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The Daly Dish: The Art of Qualifying Your Travel Client
This article originally appeared in the November issue of AGENTatHOME magazine. Subscribe here to receive your free copy each month.
Editors Note: The following is written by Drew Daly, senior vice president and general manager, CruiseOne and Dream Vacations.
This time of year is a golden opportunity to give yourself a jump start for 2026 by polishing your skills. The entire vacation-planning process should be fun, and survey data shows that consumers enjoy the journey because, ultimately, they end up getting to experience their dream vacation.
In September’s column, I reviewed the formalized sales process — a foundation that’s a conversation between you and your client, though it does not have to be verbal. Here’s a refresher of the six steps:
- Greeting
- Qualifying
- Researching
- Presenting
- Asking for the sale
- Following up
Now, we’re on to step two: qualifying, a phase that’s key to unlocking what your clients want to experience. During this stage, you want to ask both open-ended and closed questions. For example, closed questions could be, “Have you cruised before?” or “How many people are traveling with you?” They result in yes or no answers, or a very specific directive.
In contrast, open-ended questions — the real secret ingredient to qualifying — elicit details that will guide you further in your research and ultimately prove valuable when you present clients with the options you’ve discovered. You might say, “Describe for me what your dream vacation looks like.” This helps your customer envision themselves on vacation — where they are, what they’re doing, who they’re with — and allows them to paint you a picture of their perfect trip. It’s in these particulars that they may share something specific, such as enjoying a tropical beverage with an umbrella on the beach, which will better direct your research on their ideal getaway.
Above all, the qualifying process is about listening and, ultimately, understanding. To do this effectively, you have to let your customer do all the talking. I recommend mixing up the questions you ask and assessing which ones seem to produce the best results. If you do this, I promise you will connect with clients and become someone they turn to, again and again.
The art of qualifying will give you a better understanding of your customer’s needs, preferences and budget. In the next article, we will explore the steps of “Presenting” and “Asking for the sale.”
Until then …
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