Business Travel Clients Lead to Corporate Accounts

Tom Mazza is a very smart man. When reviewing the seminar speaker list for this year’s Limousine Digest Show in Atlantic City he teamed me up with Maurice Brewster of Rollz Royce Limousine of Silicon Valley. He knew, before either of us did that we would make the perfect team. The first time I communicated with Maurice about our speaking engagement we both realized what a perfect team we would make. Maurice is a high end corporate sales guy while I, on the other hand, frequently urge my clients to gain more business traveler clients and worry about corporate contracts later. Our first conversation ended with Maurice quoting a well known line from the movie Top-Gun. “You put ‘em in the pan Goose – and I’ll fry ‘em”!

Below is an article co-authored by myself and Maurice Brewster with help from his lovely wife and partner Rhonda. It is but the tip of the iceberg that is the message we plan to send home with our seminar attendees. By the time this issue is released at the Limousine Digest show – it will be too late to attend so I hope you all have your tickets in hand as I type this. If you don’t – you will have missed one powerful presentation among many. I start off the article and leave the grand finale to Maurice and Rhonda. Here goes:

Build First – Then Expand

Corporate business travelers are a spring-board for corporate accounts. I receive a lot of calls from two and three car limousine companies asking for help developing corporate accounts. Sometimes I think the caller is disappointed when I tell them we need to work on building a strong corporate base first in order to build the business up to a level where they can service a corporate account. The simple fact is; it takes volume to get volume. It’s like the bank. They are always willing to lend you money until you really need it – then you are a risk! When the corporate procurement folks look at your fleet count they think “this company can’t serve our needs; they are too small.” Corporate accounts are built one client at a time, one work group at a time and one division at a time.

Marketing for the Business Traveler

Start with inexpensive marketing efforts that will attract business travelers. My father and I used to go to the commuter park ‘n’ ride lots in our service area and hand out coupons on mornings when we didn’t have any rides. Some of the folks we met on those mornings are still riding with the company today, 16 years later, and some of them turned into corporate accounts. We left our business cards on the counters at the dry cleaners and stationary store. We joined the Chamber of Commerce participating in their functions and business expos. Pretty soon we had five cars on the road instead of only two. We also went around to all the businesses in the area talking to gate keepers who seemed very interested in us but never seemed to get the call. We still weren’t ready for a corporate account, and the man in the big corner office upstairs knew it.

In our area, the Yellow Pages were very effective. We designed our ads to draw the attention of the corporate traveler looking for relief from the anxiety of riding with their company’s contract provider. One such call turned out to be an in-road to one of the largest of the New Jersey pharmaceutical companies. I usually don’t recommend Yellow Pages these days unless you are in a reasonably rural area, are offering very unique service or if you find that Yellow Pages are working well for the competition. They still work in some areas so go with the flow.

Step in and Save

Our most effective marketing tool to gain business traveler clients was direct mail. First, we would contact every new resident who had moved to our area within about 6 weeks of purchasing their property. We used to actually go through the property transactions listed in the newspaper and send a welcome letter to all those who had made a purchase that fir our demographic. Later we used a list service that would sell us the names of people who had made a purchase in our area over a certain price and had used their credit card for travel in the past. “Step in and Save” was an offer for new residents where by the business traveler would receive a 25% rebate based on their first month’s bookings in the form of a check if they had taken 2 or more round trips to the airport during their first 30 days riding with us. The first few weeks after moving into a new home is when a new resident is establishing their buying pattern; this is a perfect time to introduce someone to your local business.

Step in and Save wasn’t just for new residents however, we would regularly send post cards to business travelers in our area. We would buy a mailing list from American Express sorted by income and buying pattern. Our demographic was any person earning over $100K who had used their card to purchase airline tickets or rental cars within the last year. This simple mailing program netted us literally hundreds of thousands in new business traveler sales.

The internet has taken the lead in virtually all marketing efforts. Be sure to reserve some space on your web-site to promote any and all of your special promotions. A simple Google search by a new resident or business traveler in your area should bring up your site, and the incentives you’ve created to gain more business. When you are designing your website, be sure to address the corporate business traveler. Let them know they can reach a live person 24/7. Address their concerns as to your ability to accept last minute reservations and changes. Let them know your company is insured properly and fully licensed. Stress your reliability and timeliness. Above all – give the corporate traveler a volume incentive they can use at vacation time.

Be Creative and Offer an Incentive

Incentives for the business traveler are a major factor in getting your foot in the door. My father came up with the idea to offer a program for frequent riders by which the client would earn credit towards a free airport trip to use at vacation time – that was a very effective program for us in the early days. I have encountered many companies that would purchase airline miles to give to the clients and a few that had programs where the client would earn a free night out in the stretch for so many airport trips. We found, over time, that our program was favored because most frequent flyers already have enough miles to take the family on vacation. They would use their free ride credits to further complement their vacation perks. On occasion, we would allow them to burn up several credits for a stretch ride at an off-peak time for a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion ride.

The best program though came from a competitor whom we bought out a few months before we sold the company in 1998 that gratified the travel planner, or admin. This guy had a program where administrative assistants would earn points towards various awards, free rides, nights out, weddings – even a $100 Macy’s gift certificate. It was an expensive program but it helped us establish ourselves within the client’s company long before a contract was even talked about.

