Persistence pays off: The story behind Archer Travel’s Evolution partnership: Travel Weekly

Ten years ago, Ron Archer, CEO of Archer Travel Service, had just embarked on what he called his retirement plan: hosting travel advisors as independent contractors.

He was looking specifically for advisors who are new to the industry, with a plan to onboard them, train them and let them hit the ground running while he acted as more of a “head coach.” It was a new direction for Archer Travel, whose roots date to 1952, but one Archer and his wife, Jill, the agency’s general manager, were excited about.

Then he met David McCovy.

McCovy wanted to start a travel-focused multilevel marketing (MLM) company (also known as network marketing), and he wanted Archer’s help to do it. Archer had consulted for MLMs in the past, including the infamous and now defunct YTB, but he wasn’t interested in the MLM space anymore, being focused instead on his hosting operation.

But McCovy was persistent. The founder of a concert promotion company in Las Vegas, he had worked with MLMs in the past and thought the space was ripe for a travel seller. He called Archer again. And again.

His persistence worked. Archer consulted with Jill, and her advice was simple: “Trust your gut,” Ron said.

Ultimately, he partnered with McCovy and launched Evolution Travel in January 2016 in partnership with Archer Travel. The two operate as separate companies, with McCovy heading Evolution and Archer and his nephew, Reggie Rivas, as co-owners of Archer Travel.

“Evolution Travel platform was a recruiting company, and we were a travel company that used network marketing to expand our base, expand our salespeople,” Ron said. “We were not a network marketing or an MLM that just happened to be in the travel industry.”

Archer said Evolution’s focus has always been on travel sales, not recruitment, arguing that if advisors are successful in sales, recruiting other advisors to join their network at Evolution will come on its own. Getting paid commissions ensures they stay with the program.

Fast-forward to today, and Evolution Travel is still rolling. McCovy said the agency has just under 20,000 advisors. The number fluctuates a bit, but it’s fairly consistent.

Together, Archer Travel and Evolution Travel are on track to book more than $500 million in sales this year. Around 95% of those sales come from Evolution; Archer Travel agreed to stop recruiting new advisors once Evolution started growing.

“We kind of fly under the radar,” Archer said. “With us, it’s all about helping people to learn how to make money as either a second income or a primary income, or just to have fun with it.”

‘We’re good citizens’

Archer said Evolution is not a card mill. Recruitment efforts are not based around discounted travel. Plenty of training is offered, too, with about nine live trainings each week and a library of hundreds of videos.

“We have a code of conduct, a code of ethics,” he said. “We are good citizens, and we require our agents to be good citizens.”

Evolution charges advisors $89.95 a month for its base plan. It offers an option for $249 that includes enhanced commissions and a ticket to its annual conference. Advisors make 80% of their commission, and their sponsoring agent — the advisor who brought them into the organization — earns 10%.

Evolution doesn’t participate in formal marketing, McCovy said. Its advisors typically join through word of mouth. Advisors don’t make money simply by signing up another agent; they get paid when commissions are paid.

“You have to go through the program, start to do some things,” he said.

McCovy admits that, for awhile, trying to gain traction in the industry was “like trying to push a wall that didn’t want to be pushed.” Other MLM companies had bad reputations and left suppliers less than willing to do business. But doors opened as Evolution continually trained advisors on professionalism and representing the brand well.

“We’ve had to do the right thing long enough so that people take this part of the travel network seriously,” he said. “And I believe that we paved the way for some others to do the same thing.”