Strategic Sales WeaponVariation

AnticipationMagic Ingredient

Experience

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Since 1974 VIKTOR Incentives & Meetings has been producing high quality incentive travel programs for our corporate clients. Recently, we were asked what we thought were our 5 keys to success. Here is our answer.

Written by: Chris Burak, PartnerWHITE PAPER5 KEYS TO SUCCESS

FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESS

1. Incentive travel is a strategic sales weapon. It will help you secure business from your competitors and keep it! Incentive travel research shows that 80% of the sales executives surveyed say incentive travel meets or exceeds their expectations and they experience an average 15% increase in sales. It also shows it is more effective in increasing sales over any other form of incentive including cash, merchandise, and gift certificates. Our experience demonstrates the most significant benefit is not the sales increase generated over the 3, 6 or 12 month qualification period; although it is very important. The most impressive benefit is the cumulative effect of strengthening your relationship with your key customers, year-after-year. On a trip, they get to know you as people, not as a corporation. They develop a personal connection to you and loyalty is created. They create strong friendships with your other guests. Often, living in other states, each trip becomes that moment in time when they reconnect and have fun together. In addition, the opportunity for these top performers to exchange their own effective business strategies is great for building future success for their businesses and therefore the sponsoring company’s. Traveling and sharing unique experiences creates a personal bond that is unmatched by any other form of incentive. The President of one of our clients, quoted in Incentive Magazine, said they have grown to twice the size of its closest competitor largely due to the success of their incentive travel program. This is real ROI – Return on the Individual.

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2. Vary the trip destination and length Only 30 - 40 percent of your audience will be highly motivated to earn the trip. That may sound shocking but we believe that any travel destination, no matter how exotic or exciting, will appeal to your target audience in thirds. One third will be thrilled and do whatever is necessary to achieve the trip. One third will have an average amount of interest and will put forth an average effort to achieve it. And one third will not be interested at all and will only take it if it comes their way. Why is this important to consider? Maybe you have developed a travel formula that seems to work well for you. Or does it? We think varying the destinations and even the length of the trip gets maximum results. It insures that at some point you will have a trip that will be highly motivational to everyone. A successful travel experience has long-term residual effects compared to other awards. If all of your best customers travel with you at least once every two or three years you will still create meaningful relationships and loyalty while reaching a larger percentage of your total customer base. For example: An 8 day / 6 night European adventure will not appeal to those who don’t like long flights, or don’t want to be gone that long from their business or possibly they have young children, or they are just afraid to go. But next year, your 5 day / 4 night trip to Los Cabos for a high-end sun, spa, golf experience totally motivates another segment or your audience but is less appealing to those who don’t like sun and fun, or who just don’t like Mexico. These two trips back-to-back have now reached a much larger percentage of your audience than two overseas trips or two sun and fun destinations. If your trip is similar in nature year-after-year, maybe your competition is getting that third of your audience that is not interested in your standard trip. Recently one of our clients chose to take their customers to Switzerland – in March! It is cold in Switzerland in March. Normally, this trip would be to a resort destination. The sales results exceeded expectations. The combination of Montreux and Interlaken gave both ski and tour fans all they could ask for. The memory of seeing the Swiss Alps covered in snow was magical.

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3. Trip anticipation gets results! Very few things in life create child-like excitement in an adult compared to the prospect of going on a once-in-a- lifetime trip. It gets our heart pounding, our imaginations stimulated, and we become pre-occupied with it the nearer to departure we come. We think about it, plan for it, talk about it, and shop for it. To stimulate that anticipation they need to learn and see. Making it simple for your audience to find out everything they wish to know about your trip in a dynamic fashion is critical to stimulating those emotions we just. They need to be able to see the destination and all its wonders, learn about it, view your itinerary, see the beach and golf course, review restaurants and shopping, explore the activities available, see the rooms they will be in. Announcing the trip with a video or power point presentation at a kick-off sales meeting, mailing a professionally printed trip announcement, and regular monthly or quarterly promotional mailings, will keep the troops motivated and working to earn the trip. Historically this approach has delivered results but it’s been expensive. Is there a more cost-effective solution? Today, people prefer an interactive, comprehensive web site with all the links and information they desire in one easy to access location- from home, office or coffee shop. The site could also contain qualification information and possibly standings reports. Recently, we launched the first trip web site for one of our clients. We sent a eye catching broadcast email announcing the availability of the new site with a button linking directly to the web site. It was virtually impossible not click on it. They reported the highest volume of web activity over a 2-week period they have ever experienced. While the trip site was housed in our domain they could click to the corporate site at any time. . Their most significant web activity came at the end of the trip when we announced that the trip photo gallery was ready. They had the opportunity to relive the trip by looking at pictures and printing the ones they would like to have. A standard web offering with a basic information page and online registration is no longer enough. A web site built from the ground-up specifically to be an incentive travel web site is required. In addition, regular, well-designed broadcast emails will keep them informed as often as you desire. The cost for a fully developed trip web site with broadcast emails is less than the cost to produce a 4-color announcement brochure. The increased sales volume generated by your excited audience will more than pay for the development and maintenance of this capability.

