Rachel West
Founder & CEO, Safari Portal
A native New Yorker, Rachel studied at Barnard College and Oxford University before setting off on a path towards a PhD in English Lit. In 2010, she was invited to join a last-minute safari to Kenya, and it was there that she met her husband Phil, a third generation Kenyan safari guide.
Phil offered Rachel an incredibly underpaid (read: unpaid) position doing everything from logistics and planning to costings and proposals for Phil’s safari business, and this is what she has been doing for the past twelve years.
Rachel feels strongly that the proposal is THE most important inflection point in the sales process - by the time you’ve gotten to this point you’ve already done so much! You’ve networked, you’ve recce’ed, you’ve walkabout’ed, you’ve studied the best places to go at the best times, you’ve got the potential guest to reach out to YOU, done a discovery call/ email, checked availability, and provisionally held space, put together costings. NOW is the moment of truth, when all that hard work comes to fruition. NOW is what matters most. NOW is when you want to throw everything you possibly can to close the sale - your own personal experience and expertise, all the amazing photos and videos you’ve amassed and have access to via suppliers’ shared marketing collateral.
Realizing there was nothing out there that was able to bridge the gap between beautiful high touch design and efficiency - something flexible enough to enable them to communicate one’s own knowledge and personality - Rachel assembled an extraordinary team and together they’ve created Safari Portal. We’d love to introduce you.