P&O sales restructure
P&O Cruises Australia is making changes to its sales structure in anticipation of an altered operating environment upon its return to cruising.
The traditional setup of business development managers servicing large clusters of travel agents in certain areas is being replaced with a structure named Flagship Concierge “where agents can go to the heart of the organisation to have their business needs met”.
Under this core sales support operation, P&O will transition from its traditional field-based sales structure to a more centralised approach, aiming to offer travel agents a “onestop shop” for all business development and sales support requirements.
P&O said Flagship Concierge “will allow travel agents to go directly to the heart of the business to have their sales support needs met”, with existing commission arrangements to be unaffected.
The Flagship Concierge team will be based in P&O’s Chatswood head office, with applicable travel agencies to be assigned to dedicated Account Managers based in both Australia and NZ.
P&O also plans to ramp up its Flagship Achievers program launched three years ago (CW 09 Feb 2017), giving consultants the ability to earn cash rewards to recognise their achievements in selling the cruise line.
Rewards offered under this program in 2021 and beyond will be at least double existing levels.
“We know that we will be functioning as a business in a commercial landscape vastly different from what existed in our pre-COVID-19 world,” said Vice President Sales & Marketing Ryan Taibel.
“In the post-COVID-19 world, we can expect a different sales environment, but travel agents and their partnership will remain of vital importance to what we do, and we need to be in the best possible position to support them.
“We have always benefited from having a dedicated and passionate team which has been critical to the growth of cruising in Australia and New Zealand and to making the P&O business in particular an industry leader.
“We’d like to thank our team for the huge contribution they have made as we look forward to working alongside our travel agent partners.”