Business Development Representative - Travel Agency Sales

Location: Remote, must be located and authorized to work in the United States.

ABOUT [Employer]

With 98+ years in travel, the award-winning [Employer] – consisting of [Employer], Cosmos, and Avalon Waterways – creates vacations that offer travelers culture-rich experiences featuring must-see sights, the stories behind the scenes and countless joy-filled memories in more than 70 countries on six continents across the globe. With equal measures vision and hard work; team collaboration and commitment; adaptability, honesty, and integrity as well as a genuine love for all-things-travel, the [Employer] – a leader in international travel – now offers unparalleled, perfectly planned tours; inventive, inspiring cruises and modern, independent vacation packages to millions of travelers.

Travel and/or in-office presence may be required at times. Generous benefit package including travel benefits and retirement.

THE ROLE

The role of a Business Development Representative (BDR) - Prospects is to serve the external customers and internal partners by generating and increasing sales. In this role, account managers will contact new travel advisor leads, introducing them to our products and systems and nurture them until they start making bookings.

The Business Development Representative (BDR) is responsible for qualifying leads and developing successful new partnerships with travel advisors by introducing travel advisors to our [Employer] and developing their skills and ability to sell the [Employer] travel products. The BDR will contact new and current non-producing advisors, qualify those advisors and then nurture them to develop their first bookings with [Employer]. The BDR will initiate outbound calls and correspondence campaigns designed to generate and increase the number of active GFOB advisors.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• A minimum of 3 months in an outbound sales environment.
• Strong written, verbal, and email communication skills.
• Proven organizational and follow-up skills.
• Working with call center technologies and processes, including email, Web chat, interactive selling or related techniques.
• Technical and functional skills using a variety of computer applications, especially CRM.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• The preferred candidate will hold a bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from four-year College or university; or one to two years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Leisure travel product knowledge, specifically [Employer] products, services, features, and benefits.
• Ability to type at least 45 wpm
• Working with points of interest/geography
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, especially MS Teams, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint

THE POSITION

The Business Development Representative (BDR) is responsible for the following results:

• Generating and increasing sales by identifying new advisor booking opportunities.
• Building relationships with new advisors through outbound calling, email communications, linked in, and inbound call backs.
• Educating advisors on our products and promotions, source materials and developing a growth plan through various marketing initiatives.
• Implementing call/email campaigns to advisors responding to marketing initiatives.
• Following up on new to industry advisor leads and other lead types.
• Encourage inactive advisors to restart their activity or determine if they are no longer a viable prospect.
• Reaching and exceeding sales objectives by converting prospects into booking advisors.
• Developing business relationships and fostering a spirit of cooperation with GFOB departments.
• Answering primarily customer inquiries by maintaining knowledge of ‘key differences’, promotional offers, marketing campaigns, product knowledge, and destination expertise.
• Ensuring advisors receive accurate, timely, and quality information about the products we supply, overcoming customer objections by researching, evaluating, resolving or escalating as needed.
• Contributing to a team effort by accomplishing related results or projects as needed.
• Handling special projects as assigned through detailed program knowledge and interpersonal skills.
• Attending travel shows/events as needed.
• Remaining knowledgeable and up to date with company products and competitive landscape to ensure a trusted resource with advisors.
• Maintaining advisor/agency updates in database (CRM) as needed.

THE DEPARTMENT

Travel Agency Sales consists of Senior Directors, Business Development Managers, Account Managers and Inside Sales Account Managers The team increases sales for over 9,000 of our travel agency partners. They share product and destination information, promotions and incentives, and sales and marketing tools to help our agencies market and sell to their clients. Our Field Sales team (Business Development Managers) visit agencies, meet with owners/managers, conduct product training, and attend many industry shows/conferences to spread the [Employer] news. Our Account Managers support the three key verticals (National Accounts, Key Accounts and Strategic Accounts) along with Senior Directors. Our Inside Sales Managers conduct call campaigns, e-mail campaigns, and provide marketing flyers and tools to help educate the travel agent community.

EOE

While performing this job, it will require: Eight (8) hours or more a day of sitting; walking; standing; bending; answering the telephone; entering data into the computer; retrieving data from the computer or analyzing data from reports.

Originally posted on [Employer]