Advice for travel sellers who want to increase their high-end business.

So you want to sell luxury travel. But where do you start?

1. Embrace luxury travel.
First of all, you’ve got to believe in it. It may not be your lifestyle, but it’s got to be something that you value so that you’re comfortable selling products that may well be beyond your personal budget.

“It’s basically loving what you’re doing—and you really have to love it because you can’t sell something if you don’t love what you’re doing,” says Annie Hodges, a luxury European specialist and independent contractor with Adelman Travel Group, in Windsor, Conn. She is so enamored of what she does that she’s learning to be a Virtuoso host.

Elaine Miller, an independent contractor who works with Hodges at Adelmans’ Windsor office, became a travel agent after her own travel agent suggested she enter the business. Miller was booking her family’s travel with the agent.

“You need to come to work for me,” Miller recalls her agent saying. “You would be a boon to this agency, because you like high-end travel.” And Miller did love it—and at the time, she was in a marriage that allowed her and her family to enjoy that kind of travel.

2. Know the product.
“Explore the hotels; go on as many cruises as you can,” says Hodges. That sort of hands-on experience gives you confidence. And that sort of confidence and on the-ground knowledge is essential with this market, says Hodges.

“These people are so savvy you have to be one step ahead of them; if you’re not one step ahead of them, you’re going to drown, and they’ll sense that,” she says.

As soon as Miller reads of a new hotel opening or a property that has been revamped, she shoots off a letter of introduction asking for a site visit. That keeps her in the know about the latest developments and also helps create a relationship with the general manager of the property; he knows that she’s paying attention to him. Capitalizing on the fact that she’s an independent contractor, she’s frequently on the go -- taking her office with her in her laptop — visiting new properties or recently redone properties.

Specializing also makes you an expert on specific products. Hodges, for example, specializes in Europe and Disney.

3. Affiliate with luxury experts.
Make sure you’re working with a host agency that knows luxury travel. They’ve got resources that will be invaluable to you. Some of it is simply in the heads of other agents working through the agency—there’s an institutional memory full of important details about cruise lines, hotels, destinations and ground operators. Patti DiGiovanna, TravelPatti, Inc., is affiliated with Altour’s Fair Lawn, N.J. office. She and her long-time business partner, Jane Antonacci—the two have been working together for 17 years—affiliated with Altour two years ago. It means they can give their clients the best of both worlds—the intimacy and high level of service of a small ‘mom-and-pop’ under the big umbrella of Altour.

“We have the best of the best resources and technology that is in the industry right now,” says DiGiovanna. It means they get expertise and fast service. If she has a luxury client who wants a Colorado rafting trip, she picks up the phone or sends off an email to Altour. Thus, she needn’t spend hours surfing the Internet trying to find the right rafting outfitter. Altour will steer her in the right direction. Altour also has an Intranet that DiGiovanna and Antonacci turn to frequently; it holds information that other Altour agents have entered about their experiences with hotels and suppliers worldwide. It’s an invaluable supplement to their knowledge.

4. Use your preferred suppliers.
Even experienced agents can’t go everywhere all the time. Houston-based agent at home Berta Aizen, who is affiliated with Frosch Travel, makes sure to do business with suppliers who are experts. Frosch, which is part of the Signature Travel Network, has its own preferred suppliers as well as a cadre of preferred suppliers through Signature. These on-the-ground contacts have insider knowledge and connections that Aizen uses to keep her clients happy.

5. Network, network, network.
Jean Melcher, owner of Jean Melcher Travel, based in Bonita Springs. Fla., whose host is the Luxury Travel Network, is a former home-economics teacher who calls herself the “accidental travel agent.” She retired to Florida and became a social director. “I’d ask people, ‘What do you want to do?’ and just make it happen.”

Often that meant concert series and Broadway shows. She took 87 people to see “Mama Mia!” when it came to town. She would get requests for travel, and finally someone said, “Why don’t you think about becoming a travel agent?”

