From earliest childhood, we are taught to listen to stories. We develop a real, active interest in the lead character of a tale. No doubt some people tell stories better than others. But the one story you should spend time writing and polishing is your own. Why are you in travel? What do you do? How do you do it? Have you ever had a really special moment traveling? What was it? Is that why you are a travel professionals? Did you travel with your parents? Why do you think people should travel? How have you spent the past 11 Covid-19 months? What has the past time period meant to you, to your clients? Finally, does your personal profile, which I assure you your clients read, tell your story well? Is it filled with political clap-trap? It is fine, if that it the story you have to tell, but your story is your agency’s story as well.
The process of thinking through your own story, of putting it together in a narrative form, will help you to better articulate and express your passion for travel. Practice will make it easier to convey images of travel to clients and to help them to understand the benefits of your recommendations.
Take some time out to write your own travel history, to put together your own story. Answer the questions above, and then later, come back and polish it a bit. Read it over. The value to knowing and rehearsing your own stories can not be over-stated. Your story reveals your passion for travel and it is your passion that sells you to clients.
Now, learn to tell the story by putting your client at the center. Can you describe a location or a trip so well your client can feel the wind, or see the sights while in your office? Tell your clients about the history of the destination, the people they will meet and the ideas they will experience and encounter. Make it real to them.
Tell them why you travel. Remind them of why they travel. It isn’t logistics, airplanes and ships, hotels and trains. There is something deeper, more emotive in the experience. Learn to express the experience.
Continually practice working with the art of describing sights and telling stories. Remember many buying decisions are based on emotional energy, and to the extent you can tell a story well, your clients will respond.
Why? Because we love stories, especially when we can identify with the hero’s passion. We somehow feel a part of it.
Your clients are the heroes of their own stories.
Learn to tell your story, and theirs, and to tell it well.
