06: How to Get Considered for FAM Trips
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Robin: [00:00:00] Fam opportunities are not just a chance to sip champaign and stay in fancy hotels. They should be viewed as an opportunity where a supplier is investing in an advisor's education. However, this investment is definitely not one-sided. Advisors who attend FAMs often have to pay for their own flights while stepping away from their business and turning their full attention to site visits, sales meetings, and local experiences.
So today we are going to dive into how you can be considered for more fans, as well as how to evaluate if the opportunity is going to provide your business with the proper return on investment. So first things first, let's set the stage on how to get considered.
Jennifer: Hey, it's your travel industry. Best friends, Robin and Jen from team.
Robin: We're obsessed with practically anything that touches your business and allows you to scale to the level of success that you've always dreamt of. With Robin's
Jennifer: background in sales and
Robin: marketing and Jennifer's experience as. Management level, HR professional.
Jennifer: We grew a small itinerary creation company into a multimillion dollar travel agency, and now we aim to help [00:01:00] others skip the hard stuff and get right to the big wins.
We're probably recording this with a glass of
Robin: wine in hand, the pour one up with us. Grab a seat and join us to talk all things travel and business.
Jennifer: All right, so we're gonna dive right in and I'm gonna share a little bit about my perspective. And of course this is not the end all, be all. I'm sure there are plenty other ways, but we're gonna shed light on some ways that Robin and myself have gotten considered for FAMs in the past.
One way is making sure that you're working with a host that aligns with the kind of travel you wanna sell. And we've talked about it before Robin and I, we've had a host and then we've been independent and as what I would consider right now, I am, we operate under one brand, but with Exploratory. We are a hosting agency and I'd like to think that we seek out fam opportunities.
For advisors [00:02:00] that align with what they wanna sell. And when we do get emails, I'm always thinking, okay, who is this gonna benefit the most? Not just who has sold the most overall, but getting in with a host that actually is gonna support your goals and be in tune with what you wanna sell is gonna be a great first step for actually getting considered because they're gonna be your frontline face for working with suppliers.
The next thing is you can't rely on your host. And so that kind of is a little bit contradictory in a way, because yes, you wanna have a relationship with a host, but at the same time you need to have your own relationships with suppliers. And Robin and I have already mapped out that we are gonna dive into supplier relationships much later.
And to really go into how you can do this, and if you're a niche, you already had our mini training on how you can foster some of those relationships, but. A few ways that you can really get in with suppliers is actually reaching out, proactively introducing [00:03:00] yourself and following up from webinars that they have hosted, whether it be from your host or from somewhere else, but providing the supplier with your metrics.
And this is gonna be a wild concept, and this is kind of funny because Robin and I came up with this a while back and it's, it's nothing new, but I think it's new to the industry. Creating a media kit that actually represents you. So we created one actually in Canva and you can import all your stats and yes, it's gonna change, but being able to outline, almost like in a resumes glance, what your niche is, how much your sales are, what consortia you're a part of, maybe even if you have a great social media following, highlighting that.
Highlighting the things that are gonna get you considered by that vendor. You don't wanna point out the things obviously, that are a weaker area for you to grow, but highlighting the areas that you're really strong in, in that media kit, and creating that in, whether it be Canva or just a resume, a glance [00:04:00] kind of thing.
When you reach out to those suppliers, you're gonna have something in your toolbox to say, I know I haven't worked with you before, or, Hey, I have worked with you before, but I wanna create a more fruitful relationship. Here's a little bit about me. Can we jump on a call? I'd love to hear how we could partner even more, and if there are opportunities for FAM trips in the future.
Those are my two, so I'll let Robin take it away because she is, she actually was the first on the team to ever attend trade shows, which is a whole different ballgame and kind of a funny story, but I'll let her dive into that. ,
Robin: I like to say and tell everybody that Jennifer hazed me with trade shows when I first got started.
