We frequently see guides to the top travel management companies in the country, but that’s all they are – guides.

These guides provide sales volumes, staff numbers and a host of other top level information and they serve as good guides to companies looking for information on who’s who in the TMC market.

But as I said, the key word here is ‘guide’. The numbers quoted are not formally published accounts and certainly not intended to be analysed and used as a means to demonstrate strong or poor sales performance – which is unfortunately what one TMC recently tried to do.

What this TMC did was to analyse the increase in sales volume over the past 12 months and then extract the ‘new business’ sales to try and prove that some TMCs are actually losing more than they are winning. It rather missed the point of what most TMCs do.

A good TMC will tailor a travel programme that meets their clients’ objectives. Often, that means saving them money – perhaps helping them downgrade a travel policy from Business to Economy or sourcing better deals from air or hotel suppliers.

For example, just look at what the oil price has done to the energy industry. All the oil companies I know have taken drastic measures to reduce their travel spend.

They will have needed help from their TMC to do that. Many of these TMCs are not necessarily ‘losing business’, but rather are helping their clients reduce cost.

The message to companies looking to source a TMC is to use these guides to help you understand a likely fit with your own travel programme, nothing more.

The message to the TMC who did this analysis is not to knock the competition – you never know when they might bite back.