Friday 13th may be unlucky for some, but it proved to be a huge success for Travel Counsellors after the company celebrated its best ever sales day in Ireland – as well as record sales worldwide.
Travel Counsellors Ireland saw sales reach over €185,000 in one day, the highest since the company launched in Ireland in 2005, while company sales worldwide reached over £2.2 million (€2.6 million), the best in Travel Counsellors’ 16-year history. The travel company now has 42 Travel Counsellors running their own home-based travel business across the Republic of Ireland.
During its last financial year, Travel Counsellors has achieved global sales of over €415 million, a 25% increase on the previous year, with a forecast turnover of €470 million for 2012. The company also is also expecting to recruit more agents in Ireland over the next 12 months, as more of the country’s travel professionals look to increase their earning potential running their own business from home.
Ireland General Manager Cathy Burke said: “We are delighted to have seen such a fantastic start to the year for our Travel Counsellors in Ireland, especially since our best day of 2011 was on 26th January, so this early boom is certainly a promising sign for forecast sales and the fact that people are regaining faith in the economy and looking towards the year ahead in a positive light. It proves that people still want to go on holiday – but are looking for an agent who can provide the highest levels of personal service.
“As a company we are dedicated to supporting each individual agent so they can develop their businesses through providing the best customer service, while enjoying the flexibility and benefits of running their own home-based travel businesses.”
In order to motivate its agents even further during January the company launched an international sales-based team challenge called ‘The Mexfactor’, which has seen over 1,200 Travel Counsellors spanning 32 teams competing against each other, with the winning team jetting off for with a week’s two-centre all-inclusive break to Cancun. The challenge, which is hosted on the company’s Internet system, is proving a huge success and a fantastic way to encourage the company’s agents to get those all-important sales while having fun and creating a strong sense of camaraderie.
Travel Counsellors Ireland has its own consolidated fares from Ireland with most of the major airlines. The company’s in-house Phenix System allows agents to use the company’s own consolidated fares along with highly competitive accommodation prices, to tailor-make holidays for their customers. It also gives them the power to control their own margin and significantly increase their earning potential.
The company has also introduced its ‘system of success’, which provides agents with a structured programme and success formula for them to follow when running their businesses from home. The key elements of the system are being pro-active, producing sales, building customer relationships, keeping in contact with these customers, and staying involved with company activity, and agents are provided with all the support, tools and training to stay close to their customers and grow their businesses from home.
Travel Counsellors Managing Director Steve Byrne added: “This is certainly a promising start to what we envisage will be a great year ahead. We firmly believe that the future belongs to those agents that connect with people, build relationships and show that they care. There is not a computer in the world that can tap into people’s emotions and make them feel as special as a person that empathises and cares, which is something our Travel Counsellors are fantastic at doing.
“We provide them with all the support and tools in order to build these invaluable relationships with their clients. So much so that we are proud to hold a world beating customer satisfaction score, which states that over 90% of our customers would recommend their Travel Counsellor to their friends and colleagues.”