So when I first started booking travel, Full-time. We were kind of booking, I would say, all over the place. We were, we didn't really have like a true niche or like our stake in the ground. This is what we do. So we needed somebody to do cruises and Jen was like, well, I don't want to, so you're gonna do 'em.
And so the very first trade show I went to was Cruise World. and it was fine. It was great. It was in Fort Lauderdale, so it was easy for [00:05:00] me to get to. It wasn't like I was flying across the country for something that I didn't really know if I was gonna keep going with cruises. I think trade shows are a really awesome way for you to see the possibilities of a specific type of travel.
And so when I went to Cruise World, I just realized that I did not have. First of all, I went on a cruise once and I am afraid of heights, and we had a balcony, which is fun, but I was afraid of the room because I was afraid of heights. So it was like I didn't enjoy my cruise time much so let alone selling something.
I didn't personally enjoy that type of travel. Was difficult. And then I realized at the trade show that these people who were doing cruises and doing them really well had this intense knowledge of each of the ships. And that was just not knowledge I was willing to invest in. I wasn't going to pay to go on cruises or put myself out there for cruise based FAMs because once again, like my first experience with it wasn't dynamite.
I, again, as a newer [00:06:00] agent, when I was a newer agent, used it as kind of like a, is this a fit for me? Is like this type of clientele that others are bringing in a fit for who I'm selling to? And ultimately it wasn't. You don't need to go to the ones that you already know are not gonna. Serve your business.
Like sometimes it's easy for people to be like, oh, I sell cruises. This makes sense for me. Or, I don't sell cruises. I have no interest in cruises. Same things with destination weddings. Like that's a whole beast in and of itself. So if you don't love it and wanna invest the time and knowledge to really understand it, that's okay.
I think people get really nervous about like nicheing down and not selling something. Cuz what if somebody books it somewhere else? But ultimately that's fine. Especially if it's something that if you're not gonna do it well, don't do it. And to Jennifer's point, it takes money. It takes time. Like it's not just free trips handed out to advisors, which.
I a little bit thought it was in the very beginning cuz I did not have a very good understanding of like what a fam actually is. So [00:07:00] it's always important to remember to invest in the relationship when working together, referring others, improving that your clientele really matches the product. Through your sales.
Another thing to note is I was always very hesitant to put myself out there to suppliers in the beginning for destinations I wanted to book but had not booked yet. So something to note. If you're, you're new and you're feeling kind of intimidated about reaching out to suppliers about fam something I actually did in the very beginning of my travel career when I didn't know a destination, I was upfront with a supplier about that.
I mean, I haven't been everywhere. I haven't been able to sell clients on, I can sell people on things where I'm familiar with it. So I knew Mexico, I knew the Caribbean. I knew these like top honeymoon destinations. But more and more these little requests were trickling in here and there for Costa Rica. I had no idea about Costa Rica.
And yes, I can lean on my suppliers. They're obviously [00:08:00] going to point me in the best direction possible when I don't have that knowledge. However, And became more and more clear that there was an opportunity for me to learn more. So I actually went to like, I think it was the tourism board in Costa Rica, and put myself out there, said who I was, said that I don't have any current Costa Rica sales to brag about, however, This is my demographic.
This is who I service. This is who I'm selling travel to, and I think this demographic is really good for your location. I would love to learn more, and of course, this was in 2019 when everything was rose colored glasses. 2020 happened when my fan was booked in. Everything went out the window a little bit, so I didn't actually end up going on it.
However, I think it put me in the light to be like, oh. You know, like instead of just being like, I wanna go to Italy because I've sold millions of Italy sales and stuff, like, that's intimidating, especially for a new newer agent. So if you are new, don't feel like you have to know or have all these sales in order to be considered for fans.
There are [00:09:00] some instances where you could put together a. I don't know it yet. I wanna learn more, but here's why I wanna learn more, because here's what I'm selling and here's who I'm selling to. Because again, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. They're taking their time and their marketing to you so you can sell for them.
