How to Increase Sales and Productivity at sales fairs

Of course, all Danes have heard of Primo Tours. Tens of thousands have traveled with the successfully Danish travel agency. But how many have heard of Tourpaq?  

Nevertheless, Tourpaq is a big part of the foundation of Primo Tours' success; Tourpaq is the travel operator system that helps to ensure that you get a good experience both as a customer and as travel agency - from booking your trip until you return home.

More and more travel agencies have opened their eyes to what Tourpaq can do, and the system is now used by several travel agencies in Denmark and - judging by demand - is already well on its way to being sold in large parts of the world.

Tourpaq is dedicated to helping travel agencies get more customers and increase sales by providing simple solutions to automate the more complex processes of managing, selling and booking travel. Tourpaq provides a smooth and complete travel management system that improves employee efficiency in sales and operations and enhances customer experience both when booking online or by contacting sales.

In today’s blog, we will examine how the sales team at Primo Tours is using Tourpaq to drive up more sales in less time and do it more efficiently without compromising quality.

"Ferie For Alle" is a huge travel fair where guests who are seeking inspiration for their next vacation can visit travel agencies and book their vacation. This tends to be one of the year's big sales events, which can set the tone for the year's results. Therefore, all the travel consultants are also on their feet, prepared to sell as much as possible during the 3 days the fair takes place.  

I was speaking with one of our top sales leads, Maibritt, at PrimoTours the other day, and she let me in on a few things that have really helped her to close more deals. I’ve taken notes and created this post to share her CX wisdom with you. Let’s connect over these 5 Secrets for Increased Sales today, shall we?

Here you will meet Maibritt, one of the hardworking Primo Tours travel consultants. She can also be proud to be the travel consultant who has sold the most at this fair for the last 3 years, so we have asked her - What her secret is...

First of all, it's all about mind-set.

It is clear that we have one purpose being at the fair - we are here to inpire and to sell vacations. I’m surrounded by other travel agencies, and customers are eager to close the best deal therefore if the line of customers waiting infront of me gets too long, they will likely walk over to a competitor and to book their trip with them instead.

Therefore, I am very conscious that both service and speed is of an essence we have to be efficient while working. If there are many customers in the queue in front of me, I will make it a point to be extra efficient as we don’t want to lose our customers. When there are only 1 or 2 customers in the queue in front of me, then I can relax a bit more. However, it is necessary that I do not compromise on quality by keeping the customers waiting for too long or not giving them proper recommendations. Many of our returning customers enjoy talking to us and share good stories with us and we have to have time for this as well.

My first question to the customer is therefore always: Have you traveled with us before?

If the customer answers with a yes, I now I can work a little faster. If they haven't traveled with us before, it's an opportunity to get a new customer who will probably travel with us many times in the coming years. Therefore they need a little extra attention and be met with the service that is in all we do and quality and we will share with them a little of the history of PrimoTour's DNA.

Won't it hurt your business to prioritize customers in that way?

That's actually a common misconception. Actually, your company will get by far the most value by investing in the areas that create the greatest business value. Many of our customers actually list "good service" as one of their reasons for choosing our company. So it's not that customers experience a negative difference. They actually appreciate our ability to meet their needs for good advice when they need it. Therefore we can also allow our selves to spend a little extra time on getting new customers. And with Tourpaq we actually support the factor of delivering a personalized service - the customer just doenst fell thats its the system automatisations that provides the feeling of personalized communication.

How do you customize your dialogue with customers?

I use Tourpaq to get an overview of my customers’ past and planned trips and their preferences. That way, I can quickly search for information about a customer and his or her past experiences with us. If there have been any problems, it will be easy to see them and resolve them. That way, I can quickly track my way into what might be interesting for them to experience next time.  

What do customers typically want?

They come to the fair to get a good price.  

We constantly update our prices to reflect consumer demand. Since Tourpaq sets different discounts and displayed correctly online and in our back office, I don't have to worry about remembering all of the adjustments myself. I just focus on helping customers find the great deals and good departures that are available right now at the best price. Customers greatly appreciate having someone to help them find the best offers for their vacation wishes.

Do customers buy the trip at the fair?

Yes, the majority do. And then the automatization sets in. By paying with debit cards, mobile pay or gift cards right away, then Tourpaq do the rest. It all happens automatically, with payment of deposit, balance, sending out receipts, travel certificate and tickets. The typing I have to do is usually very limited. Only new customers need creating; otherwise, it might be 10 clicks before I have booked a trip to the customer and taken them through the sales process and adding possible upsales to increase the quality of their trip.

What's the best thing when visiting a fair?

We're able to send the tickets out to you in only 20 minutes. I'm not the one doing all the work of fixing payments and sending out tickets. Tourpaq does it, but customers are always surprised at how fast it goes. They always walk away with a smile, because they've just booked their next holiday - now the dream has been translated into a ticket in their mailbox and they can start looking forward to their next holiday. Meeting the customer face to face is always a great experience.

How many trips can you sell in a day?

At fairs, I can sell about 150-200pax a day, whether it's large family groups or individual couples. But I’m very busy and lunch and toilet breaks, among other things — is downgraded. As I said earlier, there is nothing more disappointing than seeing customers slip over to the competitor because I don’t reach them fast enough. So when customers are in line, I’m ready…

What's the best thing about Tourpaq?

It’s fantastic that I can respond to customer enquiries quickly – I have access to a lot of information and don’t have to spend time booking tickets or checking on departures, since all that information is already on our database. My colleagues have to do this kind of follow-up work when they return from a fair, so they don’t get back to the office until late in the evening. I get to come in straight away and celebrate our sales figures, which are visible in real time, then we can plan our future activities around those. There's a lot of learning from such events, not least understanding how popular certain destinations are by checking total sales figures for each seller and comparing them with Tourpaq data..

Next time you go on vacation?

Well, I've got that all set up – you can't help it when you're in this business. I am going on a combination trip to Sivota and Meganisi and maybe with a week of relaxation in one of the many villas in Greece that PrimoTours has available for sale.

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