Knowing and Doing
We have a strange relationship with what we know. We know we should have a written business plan, and we know we should have a written budget. We know we should have a mission statement. We know we should always offer travel insurance to our clients or get a waiver.
When we hear best practices, or even the general principles of marketing, sales and customer service, seldom are we surprised. Good business advice is not often a revelation, but a matter of common sense, reminding us of what we already know. But moving from “I know” to “I always do” can be a major undertaking. There is a big gap between knowing something and doing something. We sometimes convince ourselves, in fact, that because we know something, we are actually doing it. |
We have to realize ideas provide only the opportunity for enhancing our travel practice and business, for adopting a marketing mindset. But just as importantly, we must learn to adopt the methods necessary to bring the ideas into concrete form. Action is often the missing ingredient in short supply. We have to be willing to apply the idea to ourselves, to put it into action in our practice.
Too often we hear great ideas at trade shows and from our coaches, but we are slow to put the ideas into practice. They go into the briefcase for a later date and we continue doing business as usual. Consequently, we remain stuck in the same place as usual, wondering why all of the money we spent on training or the trade show or the business coach isn’t working.
It's All About Attitude!
In a service industry like travel consulting, carrying a good attitude into the buying process is vitally important to success. Our outer world reflects our inner landscape. If we view clients as opponents, if we don’t feel good about our skill set, if we don’t fundamentally have a positive perspective on the travel profession, every aspect of your travel practice, including your revenue, will suffer. Clients intuitively detect, and respond to, attitude and mood.
The psychology of travel planning and maintaining the correct attitude is complex, but important. A travel planner with a positive attitude will, over the course of time, successfully interact with more clients than a travel agent burned out on travel consulting. The travel agent with an authentically good attitude understands the concerns of clients and works with them from a perspective of helpful assistance. A good attitude supplies the energy to prospect for clients, for conducting meetings, doing research and making presentations. A good attitude carries a confident demeanor and makes clients comfortable with the travel agent’s abilities. A good attitude is the essential foundation for trust.
I want to differentiate having a positive attitude from an inauthentic emphasis on “positive thinking” which is often little more than “wishful thinking." Don’t mistake a phony smile and an overly-enthusiastic handshake for a good attitude. In an authentic frame of reference, a positive attitude means, most simply, that you really like what you do as a travel professional. A travel agent with a positive attitude has allowed a passion for travel to extend to a desire to assist others to travel better. A positive attitude may begin with truly liking what you do, but it requires daily care and maintenance. There is a lot of wear and tear on our attitude as we bump up against life’s obstacles, objections, and obstructions. Keep items around you to remind yourself of your passion for travel.
Keep your work area fresh and uncluttered. Give yourself time each day to breath, to read, listen to music, walk outdoors, or whatever allows you to refresh your mental energies. Spend some time realigning your perspective on being a travel professional, on your fundamental mission toward clients. Work to not just intellectually understand the need for empathy, but to adopt an empathetic attitude emotionally so that it is your first reaction to the client, not a forced one.
As you visualize your meetings with clients, make your mood the very first element of the exercise. Your mood will impact every aspect of each client encounter. Before a meeting, take a few deep breaths, relax, and reflect on a positive attitude toward your client and your profession. The outer world reflects our inner landscape, and our mood is contagious. Give your clients the opportunity to see travel through your passion and positive attitude for their well-being.
Exercise:
Retrieve your notes from the last trade show seminar you attended, or from the last session with your business coach or even from an Exercise in the Travel Professional Academy lessons. Find and highlight the core of the lesson, the professional advice at the center of the presentation. Narrow it down to a single idea you can accomplish it. Then, apply it to your practice each and every day for the next month. Put the advice into action and mould it to your personality and nature. Then, the next time you attend a training, find at least one nugget of information and absolutely integrate in into your practice. Gear yourself to move from idea to action. Soon, you will be bridging the gap between what you know and what you do. Just as soon, you will find yourself rising above business as usual.
Too often we hear great ideas at trade shows and from our coaches, but we are slow to put the ideas into practice. They go into the briefcase for a later date and we continue doing business as usual. Consequently, we remain stuck in the same place as usual, wondering why all of the money we spent on training or the trade show or the business coach isn’t working.
It's All About Attitude!
In a service industry like travel consulting, carrying a good attitude into the buying process is vitally important to success. Our outer world reflects our inner landscape. If we view clients as opponents, if we don’t feel good about our skill set, if we don’t fundamentally have a positive perspective on the travel profession, every aspect of your travel practice, including your revenue, will suffer. Clients intuitively detect, and respond to, attitude and mood.
The psychology of travel planning and maintaining the correct attitude is complex, but important. A travel planner with a positive attitude will, over the course of time, successfully interact with more clients than a travel agent burned out on travel consulting. The travel agent with an authentically good attitude understands the concerns of clients and works with them from a perspective of helpful assistance. A good attitude supplies the energy to prospect for clients, for conducting meetings, doing research and making presentations. A good attitude carries a confident demeanor and makes clients comfortable with the travel agent’s abilities. A good attitude is the essential foundation for trust.
I want to differentiate having a positive attitude from an inauthentic emphasis on “positive thinking” which is often little more than “wishful thinking." Don’t mistake a phony smile and an overly-enthusiastic handshake for a good attitude. In an authentic frame of reference, a positive attitude means, most simply, that you really like what you do as a travel professional. A travel agent with a positive attitude has allowed a passion for travel to extend to a desire to assist others to travel better. A positive attitude may begin with truly liking what you do, but it requires daily care and maintenance. There is a lot of wear and tear on our attitude as we bump up against life’s obstacles, objections, and obstructions. Keep items around you to remind yourself of your passion for travel.
Keep your work area fresh and uncluttered. Give yourself time each day to breath, to read, listen to music, walk outdoors, or whatever allows you to refresh your mental energies. Spend some time realigning your perspective on being a travel professional, on your fundamental mission toward clients. Work to not just intellectually understand the need for empathy, but to adopt an empathetic attitude emotionally so that it is your first reaction to the client, not a forced one.
As you visualize your meetings with clients, make your mood the very first element of the exercise. Your mood will impact every aspect of each client encounter. Before a meeting, take a few deep breaths, relax, and reflect on a positive attitude toward your client and your profession. The outer world reflects our inner landscape, and our mood is contagious. Give your clients the opportunity to see travel through your passion and positive attitude for their well-being.
Exercise:
Retrieve your notes from the last trade show seminar you attended, or from the last session with your business coach or even from an Exercise in the Travel Professional Academy lessons. Find and highlight the core of the lesson, the professional advice at the center of the presentation. Narrow it down to a single idea you can accomplish it. Then, apply it to your practice each and every day for the next month. Put the advice into action and mould it to your personality and nature. Then, the next time you attend a training, find at least one nugget of information and absolutely integrate in into your practice. Gear yourself to move from idea to action. Soon, you will be bridging the gap between what you know and what you do. Just as soon, you will find yourself rising above business as usual.