So it is like, don't be intimidated by suppliers because you're also valuable to them and to their
Jennifer: market. I love that you brought up tourism boards cuz it's not something that people talk about enough. And tourism boards are a fantastic way of getting involved in a destination, or at least connecting you with a supplier that they know is having a fam coming up.
And I think that people don't think that. Those tourism boards have like this direct connection with the hotels, but they're the most direct connection. Mm-hmm. with the hotels. Yes. Rep companies have their clients that are hotels and DMCs and the DMCs are obviously gonna select [00:10:00] people that are a great fit for them.
But tourism boards also have thems, and what I love about a tourism board fan is it's not going to typically only show you one type of clientele. Like accommodation style or experience, it's gonna give you a little bit of everything because they're truly trying to showcase the entire destination. So you may get some budget friendly accommodations, you may get some locks accommodations, but you're gonna typically see like completely across the board.
Whereas if you're working with a luxury supplier, you're going to see only luxury, and that's a fantastic way of, of seeing a destination. I'm not saying that, but if. . Also, in all honesty, not your entire demographic. I think a tourism board is actually one of the most spectacular places to start with a fam, because you do get that very like authentic exposure.
Robin: Yeah. It was interesting. The whole reason I even thought to reach out to other tourism boards is because when I was traveling to Arizona [00:11:00] for a work trip with my husband, I wanted to set up site inspections, but. I don't know. I just didn't know who to really turn to about it, but I did know that the, I think it's like Scottsdale tourism board or something.
I reached out and was just like, Hey, these are my dates. I'm in town. Like I'm a travel advisor. I would love to see some properties. I don't know if you could help me bridge the gap and like form a connection with these hotel years. Well, they booked me all of these beautiful site inspections and stuff.
They pointed me in the right direction for everything and. . So they basically made me my own little fam while I was there, which was amazing. And then on top of that, they invited me down the road to other fans that they had going on. But like you said, like they aren't just. When I looked at the itinerary, which I was bummed, I wasn't able to go cuz of dates and all that.
But the itinerary wasn't just hotel, hotel, hotel, hotel, sleep, eat, wake up in more hotels. It was like, we're gonna go and we're gonna do this because this is very Scottsdale and this is what people like cuz they aren't, you know, they aren't pushing. Their specific product. They aren't put pushing their [00:12:00] specific hotel chain and their brand.
They're pushing the destination as a whole. So it was something that really inspired me. I did it again for St. Lucia. I had a whole St. Lucia itinerary set up that, again, I had to, I had to back out of, unfortunately, for travel purposes in 2020, but, I don't think enough people think about tourism boards.
Jennifer: And you were just talking about like actually a self-guided situation for the St. Lucia and the Arizona trip, but the FAM trip for Costa Rica, was it actually organized group trips? So there's different ways that these tourism boards can really help you and you can usually look online, these Instagram accounts, you can see how active a tourism board is, not every country or.
Destination is going to have the same kind of involvement. And even like Hawaii, all their islands have their own tourism board. So that's a whole different beast of a situation. But these tourism boards, they might have their own situation that they can set [00:13:00] you up with. And you can do a self-guided fam too.
So don't sleep on self-guided FAMs. Robin and I are huge, huge advocates of self-guided vans because you can actually. Target more of what your clientele would be interested in seeing. And you can trim the fat on what you know. You're absolutely not gonna sell. And when someone else organizes a fam, you are inevitably gonna see a product that you're not going to sell.
But I also think that gives really good perspective because when clients come to you and they say, Hey, I was looking at this. You can say, I've personally been there and I don't recommend it because which ha gives you more power in the situation to be considered valuable. So there's not really a downside is what I'm saying.
But tourism boards are, are definitely, I think, undervalued in many ways. Oh,
Robin: 100%. So that kind of leads me to the next point, which how to know if the fam is right for you. And full disclaimer, just because you were invited on a fam. [00:14:00] Does not mean that you need to automatically accept said fam. Of course, I think FAMs are one of the biggest perks of travel advisors, like, who doesn't get into this job to travel the world for free or at like a very low cost.
