Your Overall Image
“Give them quality – that’s the best kind of advertising in the world!”
How did you do? Are you well positioned or not? Big question to ponder and the reason you must and should ponder this is simple: you’ll sell more travel if you are positioned so that the consumer gets what it is you are really all about. As mentioned above, the independent travel agent has a full say in how to position themselves and the travel agent working for a company owned by someone else, does not. You could position yourself as the cheapest, the most expensive, the friendliest, the most knowledgeable and on it goes. There is a tendency to seek the lower pricing rungs in a mistaken view that you will attract more eyes, hearts, minds and wallets. Once attracted, you can up the price. Not such a good strategy as you become known by how you are positioned. Promote cheap tickets and that’s you. You are the cheap-o agency and no high flying first class traveller will come near you. Promote expensive tours and the middle of the road traveller will not bring their $1000 to your desk. Tough decision isn’t it. Here’s how you do it. First you must decide on what it is you are selling. It is price, product, service, your knowledge… what is it? What sets you apart from the rest? Once you get a grip on the answer to that question then you can decide which segment of the travelling consumer you wish to serve. To recap then: we now have our product or service and we also know who we want as clients and at what price level we want to sell. Walking the Positioning Talk So well done. Can you actually deliver on your positioning promise?
For sure, to retain your credibility you must be able to walk the talk. If you are the BEST agency to book a cruise with, then you should be able to prove it. If you are the BEST agency for booking to Hawaii, or planning a wedding, then you should be able to prove it. Position Based Marketing This refers to how you push yourself out to your clients and would-be customers. Your marketing must be seen as a reflection of you and how you want to be perceived. If for instance you trot about town and the local community in a tatty old pair of nondescript jeans then this will not match your luxury travel persona you have spent time and money to build. Your website should be a zinger! This is where so many travel agents lose it all. When the customer clicks to your website to check you out they want you at your BEST. Sadly, and all too often, they do not get what you promote. A lousy website will crunch all your hard work. How You Write, Speak, Look and… Meeting you in the flesh should be an experience for you client. Will they find a fascinating person who has travelled the world, who can recount and regale with anecdotes about their travels? If not, then you come across as fake. A phony. Are You Ready? Get Set… Here you go. You are on your mark and time is zipping past. Time to think about taking yourself to market and whether or not you are indeed positioned to make a difference. Take a hard look at larger firms. Check out their slogans. What are they saying? What’s their story? How are they positioned and is it true? Do you believe it? Use the information you find to better position yourself.
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The Johari Window is a technique created by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955 in the United States, and it is used to help people better understand their relationship with self and others. Using the Johari Window as a discussion point in your agency will disclose how well the team is aware of each other, you as the manager, the company, the corporate plan and it’s direction. Then, as a group you will also discover what you NEED to know in order to keep the business edge you have developed and keep it sharp. It is also worth doing this by yourself. In the Graph 1 all elements are even. There are things we all know and things we don’t know and things we should know and have yet to find out what they are. In the Graph 2 you can see that Box 1 has shrunk in terms of what we all know and Box 4 is now suggesting as a team we have a lot to learn IF we knew what it might be. Box 3 is the danger zone as it is here that information is withheld and not always for the good of the agency.
1
KNOWN TO ME
UNKNOWN TO ME
1. KNOWN TO OTHERS
In this box we all know what is going on.
3. In this box I/we hold the UNKNOWN trump card. I know TO OTHERS something that no one else does.
2
KNOWN TO ME
4. In this box there are things we should all know, but we don’t.
UNKNOWN TO ME
1. 2. KNOWN In this box we all TO OTHERS know what’s going on. 3. In this box I/we hold UNKNOWN the trump card. I TO OTHERS know something that no one else does.
2. In this box everyone else knows what is going on, but I / we don’t.
In this box everyone else knows what is going on, but I / we don’t.
