The Travel Professional’s Guide To

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The Travel Professional’s Guide to Selling Travel With Humour

Steve Crowhurst, CTC

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The Travel Professional’s Guide to Selling Travel With Humour © 2015 Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise whatsoever without written permission or authorization through payment of a Permission to Copy fee (except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews) . For information please contact SMP Training Co. steve@sellingtravel.net or call 250-738-0064. Protected by the Canadian Copyright Act. For general information on SMP publications and services please email: steve@sellingtravel.net Illustrations by Steve Crowhurst.

Limit of liability/disclaimer of warranty: SMP Training Co., publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here from. The fact that an organisation or website is referred to in this work as a citation and / or potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information, the organisation or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

THE SELLING TRAVEL STORE COACHING PROGRAM

To help you get the maximum benefit from your purchase. The Selling Travel Store offers a free coaching session with the author of the e-Guide. The coaching sessions last for up to one-hour and are conducted via Skype. Once you have read through and studied this eGuide jot down any questions, challenges you have, then email to steve@sellingtravel.net to arrange a coaching date and time.

Be sure to take advantage of this offer!

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PAGE TOPIC 4 Introduction

5 Types of Humour

6 More Types of Humour x 20

9 Humourosity Velocity

12 Selling With a Smile

15 Blended Humour

17 Personal One-on-One Humour

18 Seeding Your Desk

20 Humour in eMails

21 Humour in Auto Responder Messages

22 Humour in On-Hold Messages

23 Humour on the Telephone

24 Humour at the Meet & Greet

25 SMILE MARKETING

26 Blogging

28 Cartoons

30 Comics / Books

32 Conversations

33 Images

36 Jokes

38 Mascots

39 Postcards

41 Posters

43 Quotations

45 Slogans

48 Stories

49 Tin Signs

51 Trick Shots

52 Videos – Yours/Theirs

53 50 Shades of HEY!

54 TOOLS & HOW TO

54 MS Word Background Remover

55 Marvel Comic Strip and Book Creator

56 Garfield Comic Strip Creator

57 Snag It

58 About The Author

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Introduction Yes, it’s true! Customers love to do business with a happy and smiling (for the right reasons) salesperson. They also like humourous anecdotes, articles, cartoons, mascots, images and videos related to the “joys” of travelling. Your humourosity (new word!) can come first hand from your own experiences and also 2nd and 3rd hand from your clients and friends of clients and even what you find online, in books and elsewhere such as your preferred suppliers. The first step in the right direction would be to create a folder and label it Humour or Fun and under that heading you can create additional folders labelled Images, Videos, Jokes, Air, Rail, Hotel and any other title that takes your fancy. An image is worth a thousand chuckles as it were and both an image and video beat out pages of text to tell a shaggy dog story. On the other hand, some clients love those long missives with a crazy ending. Somewhere in the mix you will find out what makes your clients laugh and then you’ll be wise in selecting what you send them to attract their attention. The next step is to understand yourself a little more and to ascertain whether or not you are a humourous person. Your friends and work colleagues will tell you, your clients too. It comes out usually in the form of, “Oh, you’re too funny!” or, “I have to say, you have a dry sense of humour…” or, you might receive a response to your email or text with an icon such as a Smiley dude or Internet slang such as: LOL = Laughing Out Loud (not so much the old hand written meaning of Lots of Love as some think it to be). Then you have LMAO ="Laugh(ing) My Ass Off" and ROTFL or ROFL “Roll(ing) On The Floor Laughing” – and then there’s always this fella :) A key to using humour in sales and marketing is knowing when you are too blue, over the top, offensive and / or just downright rude. This I call humourosity velocity and we’ll take a hard look at this later in the guide. Think about past travel situations you have experienced. So what did happen and was it funny? If it was, then you have something new and humorous to post to your clients. Okay it’s time to get busy and find out how you too can sell more travel using humour as a sales and marketing foundation and that should have you laughing all the way to the bank. LOL! Steve Crowhurst.

