By Meredith Calloway, Chief Growth Officer
New advisors who already move in affluent circles often feel they have a head start when building their travel business, and in many ways they do. While a strong Rolodex can get you in the door, though, it can’t guarantee you’ll stay in the room. Once those clients give you their first “yes,” whether they come back and send referrals depends on how you manage the relationship. Luxury is more personal than transactional, and the best advisors know they can’t treat those clients like orders to fill.
Lee Lennon, CTC, founder of Travel By Design, Inc. and a longtime member of our GTN community, learned this lesson long before she ever worked for herself. After starting in international corporate travel in New York City and working at agencies across Florida, she joined the cruise industry in 1988 and eventually landed at Royal Viking Line, the luxury line of its day. There, she built shore excursions and land programs with partners around the globe. When she asked about moving into management, she was sent to sea for six months as assistant to the manager aboard the Royal Viking Sun, where she spent her evenings hosting guests at dinner and listening to what they loved and what they wished were different. She went on to Silversea and Seabourn. By the time she launched her business in 2011, so many people were already asking for her help that she never needed to advertise, and her business remains entirely referral-based today.
How does someone get to that point? Lee believes luxury has never really been about things so much as how a trip makes clients feel, so she keeps paying attention long after the booking. She checks in when clients return, sends handwritten cards and remembers birthdays and anniversaries, and always makes sure nothing has changed in a client’s life before she reaches out. Months after a trip, if she comes across something she thinks a client would love, she writes to say she was thinking of them and suggests they talk about what’s next.
Those relationships are now reaching a new generation. As Lee takes on more multigenerational trips, her clients’ adult children have started calling her directly and then sending their own friends, which is how a referral business ripples outward once it starts. These younger clients have required her to shift how she communicates, since many of them would happily handle the entire trip by text. She still gently steers them toward email and phone calls, both so they can talk through what they hope to experience and so the relationship doesn’t become too transactional.
Lee also understands that this goes both ways, which is why she’s willing to let a client go when the fit isn’t right. When someone treats her as simply a person there to do the work for them, and nothing she presents is ever right, she gently tells them they aren’t a good fit. I consider this one of the most important lessons any advisor can learn. A client who brings transactional energy into a relationship-based business will never be satisfied, and keeping them only makes you feel like you’re failing someone who wanted something different all along.
What makes this approach so valuable is that none of it requires a marketing budget or an established list of high-end prospects. Whatever your business looks like, you can start adopting these practices with your clients right away. Luxury clients are out there in far greater numbers than most new advisors believe, and when you find them, having these practices in place can turn a single booking into a long-term relationship. When you focus on nourishing those relationships rather than chasing transactions, your clients will do much of your marketing for you.
If you love hearing stories like Lee's, tune into The Travel Business Unpacked podcast! Each episode dives deep into the real stories, practical strategies, and transformational moments that turn travel dreams into thriving careers. Listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and check out Lee's full episode here.