RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Dictionary com defines relationship management as

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Dictionary. com defines relationship management as: the supervision and maintenance of relationships between a company and its external partners, especially its clients.

Business Development • Reach out to agents, let them know you are here. • Listen – let them tell you about their business, who they cater to. • Timings right. Eg. Sales calls in autumn, conferences in Aug/Sept etc. • Build your Sales Plan around those timings, get established. • NTO, RTO’s – Stay front of mind. Trade/MICE/PR/IMP teams.

Account Management • Maintain – Other attractions want a piece of the action. • Listen – What’s working for them, what isn‘t. Trends change etc. • Get your sales activity established so they expect you. • Your agents wanna hear new things, new stories, new initiatives that will help them sell more of your product.

Whanau • Your industry peers are going to be your future relationships. • Many of you will develop your careers together. • We never know where we will end up and how we will be working together in the future, so value your peers. • As you are the next generation of tourism leaders.

Branding • Social media generation. • Representing our businesses brands, as well as our personal brand. • Linked In is a great medium to business develop and account manage your business. • And it’s an outstanding tool to build your own brand. • So whether your are changing jobs or starting your own business, branding is an important relationship management tool, as you‘ll want potential employers and/or clients to see your activity. • Its all about engagement.

Values • Any good organisation has values they adhere to. • I recommend we all should have our own personal values that can help us in our professional careers and our relationships. • My values…… • Manaakitanga – Share, care, be there. • Kaitiakitanga – Do my best for the nation, mentor, help my peers. • Whanaungatanga – Contribute to our tourism whanau.

Homework • If you arent on Linked In, get on it and start growing your brand. • Request me and lets connect and start growing your own connections and relationships. • Challenge you to post something about your business or your own professional activity every Wednesday. • Develop some values to guide you, and please do share them with me.