By Mike Foster/ After nearly five decades in the travel industry, I’ve learned that sometimes the most profitable word in your vocabulary is “no.” But it took me years to understand that saying no to the wrong opportunities isn’t limiting your business – it’s focusing it.
Early in my career, like most travel advisors, I believed that every potential client was a good client. Every RFP that crossed my desk looked like opportunity. Every inquiry deserved pursuit. I was so focused on winning every sales opportunity that I couldn’t see the value of building a sustainable, profitable business.
The lesson came early when I was focused on chasing large corporate clients – the kind of high-profile accounts that every agency wanted. These were the “shiny objects” of our industry: well-known companies with substantial travel budgets and impressive booking volumes. When their RFPs arrived, I’d spend hours crafting responses, trying to position our agency as the ideal solution for their needs.
But here’s what I finally realized: our RFP answers would never be as compelling as our competitors’. These competitors had built their entire businesses specifically to focus on this niche. They had the systems, the dedicated staff, the supplier relationships, the volume, and the specialized expertise that large corporations required. We could serve these clients, sure, but should we?
The margins were skinny, the competition was fierce, and to become truly competitive, we had an uphill climb ahead of us. More importantly, pursuing these accounts was preventing us from seeing a much better opportunity right in front of us.
While my competitors were chasing the same high-profile companies, there was an entire tier of mid-sized businesses being largely ignored by the industry heavyweights. These companies had substantial travel needs but weren’t big enough to attract the focused attention of the major agencies. They were afterthoughts to most travel companies.
I realized we could bring to this segment the kind of service and attention that only the largest clients normally received. And because there was far less competition, we could charge higher fees that reflected the value we provided.
Natural advantages
The shift in thinking was simple but profound: instead of trying to compete where we were disadvantaged, we focused on where we had natural advantages.
We actually focused on these mid-sized companies while others dismissed them. We gave them the attention and service levels they deserved but rarely received. Even when they were being served by larger agencies, they were often treated as secondary accounts, getting less attention and service than they needed.
This wasn’t about settling for less – it was about finding the right fit. By stepping back and taking an honest look at our skills, tools, and abilities, we could see where to apply our expertise most effectively. It became a matter of understanding who we were, what we wanted our company to be, and finding the ideal prospects to serve to reach our goals.
A colleague of mine took this principle even further, with spectacular results.
While most agents dismissed Las Vegas travel as uninteresting, low-margin, and boring business – the kind typically handled by newer, less experienced agents – my colleague saw opportunity. He genuinely loved Vegas, knew it inside out, and went there frequently. He understood the city, what kind of clients it attracted, and knew exactly where to send them.
He saw the opportunity to become ‘the’ Vegas expert. He developed relationships with suppliers, built a reputation as an advisor who could move business, and lots of it. Suppliers worked closely with him, providing advantages that generalists couldn’t access. His clients raved about him. If you were going to Vegas, he was your guy.
The result? He could sell in minutes what many agents would take hours to do, and not as well. He was efficient, highly profitable, and built a loyal client base. Those happy Vegas clients also came back looking for other kinds of travel, but he maintained his focus, hiring others to handle the complementary niches that his Vegas clients requested. He never lost sight of what his greatest value was, nor his focus.
Expert or generalist?
Both of these experiences taught me the same fundamental lesson: clients choose experts over generalists every time.
It’s becoming less and less possible to serve clients well when you’re not an expert. Why even try or pretend? The modern travel landscape rewards specialists who truly understand their niche, not generalists who claim to do everything.
The advisors who are afraid of specializing because they think it limits their opportunities have it exactly backwards. In today’s market, trying to serve everyone means serving no one particularly well. Clients can book basic travel online – they come to travel advisors for expertise, insight, and specialized knowledge they can’t get elsewhere.
The key questions every travel advisor should ask themselves:
- What are you genuinely good at?
- What can you succeed at better than your competitors?
- What does that niche truly want and need?
- Where can you become the recognized expert?
Don’t just assume you know and can do anything. Sure, anything is possible, but that doesn’t mean everything should be tried. Choose a niche that helps you satisfy your business goals, then never stand still. Always be reviewing, reassessing, refocusing, and building to be the expert that your niche will value.
And here’s the crucial part: get the pricing right. Experts deserve and command higher fees and commissions. When you’re the go-to person for a specific type of travel, you’re not competing on price – you’re competing on value, expertise, and results.
Looking back, I realize that learning to say no to the wrong opportunities was actually learning to say yes to the right ones. Building a focused, expert-driven business isn’t about limiting your opportunities – it’s about creating better ones.
Sometimes the most profitable client is the one you choose not to chase.
(After nearly 50-years in the Canadian travel industry, Mike Foster recently retired as the president of Nexion Travel Group Canada, having also served with ACTA, TICO, and other industry organizations, as well as teaching tourism at Fanshawe College, in London, Ont., during his distinguished career).
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