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January 2020: Celebrating our best-ever month

We are thrilled to announce that January 2020 was the best month in Travel Counsellors history.

We achieved £89.5 million in sales across the 7 countries we operate in, representing a 12% increase on January 2019. When compared to the 1% growth in the wider UK market (see page 19 of Mintel's Holiday Review), it gives us even greater cause for celebration.

Friday 31st January was our biggest sales day to date, coming in at over £5 million.

We saw 3 of our top 5 biggest sales days in January 2020, and 369 Travel Counsellors globally had their best-ever sales months, with many achieving 6-figure monthly sales and a number even reaching the dizzying heights of half a million in sales.

One of our Academy Travel Counsellors, who only joined us just over a year ago, had a whopping month, making over £196,000 in January alone. This is a remarkable achievement when you consider that they had no experience selling travel prior to that.

Sean Hickey had a slower start to Janaury, but by proactively approaching his corporate clients and keeping close to his leisure bookings, Sean managed to turn things around and had his best-ever month.

Business Travel Counsellors, Max Fone and Sebastian Burgess, joined us just under a year ago, working together as a team. Both Max and Seb achieved our ‘Gold’ status in January, meaning they have hit a number of sales targets and can now look forward to our Gold Dinners and Gold Weekends.

But it’s not all about numbers, we have heard countless stories of the Travel Counsellors community pulling together and supporting each other. Check out just a few amazing examples...

Business Travel Counsellor Carl Breton was January’s biggest hitter, but called upon the support of his fellow Business TC’s when his client had a last-minute change of plan:

"I took Diane out last night for a celebratory meal after Fridays' monster day…picture the scene; we had the best table, a great meal, we were having a lovely evening until 2200 GMT when I received a message from one of my clients to tell me that a traveller who was checked-in and due to fly to the UK from Rio now needed to fly on Sunday instead! I put a plea out to see if any TCs could help me, and within 2 minutes Antony Guy (Top Performing TC 2019!) was messaging me to see what he could do, closely followed by Robbie Frost-Jansen, Dorian Hayes, Sallie Rudman and many others. Antony and Robbie worked together so we did not need to cut short our meal and my clients were fully supported. When you have 2 of the top agents in the company helping you out on a Saturday night for no reward, you know you are with the right company! Proof (if any is needed) that you should fully embrace TC culture, build a good network of friends and colleagues around you and the rest will follow…!”

Gaynor Ptterson soical

Bianca Whalley joined us after being made redundant from Thomas Cook, and reached out to Travel Counsellor of 20 years, Paula Ross:

“I had lots of enquires but not necessarily of the right quality, so I was feeling a bit disheartened and like my business was just ticking over. I reached out to Paula, explained how I was feeling and she was amazing; very supportive and made me feel a lot more positive. I couldn’t decide whether to post cheaper deals on social media to get the interaction, or continue sharing the softer, more inspirational and personal stories. The deals may get more enquiries, but they are not the enquiries I want; I find I spend a lot of time for little return and I’m not able to offer the personal service I want to. I have decided to play the long game, target the market I want, network to the market I want and build the foundations to the business I want. I have had my local established TC’s getting in touch; Tracy Blackman, Sue Kirkham, Julie Dalton and others asking me how I am doing, giving me words of encouragement. We also have a coffee morning for us all to get together in February. I came from Cooks and never really experienced this in the 19 years I was with them. So today I am feeling more positive, more focused and ready to get out there, network and build my business.”

The stories of our support team going above and beyond to get bookings over the line are aplenty, but two stand-out examples are two 6-figure tailor-made itineraries to Barbados and Thailand, which two Travel Counsellors got over the line with the support of our sales teams.

Leah Mackay social

Not only do Travel Counsellors continue to grow as a global business, but most importantly, our franchisees see success on an individual level.

We do not have shops, call centres or online bookings tools, meaning everything we have achieved in January is the cumulative success of our 1900-strong network of caring travel professionals. Our franchisees have the freedom to run their own businesses, with the backing of the UK’s Best Travel Retailer, and a company who truly cares about each and every one of them individually.

Are you ready to become a Travel Counsellor?

Ready to become a Travel Counsellor? We’ll give you all support you need to get your travel career off to a flying start. If you’d like to learn more before you get started, get in touch with one of our experts.

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