Finding the best fit for homeworkers

There are many strands to the Vertical Group, from holiday and cruise sales to tour operating and accommodation-only, and a new recruit is aiming to expand the company’s homeworking workforce across all the relevant sectors.

Group membership director Paula Nuttall (nee Turner) joined the firm in December last year. She says her recruitment strategy is measured and flexible: “It’s not about recruiting in huge numbers but selecting the right agent for the right business.”

The former director of Independent Travel Experts adds: “Our recruitment process is seven days a week, into the evenings and weekends. We’ll work around the candidate regarding conversations and interviews.”

Best practice and offers are shared across the Vertical Group portfolio, which includes Your Holiday Booking, Instant Holidays, Miss Ellies Travel, Bedbank (all part of the Midcounties Co-operative), plus Holiday Elite, The Travel Village Group, Amathus Holidays and Best4Travel in Ireland.

Your Holiday Booking and Holiday Elite are exclusively homeworking brands, and there are opportunities to work for the other brands in a homeworking capacity.

“Our homeworkers have an edge with our in-house negotiated offers, which leads to higher conversion rates,” she said.

Working on a 60% commission model, homeworkers are responsible for sourcing their own leads.

Nuttall takes geography and specialist interests into account when recruiting. “I’d never put a 60% homeworker in the doorstep of another homeworker. It would be crazy to recruit in the same markets.” Agents with a particular niche such as cruise or ski are in her target zone. “Specialists are music to our ears because we have the technology to support them and build bespoke websites.”

Branch managers who are responsible for the profitability of the branch are ideal candidates, she said. And those used to encouraging staff to market the brand have an advantage. “Working on the high street can give you lots of product and systems knowledge, but you need to be able to network and get local business in,” she said.

Call centre workers who can sell efficiently over the phone are a good match for online businesses Your Holiday Booking or Instant Holidays, she said. “If you’ve been in the high street for 15 years and you suddenly have to start closing sales by phone, that can be a challenge. Call centre staff tend to be hungry for the booking and won’t be afraid to ask for it.”

Part of Nuttall’s role is to support new homeworkers in their first 12 weeks. “We give them business cards, we help build their database of customers and create a website or Facebook page in line with their business brand, and we coach them on how to put offers out there.”

Twelve weeks is the official “hand-holding” timeframe, but she says the support is ongoing. “We don’t charge homeworkers to join the business or a monthly fee, so everything they earn is pure profit.”

She admits there can be good days and less good ones because of the unpredictable response rates of customers to offers. But given the ability to dynamically package Vertical Group products, such as Sani Resort in Greece, and the support from within the group, she said the rewards were immense. “It’s all about building the relationship and trust with customers, good communication and efficient delivery of their needs. By adopting this focused approach, the sales grow easily and commissions become even more attractive. Ultimately, it’s a very rewarding way to sell travel, especially when it’s on your own terms.”