So I am 100% guilty. I know Jenna is too of like going on whatever fam flies your way and it, it's very tempting in the beginning and especially if you're starting out, do it. Like get in there, go see these destinations. Like I said, until I went to Cruise World Trade. I probably would've attempted to still try to sell cruises until I learned the backend stuff that I needed to actually know.
But same with other destinations. There's fans that I went on in the very beginning just because I wanted to travel, and I hadn't been there yet that I would never sell anymore because I went there and saw it. So in the beginning it does make sense. However, once you get a little more vested, once you kind of have like your, your niche and your, your business is like rocking and rolling, I would say it's a time to kind of be a little bit more discretionary about where you.
Putting your time and putting your money [00:15:00] and resources. So some considerations to keep in mind when evaluating if a fam is worth your time, worth your investment. First things first. If it's a partner that you're gonna actually work with in the future, and this isn't like a, this is almost just based on mutual respect, like you do not wanna take the time and energy and spot away from somebody who wants to work with that supplier, will work with that supplier.
When you know in the back of your head, like, this destination isn't for me. This product suite isn't for me. I'm not gonna sell this. But again, like I want a passport stamp. So that's something to make sure that if you are investing the time, you're not taking a spot away from somebody else or wasting anyone's time on the supplier side.
Number two. , is the destination a right fit for you? Is it something you want to sell? Is it something that your ideal client is going to ask for and be excited about? Have you gotten a request for it in the past? I'm never probably going to ever sell South America. I've just never really gotten a request for it, [00:16:00] like so on in my list of fans.
The top probably wouldn't be Patagonia, unfortunately, as much as I would love to go there, it just financially from a business perspective, probably wouldn't cut it for me as far as other destinations and
Jennifer: do Robin's point. So I know that Robin would absolutely love to go to Patagonia. I also know that.
if you are not targeting that ideal clientele, you'd rather go on those trips as a vacation. And there's a very big difference between a fam and a vacation. And can I get an amen on that? Like a fam is not a vacation and a fam, it doesn't have to match what you would want to see. It has to match what you want to sell.
And sometimes that's different. Sometimes it's the same, and that's okay either way. If it's different and you actually just wanna go to the destination because you wanna go to the destination, then you should be honest with yourself and budget accordingly and [00:17:00] create a vacation fund for that. Whereas there should be an actual budget within your business account for fans, and that can be very different.
I just wanted to say that because I think there's a financial component that absolutely needs to be considered. We oftentimes blur the line between those two
Robin: things. I love that. And everyone wants to, like, everyone likes traveling. If you're a travel advisor, like there's a very, I feel like there's very few people out there selling travel who don't love it.
However, I did listen to something, I think it was a business podcast one time that said like, don't monetize your passion. And so part of me, , which like we did monetize our passion. But once you , once you like get into like the nitty gritty business side of travel, doing FAMs is different than traveling and it almost makes, and I don't know if I'm the only person out there this has happened to, but I've been in like the situation where it almost feels like you don't like to travel as much because it feels businessy.
Now that I'm [00:18:00] out of travel, it's, it's a lot easier for me to go on vacation and not feel like I. Not being productive by not having 12 supplier meetings on the book, seeing ton of site inspections, doing dinners with people and or like a sales staff instead of just me and my husband or my family. I
Jennifer: know, I mean, I know that you recently went to St.
Lucia and you didn't even tell them you're, you had been in travel, like you booked it actually when you were an advisor and working as an advisor. But you were like, I don't wanna do a site visit, and you paid full price and you didn't ask for a net rate, and that's perfectly fine, but I wanna just like put an asterisk next to that.
If you're asking for a net rate, you should be expecting to do a site visit and have a meeting. And Robin is snapping. You can't see it right now. Oh my gosh. Widows, that's where the line is drawn, is if you don't wanna make space for the sales component and the networking component of it, then you really should be investing in your [00:19:00] suppliers, and that's a mutual respect.
