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The travel advisor-business development manager (BDM) relationship can be critical to an advisor’s growth with supplier partners. So, how can advisors go about building strong relationships with BDMs, and how do they leverage that partnership to ensure the success of both parties?
This special episode of Trade Secrets was recorded on-site at Hard Rock Los Cabos in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during ALG Vacations’ Pros in Paradise event. At the event, ALG Vacations brought together a group of travel advisors and social media influencers to network, learn from each other and create content. While there, the advisors and Jacki Marks, executive vice president of ALGV, joined Trade Secrets co-hosts Jamie Biesiada and Emma Weissmann to record this episode.
Listeners will hear travel advisors asking their BDM-related questions live during the recording, including, ‘How should I be communicating with BDMs?’ ‘When should I escalate an issue past a service center?’ and ‘Is it appropriate to ask BDMs to conduct private trainings for their agency?’
This episode is sponsored by ALG Vacations.
Theme song: Sock Hop by Kevin MacLeod(License). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
From left: Emma Weissmann, Jacki Marks, Jamie Biesiada at Hard Rock Hotel Los Cabos
Credit: 2023 Cory Lassman/Jenn MartinsResources Mentioned in This Episode and Related Reading
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Find your ALG Vacations BDM at algvacations.com/bdm
Ask a Question on the Podcast
If you're a travel advisor with a question about the latest travel news, trends, best business practices or more, please call our hotline and leave a message at 201-902-2098 or send an email to tradesecrets@travelweekly.com.
About Your Hosts
Emma Weissmann is the Managing Editor of TravelAge West, a print and online magazine for travel advisors based in the Western U.S. She is also the host of the Humans of Travel podcast, where she interviews notable individuals in the travel industry about their lives — the highs and lows that make them human.
Jamie Biesiada is a Senior Editor with Travel Weekly. She is an award-winning journalist, including being named the American Society of Travel Advisors’ 2019 Travel Journalist of the Year. Her roots are in community journalism, where she was the editor of several local newspapers and a regional entertainment magazine.
About the Show
Trade Secrets, a podcast from the editors of Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, is where travel advisors ask — and answer — questions. On each podcast, our editors will ask a veteran travel industry insider to join them and field listeners’ questions. Topics will range from business advice to industry trends, history and more — as long as it’s travel-related, we want to address it! Find Trade Secrets wherever you get your podcasts, or at www.travelagewest.com/podcasts/trade-secrets.
