Hosting Events in 2014
For home based sellers of travel hosting live events
versus online is one of the best methods to engage,
entertain, present, sell and close the sale. Choosing the
right date, time and choice of venue is the key to a
successful event. Old school would call these events
consumer nights, or cruise nights and for some reason
they were always held at night. In 2014 break that mold
and become a little more creative in the event title,
time of day and location.
The Venue
Here’s where your creativity comes into play.
Think about the product and destination you are
selling and try to match it to a specific venue. City
art galleries are excellent, museums too, then
you might consider yachts in the harbour,
penthouse suites of hotels, even outdoors,
inside a rock climbing club, at the local
university, Chinatown, Little Italy and similar
places that connect to your tour idea. Okay, a
pub works too!
Time and Timing
Thinking for your older clients you’ll do better to
host an event during the day. You’ll have several
time choices, early morning, mid-morning,
lunchtime, early afternoon and late afternoon.
A 90 minute event is all you need to arrange.
After that people tend to fade and mentally
wander from the program. Actually the peak and
valley in terms of paying attention is around 20
minutes for most people.
If your host agency has a large agency premise
then perhaps you can hold the event there.
Time and Money
When you host an event during the lunch time or
evening time, attendees expect food. You never
pay for someone’s lunch or dinner unless they’ve
made a $10K booking with you and paid in full!
Boost the Head Count
When you arrange a consumer event remember
that you are first selling the event, not the
product you intend to pitch. You’ll need to turn
on the charm and attraction tools to win your
client’s attention. You’ll do this by making sure
you target clients who have shown an interest in
the chosen destination. By following up the day
before the event, sell them once more on
att ending. After the telephone follow up,
complete the circle by sending a confirmation
email, text message and post to your social
media channels too with a “bring your friends”
offer.
Time your event in the morning and provide
coffee and cookies or an energy bar. You can
have the venue provide the coffee and you bring
the tin of goodies with napkins. Job done.
Door Prizes
Not yet. This is a sales session and door prizes as
in free trips are not on the menu. What’s on the
menu is tantalizing information and well-priced
offers that the audience cannot refuse.
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