If they came to you and they wanted to plan a trip to another location, they would expect to pay your fee because it's a service. So I. We have to pour into the people that pour into us, and that's just, I think you've taken a really respectful approach to it. I typically ask for a net rate, but I also always do blog posts and I'm willing to do the site visits, but I'm honest with people when I'm not going to do that.
And if I go to A D M C and they know who I am, I'll say, this is a vacation. So that they know I'm not expecting anything, please don't feel like you need to give me that net rate or discount or a comp rate because it's gonna set an expectation with that hotelier or that supplier on the ground. And that's not where my head's at
Robin: 100%.
I think that's such an amazing, amazing point. Yeah. If you're, if you're getting a sort of net rate or any sort of like free night stay, you really have to, you owe it to them and it's just mutual respect all [00:20:00] around so. Such a great point. Another thing to consider is if it's a good time to step back from your business.
I know that we work remote, everyone's pretty much booking travel from their laptops, unless there's a couple brick and mortars out there, but to traditionally, you're working on the go while traveling. However, while we can work on the go and quote unquote work from our phones, You are out of touch when you are traveling.
There are periods of time when you cannot be there for your clients. So I mean, summertime travel is crazy and mayhem and hurricanes I swear, pop out of like nowhere. So there are times when it's like, yes, this is a great fam. However, does it make sense with the amount of client load I have at the time?
Like who's actually in travel? Who's needing my hands on support? I do believe, and we are doing an episode on this, that you can prepare to be out of vacation or out of office, out of touch, that sort of thing. But for people in travel, you really do wanna make sure [00:21:00] that like you are available and sometimes when you are tied up in a fam, I don't care how.
Awesome. The supplier is, if you are busy, you're doing sites, you're, you're having lunch with people, you're having breakfast, you're having dinner, there's, there's all these things that like, typically you're not really working during the fam, you're working in a different sense of the word. You're not client work load heavy, if that
Jennifer: makes sense.
That makes sense. I also wanna say on the flip side of that, you're not selling if you're on the fam. So yes, you can absolutely market that destination, but it's a singular destination in that moment. It is a marketing tactic, and you should absolutely be constantly sharing on stories, tagging the supplier.
That's an etiquette thing. But if you're marketing. We all know that not necessarily marketing is closing. It's, it's proactive, but it's not necessarily reactive to the LE the leads that are coming in. So realistically, when you're on a fam, which is usually during a [00:22:00] work week, they're very rarely on a Saturday and Sunday because, well, the hotelier, they have lives too.
And as much as they spend all their time at the hotel, I know that they would like to put some boundaries on when they do site. , and that means you're not having an intake call. That means you're not creating the proposal email that's going out. You're not sending that proposal. You're not closing. So if it's not the best time in your business because you actually don't have people traveling and you need people traveling to get income into your bank account, you should also be evaluating that.
All of these things have to align for it to make sense from an ROI perspective. And if. Are not having clients come through the door. Yes, it's very important to show up and show that you are credible by traveling, but also if you're starting to get leads, I mean, we're in the rebound right now, right? like people are.
Just pouring in leads wise. So if you look at your lead load and then you're like, yeah, but I'm gonna step back for five days to go to this destination that none of these leads are [00:23:00] for. Does it actually make sense for you to go out because maybe you could close a hundred grand of sales rather than going to the one destination that people aren't going to because you wanna go there and you, you want to sell it.
So that's kind of also like follow where the life is at the moment of. Well the season of your business.
Robin: Yeah. Another thing is if you can currently afford to invest in travel, you never want to get into a position where travel is a tax break or whatever, a tax deduction. And I think we all fall into the trap.
I do. Cause I'm like, what is tax deduction even mean free money? And it's not . Just cause it's a tax deduction does not mean it is free. So like in order to stay in the green, stay in the black.
Jennifer: Yes,
Robin: stay in the not red. I know the red is bad. We don't like red , but whatever is on the opposite side of red
Jennifer: green will be symbolic for [00:24:00] cash.
