Sealing the deal

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Debbie Summers.

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Naz Musa.

One of the key advantages of packaging is that ancillary products such as car rental and travel insurance pay good commission rates. Selling cruises can also be lucrative given the agent remuneration policies of most cruise companies.

ATN asked a selection of travel suppliers to offer selling tips and to highlight the benefits of selling their products and services in today's competitive environment.

Travel insurance

Nusrat Ahmed, the manager of the travel insurance division at the Middle East branch of insurance giant AIG, laments that many agents in the region are "still fixed on selling airline tickets" and are yet to "realise the revenue potential from selling auxiliary products" like travel insurance.

At a recent meeting staged by the Dubai Travel Agent & Tour Group (DTTAG) she revealed that only 3% of agents in the Middle East actually sold AIG travel insurance.

"Travel agents don't ask [their clients] the basic questions or explain the benefits [of buying travel insurance," she says.

"However, this has improved over the last three years and we are seeing 100% growth year on year.

Ahmed stresses that selling travel insurance adds value to the customer experience and is an easy revenue earner as commission payments range from 15% to 20%.

And selling AIG policies couldn't be easier, she says, as the company has partnerships "with all the top GDS systems".

"Travel agents are now able to sell travel policies while simultaneously issuing air tickets for their customers," she explains. "A reminder to offer travel insurance to the customer is incorporated at the end of every booking, taking the agent directly to the insurance booking option, on all GDS."

HolidayGuard's Norman Cloke advises agency managers to set separate targets for insurance sales from the targets they set for other sales in order to encourage staff to sell the product and enforce the message that offering insurance can help them close a sale.

"The agent's hardest job is to get their customers to part with their deposit, but they can explain that a good insurance policy can cover cancellation charges if certain circumstances prevent them travelling," he says.

HolidayGuard, for instance, covers up to US $5000 per person for cancellation charges and like AIG, is available on the GDS system.

Car rental

Agents also lack confidence selling car rental, according to Naz Musa, managing director of Holiday Autos Middle East.

"It's the easiest thing to ask a customer is if they want to hire a car during their trip, however in most cases, this just does not happen," he says.

"This could be due to lack of product knowledge, which is a historical issue, or simply because the staple sale income has always been the flight sale.

He says that good agents "actively sell car hire alongside any flight".

"They talk to the client about how they plan to get around while at their destination and suggest that a rental car would give them flexibility," he adds.

Musa says agents should highlight the cost benefits of car rental. i.e., a cab to central London from Heathrow will cost a client approximately $110, but for less than $70, they can have a car for 24 hours.

Holiday Autos has made selling car hire easy by streamlining the online booking process, which can be completed in "just three clicks".

"The client pre-pays everything and receives a voucher that can be e-mailed to them covering everything they need," he says.

Holiday Autos pays 15% commission, which means that on an average booking of $400, a travel agency can make $60, Musa notes.

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