![Jamie Biesiada](\"https:\/\/ik.imgkit.net\/3vlqs5axxjf\/TW\/ik-seo\/uploadedImages\/All_TW_Art\/TWSTF\/T0831JBIESIADA\/Jamie-Biesiada.jpg\" "Jamie Biesiada")
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I would make a terrible travel advisor.<\/p>\n
At least, that’s my takeaway from\u00a0the latest episode of the Trade Secrets podcast, when my co-host Emma Weissmann and I posed as an advisor and a prospective client. I was the advisor, and boy, oh, boy did I use some wording that sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Travel Planners International’s Jenn Lee (though she did nicely point out that I’m still learning).<\/p>\n
Lee, Travel Planners’ vice president of industry engagement and support, offered plenty of advice about the vocabulary advisors should be using. For all of it, please give the episode a listen, but I’m including some here.<\/p>\n
For instance, when asked what I do, I said, “I’m a travel agent. I book travel.”<\/p>\n
Lee’s take: “You don’t book travel and you’re not a travel agent, Jamie. Unless you work for somebody else, the correct response would have been, ‘Oh, I own a travel agency.'”<\/p>\n
Positioning yourself as the owner of a company — which every independent contractor (IC) is — elevates you in the potential client’s eyes, she said. Starting the conversation with that knowledge puts a different lens on all that follows.<\/p>\n
For those who aren’t ICs, but instead are travel agency employees, Lee recommended saying, “I’m a travel advisor with such-and-such travel agency,’ or ‘I partner with such-and-such travel agency.'”<\/p>\n
Another mistake I made in my conversation with a “prospective client”: I said, “When you use an agent, you get perks you wouldn’t get otherwise, and we can also save you time and money.”<\/p>\n