Heavy black as in like actual economic terms, so Yes. Oh gosh.
Robin: Like Black Friday. Oh, well, and economics lesson. But it's a business expense typically. I mean, in the same exact sense that with our website design business and Teq and all of that, we wouldn't just invest in a platform to invest in the platform.
It has to make sense for our business. So like if we don't have the money right now to invest in the platform, it just, you gotta get in some more sales. You gotta bring in money before you can put money out. And you don't wanna get into the situation where you're just in a ton of business debt because that is an unfortunate black hole that will build up over time, and you just wanna be cognizant of it.
So make sure that you can afford to invest and travel at the time. And then on the flip side, that when you do travel, that this is going to be a positive return on your investment within the next year. So if you know you're selling a ton of Italy, and I've had this experience before I was selling Italy.
A lot. However, I had never been there, so there was a lot of [00:25:00] little pieces of the puzzle that I was not aware of until I traveled to the destination. So after returning from Italy, I booked a lot of Italy trips. Which was a positive return on my investment. So yes, the, it was very investment heavy up front.
I had to pay to get there. The flights, we did a ton of site inspections. We lived life out there in Italy, and it was the most fantastic five weeks of my life. Yes, I said five weeks. I was also planning a destination wedding in Revelo for 2020. So that's a comical relief in and of itself, but I was over there for a very long time.
However, I did see a return on the investment because that is what I was booking and. Only booking it better afterwards. So something I like to consider is, I'm paying X amount of money for a fam. However, when somebody books an Italy trip, the average amount of commissions I'm coming in on top of my, whatever my service fee is, is this.
So how many Italy [00:26:00] trips do I have to sell after this trip in order to make that profitable for my business? And typically with like FAMs. Especially if it's, you're using net rates and stuff, you can flip that pretty good. Especially again, if it's something you're actively selling and you're doing a good, a good job at marketing your time over there and being efficient with everything.
But that's something to consider. Like, is this gonna, this roi, is it gonna come in two months, in five months, in one year, in two years? Like, when is that ROI gonna come back to me? And what, what is it gonna look like to make the return on investment actually make sense for this
Jennifer: trip? You and I always think of this in math terms.
Every business decision should be mathematical, and that is not necessarily how travel goes. The travel industry leans because we are highly emotional about travel and it's. More of a, like this soul searching connective industry, but at the same time, you go into a business to be in business. So [00:27:00] everything should boil down to a mathematical equation, and I think it's important to also create a buffer in that budget because you and I, when we travel, like.
Yes, we have absolutely budgeted accordingly. And then we get there and we're like, oh, we'll get these cocktails and maybe we'll upgrade that seat. Yep. . And so, you know, you definitely need to budget heavy for FAMs because once you're in fam, Mindset. I feel like you're living the lux life and you just go for it.
Robin: you're on monopoly money at that point. Nothing is real. You're just living on a prayer and like living it to its fullest because the content and because when am I gonna come back and all of those things. So, I always like to set a budget for my personal spend. I'm not good at sticking to it. I will admit that right now, but in my mind it's a really good idea because things go on your business card, things are expendable, and I think that's something to talk through with like your accountant or your financial advisor.[00:28:00]
What is actually tax deductible? Because like a first class ticket, the first time might be tax deductible. However, if you only fly first class, that's not tax deductible because. And you can say that you wanna experience, you know, flat Emirates or something, first class one time for your client so you can sell it.
But you, if you only travel first class, that's technically not a tax deduction anymore. So there, there's things to consider food, but not alcohol there. I don't even know all of 'em. So I'm not an accountant. This is not financial advice by any means. So like legal asterisks to protect myself. But that, that is something to note.
Like if we are. We are not living on monopoly money out there. So it's, if you are budget conscious, just have a Zara fund when you go over to, and you gotta hit up Zara in Florence cuz it's good and there's things that you gotta do, but it might not be on the company
Jennifer: card. I 100% agree with that. And you mentioned I, I can't wait for us to have our bookkeeper on here [00:29:00] because she really did break down the expenses and what is deductible very well and.
