A luxury advisor has revealed the “hardest lesson” he learned in his early career – and what he does differently now. 

Ben Merriman-Johnson joined Travel Counsellors in October 2024, leaving behind a corporate sales job to pursue his passion for designing holidays. 

After consulting with a fellow Travel Counsellor – who, despite being brand new to the role, urged him to "just do it" – the East London native officially signed with the UK homeworking agency. 

Nearly 18 months later, he has no regrets about launching his own business. The self-described ‘travel butler’ has embraced the caretaking side of the role, having always “loved looking after other people.” 

The initial stages weren't seamless, however. Despite having more than 10 years’ sales experience, Ben faced “unexpected” pushback when first approaching clients – some of whom didn’t appreciate his selling style. 

“I’d come on with my sales hat and be very proactive, and suddenly, I started to see barriers just rising up in front of people,” he told TTG Luxury. “People in my village were escaping me because they were thinking: ‘Oh, here’s Ben, he’s coming to sell to me.’” 

Once he’d accepted that this forceful approach wasn’t working, Ben decided to rethink tactics. He quickly discovered that by “toning down” his enthusiasm, he naturally began to pick up leads. 

“The minute you try to win that sale, you will get slightly aggressive, you'll get slightly defensive, you'll get overly excited. The customers will read that energy and they will back off,” he warned. 

“So now, when someone approaches me, I assume I am already financially secure and do not need them to buy from me. That shift in mindset has been one of the hardest lessons to learn.” 

That doesn’t mean giving up altogether, though. Rather, Ben now adopts a “more helpful” attitude with prospective clients. 

“The key is to build trust. How do you do that? You offer something free of charge and expect nothing in return,” he said. “It’s like reverse psychology.” 

Unlike some luxury agents, Ben believes offering travel advice ‘pro bono’ doesn’t devalue his service. Rather, he fully embraces sharing his knowledge, insisting this practice creates the “trust” needed to convert people into clients. 

Since adapting his style, Ben has had no trouble securing business. He has almost exclusively been organising luxury multi-centre itineraries, joking, “My clients don’t seem to trust me with fly and flop!” 

One of his proudest bookings to date has been a £12,000 trip for a US couple, who’d asked for a multi-city European itinerary to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Working closely with Kirker Holidays, Ben managed to enhance several aspects of the holiday – including upgrading their Salzburg tour from public to private and adding an extra night (complimentary) in Milan. He also overcame several hurdles, booking them onto the next available flight after their British Airways departure had been cancelled. 

Since completing the booking, Ben has been “raving nonstop” about his positive experience with Kirker Holidays. “From this, I realised that the most important people in my business are not even my clients – they’re my supplier partners,” Ben admitted. 

“This is because, while my clients can change, my suppliers are going to be constant. They are the ones who actually do more for me than I can do for them.’”