Upgraded Agent Profiler well received by Travel Leaders retailers

Travel Leaders is launching Agent Profiler 2.0, upgrading an online lead-generation system that agencies are praising for its high-quality leads and an average close rate of about 20%. Some agencies are getting close ratios of about 50%.

Agent profiles in which agents describe themselves and their specialties are the core of the program, which allows consumers to connect with agents who are experts in specific types of vacations.

The enhancements will allow agents to have multiple profiles about themselves, so each profile can focus on a single specialty. Many agents are experts on several different kinds of travel.

Enhancements will also allow agents to blog about their own travels.

And, agencies can use original photos from their own travels. Travel Leaders is compiling a gallery of photos taken by Travel Leaders agents.

The enhancements also include client testimonials about their experiences working with individual agents.

This means that agents will have multiple profiles, their own posts about their travels and client testimonials, increasing the ways that consumers can find them.

Multiple profiles will be featured on every page of the Travel Leaders website, whether it’s a destination page or a supplier page. The profiles featured on pages will rotate.

“For us, it is all about selling travel agents online, we’re not trying to sell travel online,” said Brian Hegarty, vice president of marketing for the Travel Leaders Franchise Group. “Customers are looking for conversation, story-telling and authenticity, they’re not looking necessarily for copywriter or supplier copy.”

Agent profiles will appear on pages that match their specialties. For example, river cruise specialists will be featured on pages about river cruises.

Agents praised the existing program and the enhancements.

Judy Clappin, president of Travel Leaders Donavan Travel, East Greenwich, R.I., who is working on a year-long, round-the-world trip that came from an Agent Profiler lead, called the enhancements “awesome.”

“Agents have more than one specialty, but you don’t want a person who is interested in one thing to have to read through the whole entire profile to see if this agent is qualified,” she said.

“We are so excited,” said Wendy Schwartz-Mix, operations manager for Travel Leaders in Maple Grove, Minn., who sold an $8,000 Alaska honeymoon through Agent Profiler.

She said that many agents have multiple specialties. Because keywords are so important in the profile, using a variety of keywords can be a challenge in writing a single profile. Having multiple profiles takes care of that problem, she said.

Nora Blum, also with Travel Leaders, Maple Grove, Minn., has sold trips to Greece and Peru that were roughly $8,000 and $10,000, respectively, through Agent Profiler leads.

Annette Youngbauer, president and CEO of Travel Leaders, Journeys Travel Group, Delafield, Wis., said that one of her agents sold a $17,000 trip to the South Pacific from an Agent Profiler lead.

She said she was excited about the new additions to Agent Profiler.

“We do have agents who have dual specialties, they could be South Pacific and weddings an honeymoons or any of a variety of combinations. It’s so much more robust, it blew me away.”

Several agents said that Agent Profiler also helps with referrals. Current clients give agents’ names to their friends, who then go online to vet the agents and contact them.

Not all leads are high end and some are from shoppers who never book.