Travel Agency Telemarketing Script
By: Wendy Miranda, VP Sales & Marketing - HP Hotels
Objectives: To find out what companies they are booking for into your market.
Build relationship with agents to encourage more bookings.
Introduction
Purpose of Call
Gain Approval
Qualifying
(asking open ended
questions - feel your way to
know how many you can
ask -get the main ones you
want to know first)
Good morning. This is (name), the Director of Sales with the
Hilton Garden Inn -Pineville located near Charlotte, NC.
I am calling to introduce myself and to thank your agency for the
business you continue to book at our hotel. Who I am speaking
to? Can I speak to your Office Manager? (gain approval step w/
Manager if possible, if not speak go ahead and speak to agent but
do get the Office Manager’s name, direct line and email if
possible).
Hi _____, thank you for taking time to speak with me today. I
know you are very busy so I will be respectful of your time.
Your agency has booked about ____ room nights with our hotel
this year. Are you familiar with our location? Charlotte NC?
(confirm location again if necessary). We are so appreciative of
this business. I do need your help today. Can I ask you a few
questions? First, as the Director of Sales for this property, I try
and reach out to travel agents like you to build a relationship just
as I do our customers. After all, you make my job a great deal
easier so I want you to know me so you can pick up the phone
and call me when you need something or need special assistance
with your clients. Additionally, our hotel is happy to pay
commissions so there is no agenda with this call but to simply
find out more about your agency and the companies you are
booking for so we can better understand who our guests are and
what brings them to our area. Can you provide this information?
The better we know your clients, the better service we can
provide them which helps us both.
(Other questions – get as much info as possible – it may take
several calls to get it all depending upon their time) - Do you
book mainly corporate or leisure? What companies do you book
for into the Pineville/Charlotte area? Do you know what brings
this to this area? Do you book other brand hotels in this area as
well? Do these companies hold meetings or is it mainly room
night needs only? What is the percentage of the mix of your
business? Do you have travel managers in your office that handle
certain accounts? Does your office mainly work off of
commission or do you have certain accounts where you need a
good net rate? Can you give me examples of companies that
prefer a net rate verses a commissionable rate. Maybe I can help
you with this. How many agents do you have in your office?
Currently I show that your agency typically books our $ ____ rate
and we pay the 10% commission. I have a few Iata#s from recent
bookings. Is there anyway that I can get the names of each agent
under these numbers so I can send them a thank you note and a
sales packet with our hotel information. (get their names so you
Present
Close
can also call back and speak to them individually and build
rapport to find out more info about companies they are booking).
As I mentioned our hotel has received about ____ room nights
YTD. We feel like you and the other agents need to be aware of
new exciting brand amenities that we are rolling out very soon
that include the new bedding that will be completed in
December.....explain it. Touch on key amenities including your
meeting space at your hotel. Ask again if it will be ok to send the
agent you are speaking to the information as well and tell them
you have a gift for them for taking their time.
1. Can we schedule a time that I am come to your office, bring in
some refreshments for all the agents and share information with
your agents. I would like to do a mini presentation and hand out
information.
2. A visit to your office would be something I would really like
to do if you were local, however, I will like for you to consider
allowing me to.... (few options: phone conference call to do a
mini presentation and send them goodies before hand including
baked goods and sales collateral so it arrives before presentation;
send them sales presentation on CD to key agents booking your
hotel along with a hotel gift/thank you card; email sales
presentation and send a sales packet w/ business card and hotel
gift.
How to use:
Travel Agencies booking your hotel may have other potential clients that would be a fit as well so
they are often times a great source for building current business and generating new leads. It is
not common for hotels to build good solid relationships with agencies because they are a little
more difficult to connect with, mainly because they are busy and they think you have other
motives. They do not want to be cut out of commissions or for you to steal their customers. Be
mindful of this and work diligently to earn their trust.
The best mix is when you have a relationship with both the company and the agency that books
their business. Let the customer decide if they want a net rate or if they prefer to let the agency
earn commission. Some agencies get fees from the client and can take a net rate.