A booking site can sell a flight cheaper than you can. What it can't do is answer the phone at 6 a.m. when the flight is canceled and nine people are standing in an airport. That is the whole case for how to get clients as a travel agent today: sell group and corporate travel to the people who organize trips for others, and sell the service you give when plans fall apart.
Individual leisure travelers shop on price and leave. Offices, sports clubs and nonprofits book repeatedly, travel in groups, and need one person who owns the problem. This piece covers who they are, how to find them, what to quote, and the emails that open the door.
The groups worth going after first
Three kinds of organizations book more travel than their size suggests. Small companies of 20 to 200 people, where somebody (usually an office manager or executive assistant) books flights and hotels for sales trips, conferences and training. Youth and adult sports clubs, which travel to tournaments with 15 to 60 people. And associations, churches and nonprofits that run annual trips or conferences.
They share two traits. The person who books travel is not a travel professional and doesn't enjoy it. And a mistake costs real money and some embarrassment, because a missed connection affects the whole team, not one traveler. That's the pain you can solve.
Build a list of the people who book travel
Greta, a home-based agent in Milwaukee, built her list from three sources. Local companies with 30 to 150 employees that have a sales team, taken from the chamber of commerce member list. Youth sports clubs from a regional league site that lists their tournaments. And four associations with annual conferences out of town. For each, she wrote the name of the office manager, club administrator or event lead. Forty-one names in an evening.
If you want help finding office managers and operations leads by company size and location, Rocketship can do that, and the first 25 names are visible before you spend a credit. Hand-built or tool-built, the test is the same: is this the person who actually books the trip?
What to offer: a trip quote with a plan for changes
Anyone can send a price. What you sell is a price plus what you'll do when things go wrong. Write that into the quote.
Here's Greta's quote for a 12-person sales team traveling to a conference in Denver. Flights and hotel at fares she finds, total $9,840. Then a short section called "If plans change": she monitors flights, rebooks within one hour of a cancellation, handles hotel date changes without an extra fee from her, and is reachable by text from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Her service fee is $50 per traveler, so $600 on this trip. She says in one line what the fee covers.
That fee isn't big, but it adds up. Twelve of these trips a year at $600 is $7,200 before any commission. Add a small sports club that goes to four tournaments a year with 20 people at $40 each and that's another $3,200. Two or three repeat clients cover a good part of an income, and each one is a relationship that doesn't need to be re-won.
Check your own situation on commissions, supplier rules and any state seller-of-travel registration, since requirements vary. This article isn't legal advice, and a short call with your host agency or an attorney will save you trouble.
Three short emails to an office manager
Write from your own email, one person at a time, with your postal address. The first one:
Subject: Getting the sales team to Denver in March
Hi Paula, I saw Kessler Supply is sending a team to the Mountain West distributors' show in March. I'm a travel agent in Milwaukee who handles group travel for local companies. I could put together a flight and hotel quote for the team, with a plan for what happens if a flight is canceled or a date changes. Would it help to see one? I'd need just the dates and headcount. Greta Lund, Lund Travel, 520 N Water St, Milwaukee WI. If you'd rather I not email again, reply "stop."
Three days later:
Subject: Re: Getting the sales team to Denver in March
Paula, fares and hotel blocks for that week can change, so it may be worth a look sooner. If someone else books travel at Kessler, tell me who and I'll write to them instead. Greta
A week after that, you can send a different offer: "If you'd rather start small, I can quote a single trip for two people so you can see how I work." For more on how little personal detail you need to make this feel like a person wrote it, see what to personalize when you send thirty a day.
Why you won't win on price, and what to say instead
Don't compete on the lowest fare. If the buyer compares your quote to a booking site, they'll see a number, not the service. Instead, put the comparison in terms they feel: "If your flight is canceled, a booking site gives you a chat window. I give you my cell number." You can say this without disparaging anyone.
Be honest where the booking site is cheaper. Some buyers will take a self-booked fare for a single traveler and pay you for groups, changes and anything complicated. That's fine. A client who sends you the hard trips is worth more than one who sends the easy ones.
When they call back, answer quickly
Travel buyers decide fast once a date is set, and fares move. Reply within the hour, ask for dates, headcount, budget per person, and whether anyone has seat or mileage preferences. Send a quote that day with the plan-for-changes section on top. If a buyer calls, answer; if you can't, reply by text within minutes. Missed calls are missed trips, a point made in your missed call list is a customer list.
Replies often come in at odd hours. An AI worker in Rocketship reads replies to your emails from your own Gmail and moves the conversation forward, so a "yes, please quote it" doesn't sit overnight, a topic covered in outbound that answers replies. More on the tool itself at the AI workers page.
A weekly routine built around each company's next trip date
Monday: add ten names. Tuesday: send ten first emails. Thursday: send follow-ups and reply to anything outstanding. Friday: update your sheet with who has an upcoming trip and when to write again. Keep a column for "next trip date," because the best follow-up is one that arrives 90 days before it. Thirty emails a month is enough to learn what's working. How to get clients as an event planner targets the same office managers from a different angle, and you may find a shared list works for both.
Another business that sells to the same office managers is covered in cold email templates for IT services and MSPs, which is a good model for trigger-based emails.
Repeat group clients come from a list of the right organizers and a reliable follow-up habit. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.