IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN…
YOU AIN’T GOT NO PLAN!!
You can however get close to it. To do this, you must review your marketing activity, what was happening during the year in terms of weather patterns, supplier promotions and take a good look at last years over all performance. It’s possible that seasons have changed, the good weather might come earlier this year and so on. These are factors agency owners tend to miss. Today there is an economic shuffle going on, the planet seems to be shaking more than usual, the hurricanes are stronger, the ring of fire is on fire and so on. So much to consider but well worth it. Next you’ll want to study your BSP reports and your own internal reports to analyze where people in your province went and when, and then compare your own reports to masses. Was there growth in Canadians going to South America for instance? Did you miss out on this? Do you want to attract any of those travellers? How about Europe? Check the statistics on CLIA’s website and find our how many Canadians cruised last year, then check the provincial count. Now calculate your percentage of cruise sales against the number of people cruising from your province. What percentage did you sell? Any room for growth? Could you capture more? How many of your clients are likely to repeat what they did last year, this year. One way to study next years potential is to make contact with your clients and ask them in a survey, by email, or by telephone and always when face to face. You say, “We’re conducting a 2012 travel survey and would really appreciate your help… could you tell us if you are thinking about or planning a vacation in 2012 and if so, where do you plan on going and when…?” The answers, thinking and planning, so let’s rate those 30% chance for thinking and 60% chance for planning. You should have the destination or type of trip plus the month of travel. Yes it’s all up for grabs but most of this information is good information. Now you can plot the potential using MS Excel and create a 2012 graph of this information. It will show two lines, one for the 30% chance and one for the 60% chance. You can also combine all this data and graph the totals. This would give you a “What if” projection. Now you can start to plan how you will market your agency, your self, your services and your offers. Your marketing plan must drive the customer to call.
The Dream Trip Question Whenever you survey your clients, always include the dream trip question. It goes something line this: “If money and time were not a concern what would be your dream trip? Where would you like to go, what have you dreamed of doing” Many times people do not realize their dream trip is as close as tomorrow and also very affordable. Some dream trips are simply to visit Hawaii, other dreams are trekking somewhere, to look upon Mt. Everest, to have their picture taken in front of the Taj Mahal, to white water, to visit an ancestral place, take a religious tour and naturally…to go on a world cruise. Not one of those dream trips are out of reach and no one needs to wait until they retire. Get your dream trip started and work it until you have delivered on making everyone’s dream come true. The New Customer Plan At this stage you have reviewed and graphed past sales and you have also learned from your existing clients where they might want to go in 2012 and what their dream trip is. Now it’s time to plan for attracting additional clients to do business with you. Here you think about who you want, and the type of vacations you want to sell. You might include corporate travel, you might want to attract more groups, start a new niche. Here’s where you think and plan your new ideas. The Marketing Plan Let’s suggest that some of your 2011 clients will repeat in 2012, plus some of your 2010 clients will repeat in 2012 also. Overall you are expecting a pretty good revenue flow – however although all expenses might be covered, there is no profit. You’ll need to attract new customers. More boomers and or younger travellers. How young? Think on it. The so called Gen X’es are in their 40’s – not exactly young as in those potential customers in their mid 20’s. Depending upon your targeted new clients, you’ll need to adapt your marketing activities. Going for the twenty‐somethings will mean having more social media in your plan.