Yes, it is great to experience a destination and it has to make sense. But there are certain things, like Robin said, that don't fall into the category of being able to be written off or being able to be written off at a limited. They're at a limited percent. So meals in particular, even though we might be trying a restaurant for our client, that may be perceived, depending on how your bookkeeper is able to categorize it, it may be perceived as entertainment, which is a lower.
Tax deduction. So find yourself a good bookkeeper is the moral of the story here, and get to know the ins and outs of it really well because you do need to know how this is gonna hit your bottom line, your p and l at the end of the month. Go ahead. And when you get an invitation for a fam, instead of being shocked by the end number, get in front of it and say, okay, I'm going to need to pay X, [00:30:00] Y, Z to invest.
And not all FAMs are free. There is sometimes a fee to actually participate in a fam, and I personally like those more because it shows that everyone has mutually bought in. That might sound crazy to some, but I just think it, it's. A mutual investment on both sides. And then you're also going to budget for airfare, but not only airfare, but tipping.
Tipping heavily too because you're getting a discounted service. The people that are driving you to and from each hotel, they're not giving away their service for free. So for them to not be tipped, or a gratuity to not be given to the bellman at the door. They don't know the fam situation, nor do they care.
This is still their livelihoods. They're still providing a service. So anytime you go on a fam, and again, this goes back to etiquette, but budget for tipping heavy. And if you even want to ask, if it's not mentioned on a pre-travel call or a pre-travel email, how much can I budget? In advance to be able to tip and then also add in [00:31:00] cocktails and of course, any seed upgrades that you just feel like doing on a whim.
You never know.
Robin: Jen is the queen of seed upgrades while checking in for flights.
Jennifer: the queen. You know, I just like to ask. It never hurts to ask.
Robin: I never.
Jennifer: Delta not so friendly on the , on the upgrade onsite, but everyone else, they're pretty, they, they love to run a promo last minute and I am there to catch that beautiful butterfly.
Delta's
Robin: like, that'll be 1 million actually.
Jennifer: Thank you. Like you have to repurchase your ticket for quadruple the value. Thank you. Yeah, so that's our whole thought process on the return on investment. And I joke with Heather Keller all the time, who is the owner of Perfect Landing Travel. I'm like, what's the ROI on that?
That's like our go-to sentence. Now, anytime we get invited to a trade show or a fam, and sometimes it's just funny, but you, you do, you have to realistically evaluate if it's going to benefit you [00:32:00] and to Robin's. Set goals according to when you want that to hit your bottom line. So something like Italy is gonna pay itself off much faster than if you take a P to Mauritius.
A lead to, well maybe depending on the, the quality of that lead to Mauritius, but that kind of, Inquiry is not going to be as common as another destination. So you also have to balance the commonality of the request and the consistency of them. I'm not an Africa specialist, but I've done South Africa and the ROI has not been huge for me personally, but it has been for my team because I was able to share that information.
So it also depends on your role in the business and if your personal income is impacted by others. Bringing in those leads as well, which is a whole. A whole different topic, but before we go, we wanna talk about how to decline. Gracefully and still keep a positive relationship, which is so awkward to be invited [00:33:00] as like a valued one of six potentially.
You know, FAMs are not usually big, and so if someone reaches out to you, there is definitely, again, an. Etiquette component to the declination. I personally would thank them for consideration and an explain in an appropriate way, whether that be business related, like maybe. Obviously right now I'm able to decline because of a personal reason.
I'm not getting on a plane. I'm seven months pregnant. , but if it didn't fit my business model at the time, I would be honest and say, thank you so much for this invitation. I'm not currently selling X, Y, Z. Is there an opportunity for me to refer you to someone that I know would be a great fit for you? And that still shows that you are willing to share their product, you're willing to give back, and you're appreciative of the opportunity.[00:34:00]
but declining in a way that still benefits them and is honest about why you're not going. I think you should respond to every single fam opportunity that is sent to you. Ignoring it is just not , not in the cards. That would be highly inappropriate if you don't wanna burn
Robin: a bridge. Well, that's the same as a client.
