Podcast: Embed
Has your sales pipeline sprung a leak?
Michelle Stark believes you’re likely missing some customers who should be traveling with you. A communications veteran with a special focus on tourism, she helps clients around the country build sales pipelines that deliver new customers — and repeat business from old ones. And she says it’s time to re-examine the way you sell and market in 2026.
Michelle joins this episode of the podcast to discuss why you’re losing potential customers — and what you can do about it. She shares cost-effective marketing strategies for finding new leads and secrets to crafting emails people actually want to read. Plus, we have news about Celebrity’s rapid river cruise growth and a Hot Minute about what you can learn about selling from car dealerships.
Insights from Michelle Stark
Michelle had lots of valuable insight about building intentional purchasing experiences that make potential customers feel confident and excited to buy from you. Here’s what she had to say about how your website and content should be structured for maximum sales:
“Are you really optimizing your website for what we call capturability, making sure that you’re not gating information, that you’re not making your customers go through too many clicks to try to actually sign up and book with you? Are you providing things like travel policies and forms upfront where people can read through those and opt in very easily — just removing friction?”
Plus, she had great perspectives on:
- Different marketing strategies for different market segments
- What role AI can — and can’t — play in a sales pipeline
- Keeping your pipeline flowing when you’re busy with other things
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Learn more about Red Sage Communications at redsageonline.com.
Follow Michelle Stark on LinkedIn.
Apply to attend our OnSite FAM tour in Louisiana at grouptravelleader.com/la-fam.
Key Moments From This Episode
1:28 — Travel News: Celebrity is doubling its river cruise fleet
2:39 — News From Us: A few spots let on our FAM to Louisiana
6:11 — Why Michelle Stark left broadcast TV for tourism marketing
8:15 — What is a sales pipeline, and how do you build one?
9:27 — Touchpoints that should be part of your sales process
13:00 — Crafting emails your audience will want to read
15:21 — Keeping your sales pipeline full
17:49 — Can you automate your travel sales pipeline?
24:16 — Marketing ideas for reaching the middle class
29:09 — Can AI do your travel sales for you?
45:15 — Hot Minute: What you can learn about sales from car dealerships
Watch the Full Interview
See the full interview with Michelle on our YouTube channel.
About the Podcast
Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.
You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.
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