Whether you’re a Travel Arranger or Business Traveler, if you’re trying to convince your boss to switch to managed travel, it likely means that you’ve personally seen the downsides of unmanaged travel, and you can recognize the benefits that come with small business travel management.

However, if your boss isn’t on the road very much, or if they’re used to overseeing most of the business travel for your company on their own. They may not see the value in small business travel management — so here’s what you need to tell them.

Managed Travel Means Freeing Up Staff to Do Their Jobs

Whether your traveling team members book their own travel or someone like the administrative assistant has been dubbed the unofficial travel arranger. They can all likely attest that booking business travel can take up a lot of time- especially if there’s any care that goes into shopping around for the best travel prices. That time ends up being taken away from employees’ normal responsibilities or employees are required to work longer in order to get everything done.

Whatever happens, it’s costing your boss money because team members either aren’t doing what they were actually hired to do, or they’re running up overtime to book their own trips.

Managed Travel Accesses Savings You Won’t Get Elsewhere

And when it comes to savings, even if you do have an on-staff travel arranger looking high and low for the best possible travel deals, rates and fares. They still won’t be able to access the special savings that a Travel Management Company and their travel managers can access. TMCs often form partnerships with recognizable hotel brands, airlines and other travel providers, to offer their clients better rates than they could find by just googling and shopping around on their favorite travel deal aggregator site.

Managed Travel Comes with Data

If your boss has at all been considering just how effective their teams’ travel really is, they’ll appreciate all the data that comes with managed travel. From how much your team is spending on travel on a regular basis, to trip ROI, to the carbon footprint of your team’s travel. All this data and more can be at your boss’s fingertips if they choose to invest in small business travel management.

Managed Travel Increases Traveler Satisfaction

While many employees enjoy business travel, some really do see it as a giant hassle — completely unnecessary and filled with headaches. However, with managed travel, some of those common headaches can be removed.

For example, employees are no longer left working things out on their own when their flight cancels, as a TMC will be able to assist in rebooking or finding an alternate solution. Likewise, if your TMC offers a digital platform for your travelers, they’ll enjoy easy access to all their travel information and important documents in one place. No more juggling around multiple bookings and other info spread out across multiple emails or, worse yet, on a handful of printed documents.

Managed Travel Increases Traveler Safety

If your company works with a TMC that has a wealth of experience in keeping business travelers safe, no matter where they are in the world, and no matter what kind of issues arise, then your boss can sleep easy at night, knowing that their teams are protected. Not only will team members be more likely to accept business travel opportunities if they know that their safety is front-of-mind while they’re on the road. Increased traveler safety also helps the company save money by avoiding safety issue-related costs.

Managed Travel Ensures Compliance

Even if your boss is still handling all the small business travel management themselves, they may have a formal travel policy in place. While this is a good start, unfortunately, having a policy and having a team that complies with that policy are two different things.

Working with a TMC helps your boss ensure that the policies they put in place are actually being followed by flagging a lack of compliance. In some cases, preventing non-compliant travel bookings completely. The result is a safer workforce and lower costs.

Ready for the Big Pitch?

When you pitch the idea of managed travel to your boss, don’t just mention all the benefits that come from managed travel. Also, be sure to show how managed travel can meet your company’s specific needs. The best way to do this is by showing data related to your company’s current travel and related costs — or, if it’s the case, you might show your company’s complete lack of data at all.

Maybe you show how much valuable time employees are spending on travel booking, rather than their other responsibilities, if your team uses a time-tracking tool. Maybe you show how well (or not) your team stuck to its travel budget last quarter or year.

Include Relevant Examples

Beyond data on your team’s travel, also consider showing data on what experts are expecting for the future of travel and what other corporations are going through.

A recent Deloitte study looked at the current state of business travel and found that corporations are going to be facing big travel costs in the near future, if they’re not already. The study found that higher airfares and room rates are the deciding factor on whether or not a team takes a business trip, and while costs are going up. Employees continue to expect luxury services and last-minute bookings, which only drive corporate travel costs up further. Additionally, as corporate travelers demand that their teams travel more sustainably, that’s also raising the cost of business trips.

All that said, if your boss wants to avoid big costs as much as possible and as much as the current industry will allow, they need a TMC on their side.

Presented all of the above, and the boss is still giving you pushback, saying they’re just not sure if they’re ready to take the plunge? Point them to these key indicators that show a company is ready for managed travel.