if you are not on board with this premise then it probably makes sense to walk away from this
video series right now because this decision will impact everything we do from here on out
hi my name is Kelsey toner and I'm the founder of guest focus in this video series I'm sharing
the seven most common mistakes that we see tour operators making that hold them back from making
more sales and earning higher profits I'm also going to introduce you to a brand new
opportunity to avoid these costly mistakes but also embrace the Practical Solutions and
no-nonsense guidelines of Our Guest Focus Formula by the end of this video series I'm going to show
you that your success is not determined by having the right software the right tools or embracing
the latest marketing hack but instead the single most effective path to build a thriving profitable
tour business is to keep guest experience at the heart of everything you do I'll introduce you to
some of the superstars in our community and show you the results that are possible using our guest
Focus Formula I'm excited to share their stories to inspire you to take action and to join our
Rebellion against mediocre Mass tourism because we are guest focus and we are Unforgettable and
let's look at mistake number one not having an ideal Target guest or put another way we are
trying to be too many things to too many people we often think that hey we've got the perfect
tour for anyone who comes to our destination to our city our tour our region we may look
back at all the different types of customers who have come on our tours and we mistakenly think
that wow this is the perfect tour really for any visitor that is coming through so what is an ideal
Target guest well put another way it is simply the customers we would most like to serve with
our tours activities and experiences and the word ideal is pretty key this might be some of
the best customers that you've served in the past the ones that don't ask for refunds and are most
satisfied and engaged with the tour activity or experience another way of thinking about this is
niching further down we've all heard the saying the riches are in the niches and I'm telling you
there is nothing more true than here in the tours and activity space now most people appreciate that
not having an ideal Target guest might make our marketing more expensive right and that's true
if we don't take the time to outline a buyer Persona it can be more expensive and difficult
to Target effectively but it's actually so much more Insidious than that by attempting to serve
everyone at once we end up serving no one well the real secret to creating memories of a lifetime and
highly impactful and incredible experiences is to Niche down until that tour activity and
experience is perfectly fit with an ideal Target guest with a tiny niche of visitors who are coming
to your destination well let's come at this from a different direction if you have done this well
and chosen an ideal Target guess and attempted to create a tour activity and experience that is
perfectly optimized around that particular Niche your tour activity or experience should actually
be unappealing or uninteresting to the majority of visitors to your destination I know that feels
counter-intuitive because our instinct is to sell as much as possible to as many people as possible
but when you end up doing that you end up doing a disservice not only to yourself but to your
guests as well let's go through a few examples to make this Crystal Clear think about those
bike holidays that I led for many years these are multi-day bike tours across Europe where someone's
idea of a holiday is essentially to go take a small piece of plastic shove it up their butt
and then go ride for a hundred 150 kilometers day after day after day for six days in a row
now for a lot of people that sounds like not really a vacation and more like a punishment
that may have been concocted in the mind of some Mad Men but for those people who are drawn to
cycling who are drawn to active holidays this is an unforgettable and Incredible Journey one of our
coaching members Melanie runs classical Pursuits who does multi-day tours that have an academic
Focus where there are books to read before you go on your trip and there are world-class experts and
there are discussion seminars built into their holiday for many people that also sounds like
an awful holiday it's got homework before the trip you have to do all kinds of reading you're
sitting in classrooms a lot of the time but for those that they are looking to serve this is an
ideal trip and allows them to immerse themselves and appreciate the culture in a much more profound
and significant away but notice that that is unappealing to the majority of visitors who might
choose to travel with them to Japan to Europe or to their other destinations think about a Lord of
the Rings tour or down in New Zealand and we're dressed up in capes and we're pretending we're
Hobbits and we're quoting the book my goodness the majority of visitors to New Zealand this
sounds awful go hang out with a bunch of nerds in costume about some book that you think is totally
overrated and you never liked the films anyway but you'll notice is that these are successful
multi-million dollar tour businesses that can exist in this Niche and part of the reason for it
is this type of product Market fit allows you to have truly exceptional experiences it means more
rave reviews more word of mouth referrals and higher and higher satisfaction scores from the
customers from the guests who are coming on these tours here's one more fun example that happened
to me recently on my last trip to Nova Scotia going back to visit our girls grandparents we
stopped at this Cafe that was aimed entirely at young families so all my girls are under five at
the moment and we make a scene when we show up but this Cottontail Cafe was perfectly optimized for
families we had the adult area over here with a nice low railing where we could watch the kids and
there was an entire indoor playground there were plugs covering the socket so no one was going to
get electrocuted there were wooden toys there was a Lego area and puzzles and books for the older
kids over here but that Lego was separate from the area where my two-year-old was playing so
she wasn't going to choke the cafe had obviously wonderful coffee for the adults but they also had
food that kids would actually eat you know they had cut up vegetables they had fun plates this
experience was phenomenal for me as a young family but take a minute to notice the order of magnitude
of which this is a much better experience think about how likely I have been to recommend this
to other families that I know or anyone who happens to be passing through that area it's
happened many many times I was prepared to pay more for that particular Cafe there was a small
entrance fee to get into the play area the review that we left for them online was amazing because
we had such a better experience than if we had gone to a local cafe or a Starbucks notice here
that for many people going to the Cottontail Cafe with me and my family and my snot-nosed girls is
the last thing on Earth that they want to do that particular Cafe would be unappealing for someone
who's trying to write a book or catch up with an old friend without all the screens of all these
children this is what we are talking about what a young Backpacker from Germany wants or a young
family like mine or retired baby boomer couples just to give some examples what they're looking
for from an experience an activity or a tour is all different and the more that we understand that
the more we design our tours activities around an ideal Target guest the more success we will have
for any of your products or Services you should be able to answer the question I help these specific
people now I'm not saying that you have to turn away business other guests may join your tours
activities and experiences but we always want to have an ideal Target guest in mind so we can
create compelling and irresistible sales Pages clear messaging about the value and the benefits
for coming on this experience and it will also help set expectations for anyone outside of your
target Niche who is still interested in joining that tour this is one of the most profound
insights that you can have as a tour business owner this could be a massive breakthrough in
the results that you're able to achieve with your tour business if you want to get on the path to
Financial Freedom to having more time for you and building a tour and activity business that serves
you and your goals this is essential this is so fundamental to to the guest Focus Formula that
if you are not on board with this premise then it probably makes sense to walk away from this
video series right now because this decision will impact everything we do from here on out
if you've struggled to differentiate your tours and activities from others in the region or felt
pricing pressure when people were comparing yours with other similar offers this is an opportunity
to change that with the guest Focus Formula we want to urge you to resist that natural temptation
to think in order for me to sell more to grow my profits I need to have a whole pile of tools
I need to have a number of different guests that I'm serving that the truth is most tour business
owners Thrive and succeed when they eliminate versus add the real addition is subtraction
that's why we say in the guest focused formula you are just one experience away we can't even begin
to tell you the number of tour business owners that have built million dollar tour businesses
off of just one tour matched up with one ideal Target guest and so it is time to take action
if you do not yet have an ideal Target guest it is time to make that decision we do want
you to take your time with this we want you to research it and if you would like some help or
you've struggled with this in the past or perhaps you'd like to know our criteria we've got five of
them for choosing a highly profitable Niche I strongly encourage you to book a free 45-minute
strategy call with one of our tour business coaches these are casual fun conversations and
it would be our pleasure to help you with this decision you can learn more at guestfocus.com
forward slash book a call otherwise take your time really think about who you would like to
serve at the highest possible level and I'll see you in the next video with our next costly mistake