Mclcher had long been a single traveler and experienced the difficulties of a single traveler in a world made for couples. You can travel alone or find a companion and hope that they’re simpatico when on the road—but often they’re not. Her clients were demanding travel from her before she was really ready to sell it to them. She introduced herself to upscale travel and continues to learn—sometimes at seminars at sea with suppliers such as Crystal Cruises, sometimes on trips with her clients. “I tell people, ‘We’re all learning together,’” she says.

When she affiliated with Partners in Travel (she subsequently moved up to the Luxury Travel Network) she remembers saying, “I hope you can train me real fast; I have 24 people ready to go to Alaska.” The networking she did as a social director has become her marketing; she does weekly events in an upscale wine bar, private parties in her home and a concert series, and distributes a regular newsletter. Her groups are for single travelers, so when someone comes to the social hour she introduces them to everyone else; they may be finding a potential roommate. Flyers promoting her various trips are distributed on tables.

Aizen works the crowd no matter where she is — parties, grocery stores and, when her children were small, at her kids’ schools. She’s not the business card type; she’ll give her number to people on the back of a napkin. Miller is out and about in her community. She loves jewelry and has gotten friendly with a local jeweler, and now has her cards on display in several stores. They help attract customers planning weddings or celebrating anniversaries or other special occasions.

6. Take your time.
When Aizen, who now sells $4 million annually, started with American Express, “I had nobody,” she says. But the onetime headhunter had experience cold-calling, so she came into retail travel with a sales mentality.

“So I started cold-calling, and that’s how I got my clientele,” she says. She called friends and friends of friends. She called former clients from Saks Fifth Avenue. She built her client base and describes herself as “self-taught” in the back offices of American Express.

Luxury clients may not be part of your immediate circle. So branch out, says Miller.
“You’re going to have to take some time and develop some ties,” she says. “You may have no interest in that particular golf club or that particular gym in an upscale area. You’re not gong to find them at Mickey D’s.” At some point, one customer will lead to two, and two will lead to four, building your clientele.

7. Make your clients your marketers.
Aizen kept plugging away, learning the business and building a client base. “Slowly but surely, I became very good at what I was doing; I got referrals,” she says.

It’s important to make your satisfied clients your marketers. “If you have one happy person, you cannot be shy about saying, ‘Please pass my card to your family and friends,’” says Miller.

8. Take care of everyone.
It’s obvious to take care of your clients. But it’s also important to take care of your suppliers as well as your clients. Miller is very careful to send thank-yous to the general managers who take care of her clients.

“The worst thing is you something good for a client [from a supplier] and don’t take the time to say thank you,” says Miller, who has sent more than one GM or ship’s captain a mess of Maine lobsters.

When it comes to dealing with your clients, says TravelPatti’s Antonacci, it’s important to take care of details. “Everyone has to feel they’re number-one,” she says. It means being available when the client is available. And that often means after 5 p.m., since many upscale clients have jobs that keep them in meetings all day. They can’t deal with their personal lives until after 5.

Melcher gives distinctive gifts. Rather than a bottle of wine that her clients might not necessarily drink it or flowers that ultimately wilt, she started out with tote bags and has moved on to inscribed Bulova watches designed to remind her clients of the trip whenever they check the time.

It is also important to care of clients who aren’t necessarily wealthy. Luxury travel is not confined to millionaires. For many people, the experience of luxury travel is something that they value and invest in.

9. Read, read, read.
Read trade magazines and upscale consumer magazines. “The two things I read are my Bible and my trade journals,” says Miller. Supplement that by reading upscale magazines, and not just the obvious such as “Travel + Leisure” and “Conde Nast Traveler,” but “Architectural Digest,” “Elle” and high-end fashion magazines, which cover travel and attract many travel advertisers.

10. Find a mentor.
“Travel agents are generous,” says Miller. “We love to run our mouths. So buddy up with someone. I did.”