the 54 million agent

I succEss sToRtEs
THE54 MILLIONAGENT
Witha hostagency
doinghergruntwork,CailRosenberg
canfocuson selling
BY KATE RICE
ail Rosenbergsells$3 million to $4
assigns a support person who is highly
million worth of travel annuallv. all
skilled with the program, and they work
on her own. Her secretf She has three:
together to make sure client information
.
A host agency does all her grunt
is entered. When Rosenberg, who travels
work-invoicing,
data entry, back-office
frequentlg is not available, Largay takes
work-fieeing
her to do what she does
care of her clients, who give her excellent
best, sell travel.
feedback on the service thev set when
o
She knows her stuff. She's been all
she's out.
over the world, has a network of experts
at her fingertips and knows where to go
for help when she needsir.
o
She deliverscustomer service;no
detail is too small.
The l8-year industry veteran has
always been an independent contractor,
but until 2005 she worked in an office
full-time. When that office closed, several agenciescourted her. She chose Largay Travel, based in Waterburg Conn.,
even though she could have affiliated
with an agency closer to her home in
Brookline, Mass.
Rosenberg had never thought of
moving home-her old office had been
just a mile from her house and she had an
actual office with a door. But she orefers
workjng ar home. "l'm more efficient,"
Rosenbergsays."l haveno one stopping
by to kibitz and say, 'IIow about those
Red Soxf'and in my mind, I'm saying,
'Would you get
away from mef' But I
can't be rude to people."
After she started worhing from
home, her sales went up. Rosenberg is
very self-motivated, and she loves her office, which is set up in one of her home's
five bedrooms. She always eats at her
desk-as she did in her old office-and
works at least 40 hours a week.
Largay tracks her commission for
In addition, Rosenberg hnows her
her, paying her week.ly. The agency also stuff. She's been to most of the places
does all of her invoicing, back-office she sends her clients: Africa, South
work and direct mail, sending "Virtuoso
America, Europe, the U.S. She knows
Life"-with
her name on it-to her cliwhere to go to ger her clients the kind
ents. It also does all her data entry. With
ofexperience they want. BecauseLargay
all those tasks taken care of, Rosenberg is a Virtuoso agency, Rosenberg works
can focus on one thing: selling.
closely with Virtuoso's on-sites, as they
Largay is heavily vested in Clienthave the on-the-ground knowledge, staff
Base; Amanda Klimak, the vice president
and accessibilirythat her clients want. She
oflargag usesit not just for agencyoper- uses them for land tours and for activities
ations but for keeping track ofbirthdays.
in ports of call.
If agents don't embrace ClientBase, she
And these on-sites are available to
her at all points in the travel process, from
planning to execurion. She is currently
planning three trips to Africa, working
with Philippa Kort at Wilderness Safaris.
Rosenberg set up a conference call with
Kort, the client and herself to nail down
some detailsabout the trip.
Rosenberg frequently does that kind
of conference call with clients and onsites, and her clients love it. It's also efficient, far faster than the flurry of emails
required to deal with all the questions
and detailsinvolvedin major trips.
Third, she pays arrenrion to details.
That means, when booking an airline
ticket, if clients aren'r enrolled in a
carrier's frequent-flyer program) she signs
them up. She's a consultant in the truest
sense of the word. She will spend two
hours working on an airline ticket-but
it's usually lbr a vaiuable client who's
worth that time. She gets better airline
seats for clients than those they get
themselves when they book online. She
knows where the deals are and where the
value is. She can get an upscale or luxury
hotei with breakfast included as well as
other perks.
But even more important to her
clients is her expertise. "I get a lot of
people who are looking to me for ideas.
They trust me and respect my opinions,"
she says.
She gets ideas from her own travels
and from reading. "I read everlrhing I
can, all the trade p:ublications, Travel
+ Leiswre, Cond,l Nost Trmeler, all the
travel magazinesthat I possibly can." She
attends Vrtuoso regional meetings and
Travel Mart.
"Those kinds
of meetings are so invaluable," she says."I get to meet a lot of
the people with whom I do business,and
face-to-facecontact is really great. I get a
lot of new ideas."
The end result is a constant stream
of business, almost entirely repeat and
referral. She landed one clienr, a Qp-yearold trader on the Chicago commodities
exchange,through another customer in
Chicago, who had been referred to her
by a hedge fund trader in Boston. S
CailRosen99rg
preTers
worKtng
"l'ma th o m e .
"
moreefficient,
shesays.
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