Businesses typically set targets and then go out and achieve them. So what happens when your business starts achieving targets that haven’t even been set yet?
That’s just what The Personal Travel Consultants in Partnership with Blue Bay Travel (PTCs) have done after the group doubled its cruise sales year-on-year without giving any of its 55 agents new sales goals.
The homeworking outfit was formed in July 2021, but only last year did it increase its focus on cruise sales in a big way, even if cruise had already by spring 2022 become the Blue Bay Travel PTCs top selling holiday choice.
The first step was to hire Stacey Sanderson, whose career in cruise spans 25 years. She took up the role of senior cruise product manager for Blue Bay Travel last April.
Prior to joining Blue Bay, Sanderson worked for Scenic and Emerald Cruises as product manager, and has held product and commercial roles at Planet Cruise, Travel Counsellors and Cruise Club UK.
Around the same time as Sanderson was hired, agents were encouraged to join cruise fams and ship visits.
“The impact of Stacey’s appointment, coupled with the ship visits, fams and cruise training, propelled our cruise sales significantly,’ group manager Abbie Heaton tells TTG.
“Our homeworkers can offer a wider variety of cruise trips to clients than ever before, and have the product knowledge to sell it successfully.”
‘Making money is in their DNA’
TTG 30 Under 30 alumnus Heaton, who joined Blue Bay Travel as a travel consultant in 2015 and was appointed sales manager in 2021, reveals none of the group’s self-employed agents have sales targets; making money, she says, is in their DNA, so they often set their own goals.
“They do what they want as they run their own businesses,” she explains. “None of them have targets – they’re self-employed. They really can make money from anywhere in the world. We’ve got PTCs in Barbados, Tenerife and Thailand.”
Heaton worries the PTCs might take their business elsewhere if they were given targets. Around 20% of the PTCs are new to homeworking, says Heaton, who reveals the majority of the 55 PTCs come with backgrounds in retail travel.
Given the change in approach over the past 12 months, what is Heaton’s advice to new agents looking to boost their cruise business? “Find out what land-based operators your customers book and then match them to cruise lines,” she says. Heaton believes this process helps agents understand where each line sits in the market.
She also advises agents to “sell down” rather than up – offer clients the best, higher value bookable elements, and then work back down the list. “Individual drinks, for example, can be expensive, so tell clients about packages,” she explains.
She also cautions new agents, in particular, against repackaging cruise holidays themselves. “Stick with the cruise line packages,” she says. “It limits the risk because it’s on them to deliver it.”
2025 sales uplift?
How do you follow such a successful year for PTCs selling cruise? “By increasing our cruise offering and selling more lines,” says Heaton. Indeed, since Sanderson joined, more cruise lines have expressed an interest in working with PTCs.
“In the past six months, we’ve done more river and expedition than we normally do,” adds Heaton. “Stacey is such as asset – it’s no surprise cruise sales have more than doubled year-on-year.”
The team player growing Blue Bay’s homeworking division
Heaton says the group is targeting a 20% uplift in cruise sales this year. It currently amounts to between 35-40% of PTCs’ business.
Given how successful the group’s hands-off approach was in 2024, you’d back them to achieve the targets they actually set themselves this year.
