As mostly small-business entrepreneurs, we purchase products from suppliers, and we often act as their distributor. Sellers and suppliers have a long-established dance they do together. It has been that way for decades.
But the Digital Age has brought one important change between sellers and suppliers. It is now far more difficult for suppliers to find those who sell or distribute their product. The sellers are, as often as not, hiding in not-so-plain sight. Sellers of upscale travel products, particularly, have discovered (much to their bottom-line joy) that they can sell out of their home. Offices have become, for many, redundant.
Think of what can go wrong with an office location. It can actually be successful. "Success" once meant "busy," but those two terms no longer equate. Busy foot traffic means conversations and questions. Phones ringing in your home office more often mean business.
So the seller has adjusted rather well to the new business model. Whether they are hosted, helped or hot sellers on their own accord, agents have found that geography matters less now. There is no longer a need to ply a client with coffee and to ask about the family. The new traveler values time more than anything. They don't want a sit-down, they want a phone-down.
For the suppliers, the representatives, the sales reps and the owners of hotel properties, cruise lines and myriad travel services, this presents a problem. How do you go where the salespeople are if you can no longer find them? You certainly can't be showing up at their home for a sales call -- unless, of course, you are invited. We keep our home fairly tidy, but I'm not certain it will ever be up to standards that would enable me to feel comfortable with a sales call from the George V in Paris.
The fact that so many agents have abandoned the brick-and-mortar model has enhanced their status as independent entrepreneurs. Now, the goal of every independent agent is to provide outstanding customer service while attracting new clients. Unfortunately, suppliers are often at a loss as to how they can best help these agents achieve their sales goals.
Warren Buffett tells a story that has a good deal of application in our industry. He was approached by a young MBA student one day who talked about all the time and energy he was putting into studying the way the industry he wanted to pursue worked. He wanted to run the most successful business in his chosen field some day, and he wanted to know what he should be studying.
Buffett told the young man to approach entrepreneurship the same way he would approach dating and women.
You wouldn't waste time and energy reading about and researching how to understand a woman just to have a perfect kiss, Buffett reasoned. Just kiss her, he said: It will likely be awkward, and you will consider it a failure, but you'll have lots of fun trying, and one day you'll get it right.
I think that is the part of what we do that suppliers often miss. The fact is, most of us really do see ourselves as entrepreneurs, and we want our meetings with suppliers to be filled with "Shark Tank"-type possibilities. And we're really not afraid to make mistakes.
Because so many of us depend on our meetings with suppliers at annual or semiannual consortia or agency group meetings, I thought I'd offer suppliers specifics that might help them relate to the new breed of independent seller:
• Bring a contract of some sort, and try to get it signed. You want us to feature your product prominently. You want us to increase sales. OK. What are you going to be doing at your end to help us achieve that end? What marketing clout will you bring to the table? Let's have a discussion and try to get an agreement signed so it is perfectly clear what our responsibilities are, along with the rewards we will realize.
• If you are a hotelier, explain in detail how the name of our agency is used in the client's on-property welcome and gifting. How is your property an extension of our agency in the mind of the guest?
• When first meeting us, leave enough time to inquire, "If I were a client, why would I want to use your services?" It is a legitimate question, and it will help you understand the business model of the people you are addressing.
• Understand that we could not care less about crowd-sourced reviews of your product. But we care a great deal about independent professional inspection reports and evaluations. Bring us some of those.
• "If you were heading up our sales and marketing teams, what would you do to enhance sales in North America?" is a legitimate question for discussion. You won't get a lot of brilliant responses, but you might get one or two.
• Address the concerns of our clients that Americans will only make up a small minority of your guests. How do you cater to American sensibilities?
• Do not whip out your iPad unless we request it. We know how to use YouTube.
• Come prepared with the absolutely best one-week FIT itinerary that showcases your property or product. Consider a good FIT a kind of user's manual for what it is that you represent.
• Ask us what we do for a client that you don't do for a direct booking. You might be shocked at the response.
• Explain how you protect second direct bookings when we're the ones who introduced the guest to your product. That policy will tell us more about the kind of relationship you are seeking than almost anything else we might discuss.
• If you ever want us to personally experience your product, be specific and hand us something in writing. "Stop by if you're in the area" is not the way you build a serious relationship.
• Ask us why so many of your email communications from the marketing department are immediately deleted.
• Give us a "Who Ya Gonna Call" list, naming every company contact and explaining how they will be able to help us in an emergency and otherwise.
• Don't bring us silly little gifts ordered en masse from a products catalog. If you really want to help us sell your part of the world, bring us a copy of the best book ever written about your destination or a map that will help us know your geography.
• Don't be afraid to tell us of one or two things about your product that you would like to see improved. If everything is perfect from your perspective, we're not buying it.
• Bring us three new entrepreneurial ideas that might enable us to grow our business with you. You're out there with sellers of all kinds. We're insulated. What are your most successful sellers doing that we can emulate? Learn to share.
Let's try to make our first kiss meaningful.
Senior Contributing Editor Richard Bruce Turen was named a Superstar Generalist in Conde Nast Traveler's most recent list of Top Travel Specialists. He is the owner of luxury vacation firm Churchill & Turen and also owns and edits TravelTruth.com. Contact him at rturen@travelweekly.com.