4. In this box there are things we should all know, but we don’t.
The best of all worlds would be to have Box 1 large, indicating we, as a team are operating openly and with all or most of the information we need, known to all. Box 2 should be reduced, Box 3 should be reduced and Box 4 should also be reduced. Check the next page for how this desired graphic would look.
Graph 3: Here’s the Johari Window layout you are trying to reach. Most of the time we know as a team what’s going on. As an individual on the team, there are still a few things I don’t know about and that could be solved by someone showing me how, where to access information or perhaps I just need a kick in the rear end to focus my attention and commitment to maintaining my knowledge. The danger area Box 3 has been reduced, and in Box 4 we will always need to find out what we need to know and appoint someone to gather that research and advise everyone on the key findings. KNOWN TO ME
3
UNKNOWN TO ME
1. OPEN
KNOWN TO OTHERS
In this box we all know what’s going on.
3. HIDDEN UNKNOWN TO OTHERS
2. BLIND
In this box I/we hold the trump card. I know something that no one else does.
In this box everyone else knows what going on, but I / we don’t.
4. UNKOWN In this box there are things we should all know, but we don’t.
As you will appreciate I have delivered just the surface of how you can use the Johari Window. It can also be used to determine how I “see” you and how you “see” you. This is done by listing the following 56 adjectives as described on the next page. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
able accepting adaptable bold brave calm caring cheerful clever complex confident dependable dignified energetic
15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.
extroverted friendly giving happy helpful idealistic independent ingenious intelligent introverted kind knowledgeable logical loving
29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42.
mature modest nervous observant organized patient powerful proud quiet reflective relaxed religious responsive searching
43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.
self-assertive self-conscious sensible sentimental shy silly smart spontaneous sympathetic tense trustworthy warm wise witty
When performing this exercise, subjects are given a list of 56 adjectives and pick five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto the Johari grid. Open: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant and his or her peers are placed into this quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the subjects that both they and their peers are aware of. Blind: Adjectives that are not selected by subjects but only by their peers are placed into the Blind Spot quadrant. These represent information that the subject is not aware of but others are who decide how to inform the individual about these "blind spots". Hidden: Adjectives selected only by subjects but not by any of their peers, are placed into the Hidden quadrant, representing information about themselves that their peers are unaware of. It is then up to the subject to disclose this information or not. Unknown: Adjectives that were not selected by either subjects or their peers remain in this quadrant, representing the participant's behaviors or motives that were not recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply or because there is collective ignorance of the existence of these traits. One facet of interest in this area is our human potential. Often our potential is unknown to us, and others. For more information you can search online for Johari Window.
Another way to use the Johari Window is during a meeting to determine how much is known, what we need to find out to move ahead and so on. You would use the one page layout as an information gathering tool and actually write down, let’s say in Box 4 Unknown – a list of what you now know you need to know more about. In other words, you now know what you don’t know! Everyone in the meeting should have a copy of the Johari layout and fill it in as you hold the meeting, then you can compare notes. If you work with whiteboards, smart boards or flip charts appoint a ‘scribe’ who will record everyone’s response. Print off the finished document and circulate it so that ‘we all know’ what’s going on. 1. OPEN Find out what everyone knows
2. BLIND Make sure everyone is brought up to speed
3. HIDDEN Possible dangers: Top agent – selfish with skills that could be taught to everyone Holding out as a negotiating edge
4. UNKNOWN Possible Need To Know: Social media New suppliers Everyday news Latest this and that
Here’s where you find even more ideas on how to sell travel and boost your revenues. Ct is the destination information and how-to-sell trade magazine for travel agents and every article I write is always geared to new business generation for YOU and your suppliers. The content ranges from a step-by-step how-to article to a comment about a current topic. Many of the articles are worth reviewing with your suppliers should you be able to work together to generate that new dollar for all. Click here to read.
No other travel speaker / trainer has written and published more articles, e-Books, and magazines on new business generation for travel agents than Steve. With well over 375 published articles in CT, 20+ E-Books and 50 issues of Selling Travel, he has given you a source of timely and cutting edge tips, tools and techniques to help you sell more travel.
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