Selling resorts successfully is all about keeping your feet on the ground, says Terry McCabe, national director of leisure for ALTOUR. McCabe is a business travel veteran, having previously been with Stratton Travel Management, Inc., where she worked her way up to president during her 25-year career.

Corporate travel is all about speed, efficiency and compliance. Selling leisure also requires efficiency and using preferred suppliers, but there’s a major difference. “You’re dealing with people’s dreams and their aspirations,” says McCabe, who appears regularly on Condé Nast Traveler’s annual list of top travel specialists. “These are trips they want to take. They’ve saved for them. They are fun, enriching experiences.”

McCabe estimates that selling resorts makes up about 80 percent of her business. But even though she’s selling dreams, she’s still dealing with demanding customers. Not only are travelers more knowledgeable about the world they want to see, but they also have higher expectations of the agents who are helping them to discover it. “When I first started, clients had no knowledge of destinations and properties,” she says. They would ask if McCabe knew a hotel. Then the question became, “Have you been there?” Now clients ask, “When was the last time you were there?”

Hotels change. A new property may open with great flourish but show wear and tear after just a few years. Good agents have always needed onsite knowledge of the resorts they sold, but it’s even more important now, says McCabe, whose job includes management and strategy as well as selling. “A certain amount of being an expert is just learned through experience,” she says. “You have to get out there and travel and experience the properties.”