Practice What You Preach

It occurred to me that many folks have abandoned half of their travel business. Many of you may have done the same thing. As a result, you aren't practicing what you are preaching.

Remember one of the main reasons you got your own travel business? Wasn't it for the benefits of selling travel?

In YTB, we earn 60% of the travel commission paid when everyone we know books travel. Also, as a travel professional, you may be entitled to travel perks

It is easy to get lost in chasing family members and friends around trying to sell them a business. When you are a new business owner, it is hard to sell the business before you even make a cent. But it doesn't have to be that way!

If You Practice What You Preach! Here's how to do it:

- Book travel on your site.

- Send out an e-mail to your friends, family, and co-workers reminding them of your business.

- Help a friend find a good deal on a vacation.

- Send out postcards with your travel website.

- Host a "Grand Opening" party just to introduce everyone you know to your website, and all of the features on your travel website (golf, passport, concert tickets)
(note: this is not the place to market your business opportunity).

- Send out holiday cards with your business website address.

- Pass out business cards to everyone you know and encourage them to purchase their trips through you

- Experience the Travel Perks
(I went on several mini-vacations to experience the travel perks like discounts and commissions on my own travel!)

When you do this, two important things happen:

First, you should start earning commissions, which is important when a prospect asks you the obvious question: "Well, have YOU made money with this?"

Next, you should start saving money by traveling for less, along with the tax deductions).
We have saved money on travel, which is like money in your pocket. For example, Natasha & I went on a weekend vacation. We saved $60 on our hotel room. Our website only cost us $49.95 that month. Before recruiting a single person or selling any travel, we had an extra $10 in our pocket.

Finally, if you book enough of their trips, your friends and family members start realizing that you are profiting off of them, and they may be interested in getting their own website. They will be far more receptive to the idea, than if you cornered them at a family gathering and start talking their ear off about your latest fabulous business venture. This is a way to indirectly market your business to your family. Trust me, if they want to make money from having their own business, they'll ask you for more information.

True story: Natasha starting booking trips for a partner at her law firm. A couple of trips later, she said to her..."now wait a second...now, you are making money off of my trips? Can't I just have my own website?" Natasha said of course. She signed up and got her own travel website. It was that easy. No three-way calls. No sizzle call, no lengthy business presentation.

Here's another way of looking at the importance of practicing what you preach:
What kind of car do you think that the CEO of Ford drives?
A Ford of course. Wouldn't you find it a bit odd if you saw him driving a Toyota? To sell a product, you need to be a consumer of that product. It's a pretty hard sell, when you haven't made a travel commission, or don't have a travel booking engine, or haven't enjoyed one of the travel perks you are telling others about.

Practice What You Preach.

If you are selling a travel business, you need to be booking your travel on your own travel website. You need to be taking advantage of the perks that come with owning your own travel business. If you do that, you will have stories and examples to give your prospects, based on YOUR experience, which is far more important than a testimonial of a top money-earner who has been in the network marketing industry for years.

Their testimonial is great to show the potential of growing a large organization, but it isn't as personal or convincing as your own personal experience.

The second portion of this, is that you need to encourage your downline to do the same thing. Let them know just how important it is that they practice what they preach as well. They too can start making money, start having their own stories to tell prospects, and they too will be reaching out and indirectly marketing the business to their friends and family. This process, repeated over and over again will help build a loyal customer base, and will help grow your organization.


To Your Success!