The key was earning the trust of the executive. Trust that we would be where they needed us to be – on time – every time. Trust that the car would be clean and safe. Trust that a professional chauffeur would be behind the wheel. Once the executive starts giving orders to use only your service to satisfy his travel needs it becomes much easier to get the attention of the administrative assistant or travel planner. When you have their attention, give them a reason to tell their friends about you.

The Corporate Bean Counter is Your Friend

As you develop more travel planner and administrative assistant contacts you will begin to develop small groups of travelers here and there throughout many companies. This is a very secure way to build a stable volume. Corporate accounts come and corporate accounts go. The corporate bean counters can take substantial volume from you with the click of their mouse. God forbid, you have all your eggs in one basket and blow the big boss’s ride right out of the water. The likelihood of a bunch of individual executives or small work groups all changing their transportation provider at the same time is non existent barring a major world catastrophe.

The most productive aspect of working with a broad base is that the bean counter becomes your friend. Many times over the years I took calls from executives that would tell me that they were told to stop using our service because the contract provider was $X cheaper. When this happened we were able to gain the contact information of the decision maker and begin the process of getting on the preferred provider list. We always garnered the support of all of our contacts within a company and in many cases would wind up on the preferred provider list a short time later.

After the Sale Tips from the Rollz Royce Team

Now that you’ve gotten your first Corporate Account, it’s not time to sit back. The real work starts now! It’s easy to get an Administrative Assistant or an Office Manager to say that they will start using you. The real challenge is to get the ball rolling in your direction. I want to outline some proposed steps or ideas, to increase your chances of getting your newest best friend, the Administrator, to start giving you more business.

Frequent Traveler Points

Create a program that rewards the Administrator to start using you. We’ve adapted a program called the “FTP’s or Frequent Traveler Points. For every dollar spent, 10% goes towards points that can be used for free travel into the future. This is a program for the Administrator only, not the Corporate Account. They will realize points quickly and be able to enjoy a night out on the town, or celebrate an anniversary. Keep in mind; most people do not use limousines in their daily lives. This is a special treat that will be enjoyed and remembered for a long time and they will have YOU to thank.

Limos to Lunch Program

On a quarterly basis, we invite our key client(s) to join us for a business meeting, in order to evaluate our performance, offer constructive criticism and open up dialogue for things they wish they had. We invite the Administrators who are giving us business and ask them to invite the other Administrators who we don’t have a relationship with. Without exception, in every case, we have established new relationships and gotten more business than we had originally. This L2:L Program must be organized, it must have an agenda and it has to be an enjoyable session. We use this time at Rollz Royce, to impress clients with our facilities. If you operate your business out of your home as we did just 5 short years ago, that’s OK. Have the program at a local restaurant. There isn’t a restaurant in this galaxy, that wouldn’t welcome the opportunity to host this event. Think about it……..a restaurant full of Administrators who make arrangements for flights, car service, or holiday parties!!!!!! The Restaurateur will eagerly work with you to coordinate a smashing event, while showcasing their eating establishment.

Technology

Its time to start embracing this thing called Technology. You MUST look at yourself as a company that is 4X your current size. A company doing $200,000 in gross revenue may not need an online reservation system, but an $800,000 company surely would. Adding this type of access to your company, allows you to take reservations 24/7/365. We’ve all been there. A call comes in and you have your landline phone, forwarded to your cell. When that call comes in, you are driving a client. How does that client feel when your concentration should be on safe driving, is instead on taking an order in your vehicle. The client on the phone knows that you are not giving them all the attention they should have. Your client in the vehicle knows you aren’t paying attention to your driving. How do you think this makes them feel? By having an online booking tool, this alleviates both problems and makes your clients think and feel that you are bigger than you really are. Later in your business life, this addition will reduce the need for headcount. Today, 40% of all of our reservations at Rollz Royce is taken through our online booking tool. It cost us a one-time fee $600.00 and it saved us a headcount of 1 ½ employees. That’s a $65,000.00 savings per year!!!!!

Follow Up & Follow Through

Say what you’ll do and do what you say. Clients like to do business with people that they have a personal connection with. Make a point to call or stop by your client’s office on a monthly basis. Call on the people who have committed to trying your service but have yet to try you. When you stop by, bring bagels, donuts, Chocolates, etc. Treats are fun “leave behinds” and endear you with your clients. Let them know their business is important to you and ask if there is any upcoming transportation needs that they may have. Put your contact calls on your calendar and make it a priority. When your clients ask you to call back on a certain day and time, call back on the exact date and time they ask of you. Most of the time when clients ask you to call them back, it is a test. Once you’ve passed that test, they feel a little bit obligated, to take your call the second time. If they don’t take your call or get busy, hold them accountable to keep their end of the bargain. When you pass through the hoops, when you’ve gone through the tests of time, when you’ve dotted every “I” and crossed every “T”, you will have earned the right of being professionally persistent.

You’ve done an outstanding job! You’ve landed your first Corporate Account. The above suggested items will not only cement your relationship, it will place you in an awesome position to gain more business. Happy Hunting!

Written jointly by:

Matt Harrison
The Goodwill Guy
Limousine Industry Consultant

AND

Maurice & Rhonda Brewster
Co-Founders
Rollz Royce Transportation

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