April HutchinsonCarrier is to launch a one-day summit for key agents as part of a raft of new activities to enhance partnerships and drive sales – TTG Luxury finds out more on the brand’s first-ever overseas retreat.
Agents gathered for the inaugural Carrier Retreat at Grecotel Corfu Imperial
Speaking at another of the operator’s new initiatives, the Carrier Retreat, head of sales Rick Milne said the idea was to offer a calendar of “elevated trade activities”.
The Carrier Retreat saw almost 30 agents hosted at Grecotel’s Corfu Imperial resort for four days, and will be followed up by the first Carrier Summit, which Milne said would be “in the autumn for our top 100 agents”.
The “conference style event” will be hosted over one day, combining supplier networking along with external speakers and updates from the Carrier senior team.
In what is being seen as another “industry first”, Carrier is also set to launch a bespoke executive coaching course, aimed exclusively at a small number of the operator’s Preferred Partners “who wish to invest in their own personal development and grow their businesses”, Milne added.
“The course will equip agents with the skills and mindset to improve their client relationships, focus on their strategy and accelerate business growth,” he said.
Carrier has already worked with a select handful of agents on something similar, offering business coaching as part of its Supper Club concept, where small groups of advisors from across the country aim to gather for quarterly meetings with Carrier and to hear from external experts.
The course will be developed with Sinead Healy, founder and managing director of Marmalade Development, who also attended the Carrier Retreat in Corfu to give talks on personal development to the assembled agents.
“As leaders, and owners or managers of businesses we spend so much time dealing with day-to-day operational challenges, rather than on the business or ourselves, so the whole point of this retreat was to enable agents to do that,” said Carrier’s managing director Natasha Towey.
All agents attending the Carrier Retreat will get “first refusal” when applying for a place on the course, which is likely to be three full days face-to-face over a number of months. “I’m really committed to doing that,” added Milne.
Milne and his team are set to host more than 60 agents for two “behind the scenes” events at the operator’s head office in Didsbury, providing a “deep dive” into Carrier culture.
“Agents will be spending quality time with the people behind our brand and bringing our product, sales and operations teams to life,” he said.
In order to bring even product more to life for agents, a new webinar series called Carrier Live is being rolled out, which will be “building on the success” of some sessions hosted by product and sales teams last year, with plans to make them much more interactive.
The bi-monthly webinars will deliver personal insight, “rather than death by Powerpoint”, with planned topics so far said to include Kenya, South Africa, India, Europe, Luxury Ski, Tailor Made Touring and Luxury Cruise.
“While other operators focus mainly on product training in typical formats, Carrier is focusing on elevating the events calendar and giving agents the tools to thrive in what is an increasingly demanding role,” Milne said.
During the Carrier Retreat, panels of successful agents also shared how they had changed or transformed their businesses in the last few years by evolving their business model, focusing on self-development, enhancing their customer service and improving marketing – all of which have helped to secure ever larger bookings, such as a £2 million one made recently by Travelwise and booked with Carrier.
“The Carrier Retreat really was so interesting on many levels and it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with so many like-minded people,” said Sally Faulkner, director of Quality Travel.
Marketing magic
Agents in attendance were also given The Little Book of Inspiration – an exclusive book that showcases how the Carrier team have finessed bookings, in order to encourage agents to do more of the same.
Also attending the retreat was the operator’s head of marketing Byanne Akbor, who shared more on now Carrier and its agents collaborate and get to know client needs.
“When we talk about things internally at Carrier, we talk about luxury as being about human connection, as it’s people that make the difference; genuine personalisation creates extreme value that cannot be ignored,” Akbor told agents. “The right look and feel in your aesthetics and tone should also resonate with UHNWs as what they choose to consume reflects on them and that is important to them in its desirability.”
Carrier will also continue to produce brochures, she confirmed. “We are in a digital world and you need online convenience – but you can’t ignore the importance of print. It helps break through the clutter generally and gives agents the chance to break through the noise with their clients.”
Akbor said recently relaunching Carrier’s website was “one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever taken on”. “We said we wanted to humanise the website and make it more entertaining and disrupt the way people interact with us – but we also know agents still need practical things like search and lists and ease of navigation, so we are working on those now.”
She added an agent portal part of the site would be launching imminently and said it would be “easy to search and find, with all assets in one place and the trade updates you need”.
Lee Marshall, a strategic consultant working with Carrier on trade relationships, said: “Our infrastructure is built around agents, so we have to keep adopting the way we do things for partners. The kind of material Byanne and the team create is not available to everyone; this is for the right partners and a limited audience, so it really is an amazing resource.”
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