Leisure Agency Goes Corporate

<B> Leisure Agency Goes Corporate</B>

By Sarah Welt

<I>Memphis, Tenn.</I> - Like many Carlson affiliates, an agency that once handled only leisure travel now is aggressively pursuing the more lucrative corporate business of small companies.

Gary Sheridan began operating a corporate program through G.J.S. & Associates Inc. last summer, focusing on saving money for companies with less than $150,000 in air travel. Since that time, his corporate business is up to 30 percent, double what it was just last year.

To show prospective corporate clients the savings he promises to deliver, Sheridan manages their travel free of charge for six months. He creates a historical file going back six months to a year and documents their travel and spending patterns, pointing out how they can reduce their spending--often by as much as 40 percent, he said. After the first six months, customers pay a $10 per-ticket fee.

Sheridan also has created three standardized travel policies that corporations can select to incorporate into their travel programs.

Kevin Olson, spokesman for the Carlson Leisure Group, said most leisure franchises do 10 to 30 percent corporate business. "We encourage our associates to go out and win corporate accounts to increase the bottom line, but he's taken that to the extreme, which is great," he said.

And Sheridan does deliver savings--as he did for the Memphis-based Impact Performance Group, a sales, marketing and consulting company with about $25,000 in air travel, which teamed with him last year. Impact was not charged for services for the first four to five months while Sheridan showed how it could save 30 to 40 percent through such policy changes as using Saturday-night stays and changing car rental vendors. "We turned it all over to him," said Impact president and CEO Jude Acuff. "He's handling air, car and hotel."

For Memphis-based A-TEQ, with total T&E at $240,000, president Dan Borum said, Sheridan acts as the company's travel manager. A-TEQ implemented its first travel policy this year. Using the agency's negotiated hotel program also has cut its lodging costs from about $125 a night to $79 to $99. So far this year, Sheridan has saved A-TEQ 10 to 15 percent, Borum said.

Another Memphis company, Total Access Communication, has shaved 25 to 39 percent off its $5,000 annual air-volume account in just over a year by bringing in professional agency management, said president and owner Jack Piercey.

To grow its ties with the corporate community, Sheridan has formed a nine-person networking group for local area businesses that meets twice a month. Each member can speak for up to an hour about his business and product at meetings, and business cards are distributed. Acuff said that in addition to good travel advice, this has given his operation good business leads.