268: The Sales Process for Enquiry Based Tourism Products

Welcome to the Digital Tourism Show Episode 268 and in this 5-min workshop, I am focusing on the sales process for enquiry based products.

This has been a question that has come up a lot lately, not just from our own customers but from other tourism business owners looking for this sort of advice online.

Although some of you reading may not believe this, the amount of potential revenue I see being flushed down the drain is frightening. So many potential customers are either not being contacted at all, or they only receive one form of communication and then are forgotten about.

The excuse I hear a lot is “I just did not have the time to contact everyone who enquires”.

Let me apologise in advance if what I am about to say seems blunt but it is absolutely essential to convert the leads generated from marketing — especially during the pandemic. “Having no time” is something I can sympathise with during this chaotic time. I am a business owner myself so I understand how busy things can be, but it seems counterintuitive to throw away potential revenue that your business could make.

I am sure we have all been there at some stage, but take a closer look at what you do on a daily basis. Really look hard at what you do. Could you spend 1 hour less watching your favourite show on Netflix if it meant you could close a few extra bookings? You probably could. Human beings are so good at procrastinating.

If you took some simple steps to rearrange your daily routine your business could perform better in many areas.

For example, in my business I have set up some automated tools to take care of the initial stages of my sales process. I also divide my day into chunks. I look at my email between 8am-9am and then later between 4pm-5pm. I spend a few hours helping my team with our own customers and then the last few hours on my business, creating strategies, looking at new opportunities as well as writing my thoughts about the industry, including this very guide you are reading now. The day-to-day is delegated to my team.

I may be preaching to the converted here, but it really does help when trying to stay on top of sales leads to schedule in a section of structured activity each day, focusing on any leads generated.

Dedicating even just one hour on sales per day can make all the difference. With this episode, my hope is that it can show you how to interact with your potential customer in an automated way, with just a few in-person touch points along the way. Not only that, I have provided a basic process guide and email templates that you can use today.

Over the next 5 days, and following my guide, I would like you to go through your sales process and see how you can make improvements.

On day 1, check all your enquiry forms on your site are set up correctly and ask the right questions.

On day 2, Set-up the automated emails to your email platform of choice.

Day 3, If you wish to try Facebook Form ads, set this up, targeting the right audience. My book, Lookers into Bookers, which you can download for free, provides advice on how to create Facebook Ads.

On Day 4, Using Zapier, connect your website form(s) and Facebook forms to your email platform and test that this works. Guides on how to set up Zapier, and other platforms are widely available online, or take a look at my book which has some step-by-step guides.

On Day 5, Launch and test the automated sales process and be ready to interact with your potential customer at key stages.

What I am providing you is a basic process and you may have more complicated systems, but I hope it inspires you to take a good look at your sales process and make it more efficient. I would never go for a full automated process as you do need that human interaction, but what I propose in this guide will help make the process easier with a little upfront work.

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