Create quotes that sell more travel
Our Top 5 Tips
Quotes allow a prospective buyer to see a breakdown of costs before they purchase your products or services – pretty simple, right? Perhaps not…
At Tourwriter we’ve seen thousands of tour operator quotes: the good, the bad and the ugly!
There is a big difference between a quote that just ‘does the job’ and one that sells more business, so we’ve put together what we’ve learned over the years into this article so you too can create beautiful quotes that sell more!
Align Your Quote with Your Brand
When we say ‘aligning your quote with your brand’ we don’t mean just making sure it matches your brand aesthetically (although that’s important too – we’ll cover that later). Your quote should reflect your brand’s point of difference (what do you want your business to be known for in the market?). It’s highly likely that your prospective customers are evaluating multiple quotes at once, therefore reminding them of what makes you special is a great way to stand out over and above the rest.
So how do we actually bring our point of difference into our quotes? We’re glad you asked!
Here’s what we know:
1. Format Shouldn’t Be One-Size-Fits-All
The best format is different for every business and you need to decide what your target market will respond best to. Perhaps your target market are detail orientated travelers with large complex itineraries – they may respond best to a completely itemised itinerary with extra descriptions; or maybe your target market are price orientated – your format should highlight the price and any discounts they receive by purchasing with you.
2. Keep It Relevant
When crafting quotes, there’s a fine balance you should aim to achieve between information and ‘filler’. Your supplier descriptions should be written with promoting the offering at the forefront. Setting you above and beyond competitors can be achieved by customizing these descriptions and writing them yourself based on a combination of what the supplier is offering, and what you know your target market is interested in. No more cutting and pasting from the supplier’s website, okay?!
3. Make It Polished
Quotes need to contain information and details – but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be aesthetically pleasing! Image-rich quotes stand out and help prospects visualize the experiences that you’re offering.
4. Remember Everyone Is Different
Test, test, test! We can’t say this enough! Everyone uses different tools and it’s important to make sure your quote is appearing the same way across the board. If a client opens a Word document with a different version of Word to yours, they may lose the formatting you worked so hard on.
Your rich, high color quote might look great printed from your office, but don’t forget to think about your clients who might be printing in black and white, or possibly they prefer to work digitally – is your quote optimised for this?
Test your quote on many platforms, and send it to colleagues and trusted friends who can screenshot how it appeared to them. We also recommend using formats like PDF which help you lock in the structure.
5. Make It Scalable and Consistent
Templates make creating quotes easier and more scalable, something that is especially important in busy seasons when your team is stretched. They also help you to ensure your turnaround time is kept to a minimum which is always appreciated by your prospective clients.
We’ve designed Tourwriter software with scalability in mind, allowing users to automate quote creation with your pre-created template, supplier information, and customer information. That means a 14 day, multi-destination quote can literally be produced in minutes. And that means more time to create more tailormade quotes!
To Conclude
So, quotes may seem simple, but sometimes a well thought out quote can be the difference between your business standing out or not. Over the years we’ve worked with many of our customers to better optimize their quotes for scalability and designing them to ensure they’re relevant to their target market.
We hope this post has left you with a few tips that you can take away to refine your quotes so you can sell more personalized travel itineraries. Afterall, saving time and producing a better experience for your customers; it’s a Win/Win.
