In this blog, Luke Western our Head of Sales & Marketing will be talking to Chris Storey our Training Manager to discuss his insights into the accredited one-to-one training program, Journey To Success our eLearning Program and The Where in the World Webinars we host. To find out more watch the video below or read the rest of the blog below.

What is Journey To Success and what does it include?

So about a year and a half ago, we identified the need to create an eLearning platform. So we built it from scratch. It started relatively small, but as we found all the fantastic content out there we kind of just kept moving the goal post and it got bigger and bigger and bigger. And now what we find ourselves is with, well with a fantastic e-learning portal and on it, we have thousands of lessons and these range from destination content. So if a franchisee is not familiar with a destination or needs a bit of refresher, they’re about to call a customer, they can go on and they can get a really good idea of where to go, where to stay all the essential information and need such as the weather you know, fights there, who to use to book it, all of this sort of stuff.

We’ve got videos, maps, guides, and, and images. And it really, it has become massive and it’s not just destinations. So all of the one-to-one training that we, that we do so such as Google ads, building a website, marketing, and sales, they’re all on there as well in bite-size videos. So people can go on whenever they’d like and get a refresher in something or learn something new. All of our tour operator webinars are hosted on there. There are hundreds of hotels there. So for franchisees, I’m sure the hotel to recommend with taking care of that. We’ve got recommended hotels on there as well. Airlines, you can, you can watch, you can have a virtual tour, an air aircraft cabin, sat maps. I could go on. Yeah, yeah. There’s, there’s lots and lots of content on there and the feedback we’ve had has been, terrific. And we’re continuing to add to it as well.

What is included in the one-to-one training?

So when someone starts, we have a training induction and we go through what’s in the training, it’s all one-to-one and flexible. It’s done at the franchisee’s pace. I’m not the sort of trainer that says, right. We’ve got two hours and that’s it, we’ve got as long as we need, for that person to cement that, that knowledge, the first session is on the website. people may already know, that I help you in creating your own fully branded really great inquiry generation website. and as part of the training, we go through the theory behind that. And then we have more of a practical session where the franchisees are in control and I’m there telling them and helping them and guiding them. we actually sort of build the website or at least the structure of the website together.

After the website, we move on to sales, we’ve got a fantastic tried and tested sales process that we go through. We go into lots and lots and lots of detail. So franchisees are fully familiar at the end of it. How to maximize those inquiries that they do get, which is so important these days, you know, obviously like gold dust and we help you offer the best service possible to ensure that you are maximizing opportunities we then go through marketing. So we go through social media Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram obviously social media, these days is hugely important and a lot of it’s free as well. This is a really important tool that people can use for their, for their businesses and on social media as well.

We don’t just sort of standstill. We’re always looking for new trends at the moment. We’re creating a Pinterest guide. We’re looking at TikTok as well. We’re always looking at what’s new, what we can use to our advantage. And then the second half of the marketing training, we look at partnerships mutually beneficial partnerships. So going out there in the local well local or national community and looking for mutually beneficial partnerships, whether that’s, we’ve had people that have worked with wedding planners before they’ve to offer honeymoon consultation service. The wedding planners are happy because obviously, they’re including something extra in their package and the Franchisees are happy cause they are getting enquiries. So that’s marketing then we move on to Google ads. Google ads are a fantastic way to generate leads for your business. We go all through the theory of it doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard of it. If you’re a complete novice, it’s absolutely fine. And we go through all the basics. And then the second session, again, this is more practical and together we’re there and we create your first couple of campaigns with you too, And then as your homework, you’re sort of going off and creating more, more of them.

Are the training sessions are they face to face or over zoom?

Completely flexible. Whatever people would like. Obviously, when COVID hit we had to make a slight change and we started doing them over zoom. But we have franchisees all over the UK and the benefit of zoom is we can, you know, do it, do it anywhere. We can record the sessions well, which is, which is sometimes really good. I’ll send you the recording afterwards so they can, they can watch it back and listen to my own voice for hours after if they really want. We can be completely flexible if people do come, we have a lovely office in the centre of, of Birmingham. So they can do it face to face or if they would prefer zoom, then that is totally fine. Either works fine for us.

How long does the training program take from start to finish?

I found is everyone sort of is, is different. Some people take a little bit longer to get used to the website and also do some of the coursework which is absolutely fine. There’s no problem with that. There’s, there’s no pressure from us, to launch or anything like that. On average, I would say approximately about three months, I’d say to have done it. Some people have done it, a bit quicker than that. Some people have been longer, but again, it’s totally up to you and yeah, your time.

I’m not very technical, I’m a bit worried about the technical side of training. How will I do it?

You’ll be absolutely fine. I’ve trained a, a wide variety of, I think I’m in the twenties now for the people I’ve trained. So far this year, people have a wide range of skill sets. You do not need to be technical at all. And like I say, if you perhaps struggle a little bit more with some of the technical stuff, that’s absolutely fine. We’ll slow it down. We’re not going to rush through anything and we’re not going to move on until you are ready and you’re comfortable doing it. So but no, you don’t need to be technical. There’s no coding involved in the website it’s very, very easy and very, very user-friendly. We’ve built it that way. You know, we’ve built it so literally anyone can do it. And the same with something like Google ads, you know, we really do go through very, very basics at your pace and I’m here to help you. So yes, do not worry if you don’t feel you’re technical mind.