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TYPES OF HUMOUR The type of humour we’re talking about in this guide is the happy humour! Humour that makes you and your clients chuckle, feel good, warm up to you and even pass on the humour to someone else. We don’t go near the type of humour that’s used when being critical of others, being sarcastic and embarrassing others by joking openly about them. It’s always a good thing to listen to yourself when being humourous or about to be humourous and looking around, making sure no one in the room or in your presence will be offended. Here’s four Humour Styles you’ll need to know about so that you can judge your clients acceptance of one or more of the twenty variations of humour that’s coming up on the next page. Affiliative humor: this style of humour is often used in selling whether the agent knows they are using it or not. Some people are naturally humourous and “do this” as just part of their day. It is used to enhance one’s relationships with others in a benevolent, positive manner. Travel agents high in this style of humour often use humor as a way to charm and amuse others, ease tension among others, and improve customer relationships. These agents are more often spontaneous in their joke telling, frequently participate in witty repartee, puns and enjoy laughing with others. Self-enhancing humor: this style is also excellent for building rapport with clients. Having the ability to laugh at yourself, your travel circumstances and your life in general in a constructive, non-detrimental manner. This type of humor is often used as a type of coping or emotion-regulating humor in which you and your clients look on the bright side of a bad situation - travel or otherwise. Aggressive humor is a style of humor that is potentially detrimental towards others. This type of humor is characterized by the use of sarcasm, put-downs, teasing, criticism, ridicule, and used at the expense of others. Self-defeating humor is the style of humor characterized by the use of potentially detrimental humor towards yourself in order to gain approval from others or it can come from how one was raised.

Where do you think your clients fit into the above four styles?

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Humourosity Velocity is the speed at which you can generate humour within a selling situation that enhances the communication and helps close the sale.

The art of Humourosity Velocity is based on your ability to bring forth a humourous comment, pun, clean joke etc., that fits the situation right now and causes the customer to smile, nod, laugh outright or end up on the floor giggling like there’s no tomorrow. Listen to yourself the next time you are with a client. Listen to them. Listen to other travel agents in your agency and again when you are amongst people engaged in conversation. Listen for the humour. Most times it’s missing. Other times you’ll be surprised at how some sales people introduce it into their selling situation. When you are the customer, look for the humour. As always, “you, me and we” stay away from political, racial and religious humour. There’s enough going on in the travel trade that’s funny from the get go. You can search for that online too.

Client: Have you ever stayed in a cheap and nasty hotel?

TA: Well yes I have, and the room was so small…

Client: It was, how small was it?

TA: Well, when I put the key in the door, I broke the bedroom window! Hokey I know, but hey, that was from a Bob Hope skit. Who is Bob Hope? Well you can Google him too. From Bob Hope to Jerry Seinfeld to any other current comedian you can borrow some of their material without a concern – unless you intend to do stand up in their home town! Using it as sit down is fine as you weave their clean jokes into your meet and greet with your clients. If you are light on humour, check locally. There are people who can show you how to be more humourous in life and at work.

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Seeding Your Desk To seed your desk means to have something on your desk, visible to the client that is humourous. Could be a quotation, a slogan, a photograph, a plaque and it might be, or could be a poster on the wall behind you. The photograph for instance might be of a situation that you witnessed. The image speaks for itself and so frame it up and let it sit and sell on your desk. For a small amount of money these days your image could be printed poster size, framed and hanging on the wall behind you. The fact that you took the photograph adds to the conversation. You’ll notice when the client looks up, takes it in, and chuckles and that’s your cue to say, “You should have been there…” and then you can relate your story. As of ‘right now’ you and the client have come together, a little closer simply through a humourous poster that caused the client to chuckle. To smile. The “poster” shown here I put together using some of the travel related graphics found in the software I have purchased. The phrase at the bottom has been in the travel trade for many years and applied to one or two airlines in the past. So with a quick bit of cut and paste you can create your own poster, have it printed and framed and on the wall it goes.

Think about your own desk – what have you got on it or around it that’s humourous and gets noticed without you having to point it out?

What could you seed your desk with based on what you’ve read so far?

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Here’s where we sample 15 possible ideas as to where and how you can deliver your humourous message and turn it into a SMILE MARKETING campaign. 1. Blogging

2. Cartoons

3. Comics

4. Conversations

5. Images

6. Jokes

7. Mascots

8. Postcards

9. Posters

10. Quotations

11. Slogans

12. Stories

13. Tin Signs

14. Trick Shots

15. Videos

This is the look you want to see on your client’s face during and after your sales / booking scenario.

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Blogging as you know takes time, energy and total commitment. If you start a blog, humourous or otherwise then you must keep up the pace and maintain the schedule you have set for yourself. A daily dose of humour is a tough road to haul, so best not do that, and even if you could manage it, you could over humour your clients to the point where they will no longer check in or accept your blog.

