AAA Agencies Team Up To Target Corp. Travel

Twelve Automobile Association of America travel agencies have formed a networking and benchmarking group to help members better target the corporate travel market.

Known as AAA Travel Management Network, the group is composed of agencies that vary in size and are located in the eastern half of the country. Some members have provided corporate travel services for years, while others are just beginning to go after corporate accounts. TMN organizers say clubs elsewhere in the country have expressed interest in joining the group.

Jane Welsh, a co-founder of TMN and vice president of Travel Services AAA Minnesota/Iowa, said that although several of the clubs had been members of various travel consortia, they thought it would make more sense to put together a network of AAA agencies so exchanges would be more open and pertinent to the AAA community.

"This way, we don't feel we are competing with each other," Welsh explained. One of the key objectives of the new group is to let travelers know that AAA clubs are in the corporate travel business.

Welsh said AAA agencies tend to have leisure-oriented market images, and lack identity in the marketplace as providers of travel management services. "We haven't done a very good job of getting the word out that we can deliver state-of-the-art corporate travel management," Welsh said.

"One of our most important issues is that most businesses don't think of corporate travel management when they hear the AAA name," agreed Robert Joselyn, president and CEO of travel consulting firm Joselyn, Tepper and Associates, who is guiding the TMN group in its efforts. "This group wants to do some common marketing to change all that."

TMN member Gloria Medlock, regional manager for AAA Carolinas, said her agency has about $115 million cumulative in commercial accounts. She believes AAA has the same capabilities as any competitor.

"We have just as much clout as American Express or Carlson Wagonlit," said Medlock. "Our feeling is that nobody can beat AAA's price because we have just as much negotiating and management power as anyone else."

The makeup of the TMN group is diverse because some of the large agencies have been in the corporate business for many years and are targeting accounts in the $2 million to $3 million range. Others are just beginning to market for corporate accounts in the half-million-dollar range. Support in the group ranges from guidance on soliciting accounts and composition of proposals, to gaining knowledge of industry trends that affect their services.

Ed Wiedecker, executive vice president of AAA South Dakota in Sioux Falls, said TMN has helped him in going after corporate accounts.

"Airline commission caps had a lot to do with our decision to go after larger corporate accounts," Wiedecker said. "We are a small club and we couldn't go it alone, but we didn't have anyone we could commiserate with about how to go about it. I went to the initial TMN meeting, and what I heard intrigued me. Since joining this group, we have bid for and acquired a $1.3 million account, and we are bidding on a couple of others in that same size range."

Wiedecker said the marketing ability his agency has acquired has come as a direct result of attending the networking meetings. "The help we have received with responding to request for proposals has been especially helpful," he said.

Joselyn has led several training sessions for members, dealing with solicitation of accounts and guidance on competing with mega agencies. "We just had a meeting in Charlotte where almost all of the self-booking automation organizations presented us their wares and showed us whether they are Internet based or use other proprietary software for self booking," Joselyn said. "After the presentations, we discussed the pros and cons of what we learned."

Benchmarking is another important aspect of the group's agenda, Joselyn said. Areas it is looking at include corporate account profitability, specific agency cost-of-service items and sales efforts to obtain accounts. Help with supplier negotiations are not part of the group's offerings; individual agencies retain that function, Joselyn said.

The 12 members in TMN have $165 million in commercial business, which indicates that some corporate travel users already recognize the AAA name as a provider.

Lorraine Lepkowski, travel coordinator for Perigon, a small architecture and engineering firm in Charlotte with 160 travelers, has used AAA Carolinas for about two years.

"We appreciate how they educate as well as help us," said Lepkowski. "We had a couple of other agencies before them that would do what you asked, but if you really didn't know the ins and outs about such things as why flight numbers and times change and why fares vary in different markets, they didn't tell us. AAA has helped us centralize our travel, and the savings have been very impressive. I have been able to show my board a 45 percent savings since we went with them.