SECTION B : MARKETING PLAN

The information you give in this Section will be important in supporting your application..

B1. BACKGROUND

Enter the date that you began business as a travel agent at the location for which you are applying for a RDG licence and enter your Gross company turnover for the last five years as annual figures

If you currently acquire rail tickets for your customers show if you get these from a rail station or another agency.

Enter NO to both if you DO NOT currently supply rail tickets to your customers.

Enter the approximate annual value of the rail tickets that you anticipate supplying to your customers based on current demand or the acquisition of a new customer.

In the Section headed Significant Business Developments including future plans, show events such as: Acquisition of new business account worth £2m etc.

B2. TARGET MARKETS

You have potentially two markets to target: one for business travel and one for leisure. Many of your potential customers may fall into both categories. The total of both Business and Leisure should be shown as a percentage split of your total potential rail business.

B3. RAIL REVENUE PROJECTIONS (FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION)

As a guide for RDG you must show that you will produce a significant amount of new rail business to support your application as a sales agent. An annual rail revenue of £50,000 would equate to £1,500 in commission calculated on a base rate commission of 3%.
You then need to indicate how you expect this to grow in the second year of your sales operation.

B4. MARKETING ACTION PLAN

This section is very important and you may want to produce separate documentation. You may already have prepared a business plan and can simply attach it to your application. You need to indicate what business actions such as Promotional events, advertising in the media, television, joint promotions with tour operators etc. at which you will be able to promote the rail business for which you are now seeking a licence.