Blogging is best when it’s meaningful and for a travel agency, blogging should be curtailed to weekly or as and when. I have always preferred the “as and when” timing, which means you only post something to your blog when you have something worthwhile to advise your clients about. Other than that, you are merely wasting your time blogging to no one in particular and losing valuable selling time. When you explore online for humourous travel blogs they are generally not written by a professional travel agent. To that end you’ll find some rather unfortunate wording and what, to some “nomads” as they like to call themselves, is humour. Actually the content tends to be often rude, and of course, not written to attract a customer, more so to boast about where the ‘nomad’ has been. You will find that some of these ‘nomads” have been “on the road” for six months and claim a calling to tell others to follow their dreams. Chances are you’ve been on the road a lot longer, know an awful lot more about the world. You too want people to follow their dreams and do that by booking them with you. Knowing about those “other blogs”, YOUR blog should be promoted as written by a travel professional, keeping the language clean and acceptable and delivering something you could say in conversation with any of your clients. Your SMILE MARKETING activities will help sell your blog over the blogs that are gratuitous in rude content, self-focused and grandstanding.

The Rat Race A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. A tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. "Not very long," answered the Mexican. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the tourist. The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The tourist asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs... I have a full life."

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Call us today and save your child’s sanity!!

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Ah... now here’s where your cat, dog, nephew can earn their keep! First question is: do you need a mascot? Next question: do you want a mascot? Then I suppose the question after that is: how would you use a mascot if you had one? Let’s explore: Your mascot should match and support the niche or specialty you are known for. Or, it could represent you if you do not mind the chatter that’ll come back to you about how the mascot “…really does look like him!” You can as you well know, have a mascot created for you and then again there are characters you can access when you buy into a subscription to a graphics for sale website. Here’s a mascot I created for a Ct article I wrote on How To Sell Arizona. I played on the word Arizona to come up with Harry Zona. Once sketched out our Harry can take on all sorts of marketing roles.

If not YOU than who? If you sell outdoor adventures, then a nice agreeable bear might serve you well. A surfboard with a face can work. Selling women only? Well decide which end of the age bracket your mascot will be. Are you into foodie tours – then how about Foodie as your mascot? So easy.

True to say that mascots are everywhere. Japan loves them. Google the

very word using Images and you’ll meet some of these guys. You cannot copy them BUT you can get a few ideas for creating your own mascot.

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Click on Google Images and type in Tin Signs + slogans, or funny sayings. Or take a trip downtown to the local tourist area and you’ll find these tin signs being sold right there you live. More than a few are very funny. Humourous. Some are close to the mark and probably wouldn’t serve you well as a marketing tool. The idea however of a tin sign however is retro and it can be fun. Here’s a few of the tin signs + slogan images that resulted from my search.

Let’s get busy. There are tin sign makers in your area for sure… you just need to find them. Once you’ve accomplished that, it’s all down to the slogan you want to have stamped into a tin plate. The saying shown here is as old as dirt. It’s pre-retro! But, it still lingers on. It’s simple and the “do it” wording can have many a meaning. Of course, you mean making travel arrangements. Try a couple more:

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MS WORD – BACKGROUND REMOVER Using the background removal tool in Windows / Word. Start by opening MS Word. Select the Landscape Orientation (Page Layout, Orientation, Landscape) and then copy and paste your picture. To reveal the Remove Background applications, click on your image (1) and then look for the Picture Tools tab (2) and then finally look for the Remove Background tab (3).

The Remove Background app might start right away and show you your image with the background

removed, indicated by the mauve area. Move the image handles to configure the sizing and then click Keep Changes.

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Steve’s eGuides are now available from The Travel Institute Book Store

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About The Author Steve Crowhurst Travel trade keynote speaker, trainer, author & publisher.

Steve entered the retail travel industry in 1965 and has worked from the front line to the executive floor, owned and operated his own travel agencies, travel trade training and consulting firms and has worked from a home office for over 20 years. In 2010 he published his 412 page book 273 “No Fluff - No Theory” Marketing Ideas for Travel Agents; in June 2011 he published the first digital issue of Selling Travel magazine, this was followed by Travel Agency Manager and Travel Trade Supplier magazines in early 2013. In October 2013 Steve published the first issue of IC Travel Agent a digital magazine targeting the home-based travel agent, ICs and OSRs. The core content for each magazine is now produced under the title: Selling Travel. Steve is currently turning all of his workshops and webinars into easy to read, street savvy eGuides. Check back often at www.sellingtravel.net for new titles on the Selling Travel Store page.

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