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4. The magic ingredient is “Personal Care”. Your best customers worked hard to earn your trip. They were excited about the destination when you announced it, made plans to earn it, made sacrifices, and dreamed and planned with their partner for the upcoming experience. They were elated to find out they qualified and would be going. Your invited guests have a set of hopes and dreams for this trip and they don’t include building a stronger relationship with you – they are strictly looking at it from their perspective- they want to have a great time. So how do we accomplish the objective of creating a strong personal relationship with you and your company when that is not on their agenda? By overwhelming them with Personal Care. The manner in which you care for them, before, during and after the trip speaks louder than any other aspect of the trip. Every touch point with them from the time they first hear about the trip until they walk back into the house should be considered carefully. Internally we say “It’s all about the little things.” Did someone call them and discuss the trip with them? How helpful was the information they received prior to their departure? Were they able to make plans easily to extend their stay? How were they greeted when they arrived? Who greeted them? How easily were they oriented to their new environment and educated on all there was to see and do? If this was their first trip were they given an orientation? Did they know the staff caring for them from past trips? Was the guest of your qualifier made to feel like a VIP? We feel so strongly about the guests feeling “known” that we assemble a travel staff team that stays together for each trip that you operate. Each year those repeat guests see familiar faces at the airport, at the hospitality desk and on the activities. We get to know them and they get to us- but the benefit comes back directly to you.

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5. The “Experience” creates the memory. The trip to Quebec was going smoothly. Everyone was excited to be staying in the heart of the city at the fabulous Chateau Frontenac. Tours included a private breakfast at Montmorency Falls followed by a city tour, options other days included golf, bike excursions, Isle de Orleans touring & wine tasting, and jet boating. The welcome reception and dinner was outside facing the St Lawrence River complete with comedic Royal Mounties. 2 nights were free to sample the excellent cuisine in the city with meal allowances. Even the all important weather factor was working in our favor. It was a very solid, all-inclusive, high-quality, trip. High quality is a “little thing” that goes a long way in creating a memorable experience and can not be overemphasized. As comprehensive as it was, the trip did not have that one element that created a lasting memory, until the “Evening in New France” final night event. The “New France Evening” included cocktails, dinner and entertainment in an unusual off-property location. The “little thing” that made it special was having all guests wear authentic period costumes. We had discovered on our site inspection, a local seamstress who had Hollywood credentials and a warehouse of incredible, high-quality, authentic formal wear clothing. Guests were instructed to visit a room at the hotel anytime between 10am and 1pm for costume fitting. As each couple arrived they were handed the costume that had been specifically chosen for them. They provided sizing and color preference information as part of their registration for the trip. Final alterations were made on the spot by a team of tailors. We wanted them to fit perfectly. Accessories included shoe adornments, and hats for men and hand bags and hair adornments for women. Each woman was invited to come back between 3pm and 5pm to have their hair done by one of two hairdressers. Each woman had a period hair style created that took advantage of her current hair style. Many had ribbons, feathers, and jewels added to their hair. The time spent by multiple couples getting fitted at the same time, comparing how they looked, kidding around and taking pictures was a memory maker in itself. The chatter and cameras started clicking as each couple entered the lobby looking like they just stepped into 1795. The assembled group paraded 4 blocks to a decommissioned, ancient, ornate chapel for the reception and dinner. Along the way cars honked and pedestrians stopped and gathered along the route. They asked to take pictures of our group. Our guests felt very special- they were the featured attraction in a parade. Entering the chapel everyone was stunned to see the formal table arrangements, flowers and hear beautiful stringed music in the background. Nobody was in a hurry for dinner and couples photos and a group photo were taken. A multi-act musical play was enacted, throughout dinner, and added a wonderful touch of interest and fun. As the evening closed and we walked back, couples lingered in the lobby of the hotel, feeling like they belonged in “New France”, not wanting the evening to end. A number of couples said they were just going to take a stroll outside because it was so much fun encountering people along the way.

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This was an “experience”. It created lasting memories. Any time Quebec comes up in conversation with family or friends they not only think of this event but feel it as well. And their memory will include the company who took them and the people they shared it with.