You sending a bond proposal you just worked on, you're so proud of, and then a client ghosting you. You're mad at them. So like, don't put a supplier in that position and don't. I don't care what you do anymore. I cannot ghost anybody for the rest of my life, especially if I know they're a small business owner because I am personally victimized by ghosts,
So don't be a ghoster. Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you.
Jennifer: You actually just brought up something that I didn't even think of, but I have heard over the past year of a lot of people backing out of FAMs and. Is really, really challenging. And I've spoken to suppliers that are friends afterward and they're like, put me in a really hard spot because [00:35:00] I had this spot filled, you know, if it's a rep company, especially something like that, they're doing their best to show up for their clients too.
And all of these suppliers are, they're, they have clients on both sides essentially is what they're, they have clients and customers that they're balancing this relationship with. So if you've committed to a. Or rather, before you commit to a fam, really make sure that it works for you. I mean, obviously there are gonna be times where a medical emergency or family emergency comes into play.
We're all human. We understand those things. But when it comes to just like opting out because you feel too busy or I don't wanna spend that money anymore, that's putting someone else in a really hard situation. To me, you should be bought in all the way. Unless a very extreme circumstance, it would take a lot for me to have to back out of a fam.
I think that would be a really challenging spot to put a supplier and someone you expect a continue a relationship with.
Robin: The overarching [00:36:00] theme here, don't jump at FAMs like, yes, it is exciting. Yes, it's so much fun and it's a huge perk of the job, regardless of how everyone thinks. It's like hunky dory when you're there.
It's work and it's fun to work, but it's work and. I mean, you need to look at these fam opportunities from a business lens and not just a, oh, I love to travel. Let me book a plane ticket lens.
Jennifer: Um, if you'd know that you've budgeted, well, you've prepared your clients for you to be out of office. You know that you're working with a partner that you wanna work with.
It makes that fam so much more fun. So fun. . We had so much fun in Morocco with
Robin: experience Morocco. So much fun. They're such a good group. So shout out to experience Morocco. I think my whole perception on FAMs changed the day. I realized that if I sell enough and make enough money, I can travel without having to worry about the crap that you have to worry about on a famm.
Cuz spamming isn't traveling. the same way it is when you're like at a resort and totally [00:37:00] disconnected traveling to travel. I think Reignites like your whole passion for the actual travel industry, but like you need to almost budget that in and not fam. Well,
Jennifer: when we did our Italy trip, we were on a self-guided fam, but we experienced the destination as a client would, and there's value to that.
So if you are going to be selling a destination and you want to continue to sell that destination really well, I think the best situation is to budget and go there yourself and experience it for yourself. Even if you do site visits, honestly, you can't just go pop, pop, pop to these hotels and then walk away and act like you know the destination.
It's, it's not gonna happen. If I went to. Frankly, I don't know the destination of Punana. We went to every hotel practically. We like chugged it out, but I would never be able to tell you. I know the destination , so I, I always
Robin: forget I even went to the Dominican Republic when I like left it list off countries.
I'm like, I forget cuz it [00:38:00] just was a blur. . Yeah.
Jennifer: I mean realistically you, you do absolutely. Want to get to know a destination, and if the fan's not gonna do that for you, for something that you're gonna sell habitually, then that's where there should be some real analysis. We're sending you a long distance.
Cheers, because you just finished an episode of Tik Talk and we're so grateful for your support.
Robin: If you loved what you heard, hit subscribe and head over to the show notes for any resources and a summary of the.
Jennifer: In the meantime, if you want more access to us, we're personally inviting you to join our niche by TE Community where we host live events.
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Robin: year. What's better than being surrounded by like-minded advisors who are hyping you out to succeed each day? We think nothing.
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