Organising Your Contact Data as an Aircraft Broker
Feb 10, 2025Most new aircraft brokers start with contacts scattered across a phone, an inbox, WhatsApp and a notebook. It works until it doesn’t — usually around the point where you cannot remember which operator quoted what, or which client mentioned they fly to the same event every spring.
Organising contact data properly is unglamorous work that produces compounding returns. This is a practical guide to setting it up.
Why Brokers Need a System, Not a Contact List
A phone contact stores a name and number. A broker needs considerably more: what the client flies, where from, who approves the booking, what went wrong last time, and when to make contact again.
Without that, every enquiry starts from scratch and you re-ask questions the client already answered — which reads as inattentive to someone spending five figures on a flight.
What to Capture
For Clients
- Frequent routes and typical passenger numbers
- Aircraft preferences, and any type they have refused before
- Booking behaviour — planned well ahead, or consistently last-minute
- Catering, pets, baggage and accessibility requirements
- Who actually approves the booking — often an assistant or family office rather than the traveller
- Preferred contact channel and acceptable hours
- Recurring annual dates
- Why past quotes were declined
For Operators
- Fleet types and tail numbers
- Base locations — more useful than fleet size, because it determines repositioning cost
- Certificate status and safety ratings
- Routes and regions they genuinely serve well
- Typical response time, and the individual who actually responds
- Payment terms and contracting quirks
The Field That Earns the Most: Recurring Dates
If a client flies to the same event every March, a note in February is worth more than months of general outreach. Annual travel — board meetings, tournaments, family occasions, industry events — is predictable business that most brokers simply forget to anticipate.
This single habit separates brokers who wait for enquiries from those who generate them.
Choosing a CRM
The tool matters far less than whether you use it consistently. A well-maintained spreadsheet beats an abandoned CRM.
What actually matters:
- Accessible from your phone. Much of this work happens away from a desk
- Fast to update. If logging a call takes three minutes, it won’t happen
- Reminders that surface follow-ups without you searching for them
- Custom fields for aviation-specific data that generic CRMs don’t anticipate
- Exportable. Your contact data is your business asset — never let it become locked into a platform you can’t leave
That last point deserves emphasis. If you work for a brokerage, understand clearly what happens to your records if you leave, and what your contract says about client ownership. Brokers have lost years of relationship data by not asking.
Habits That Keep It Usable
- Log the same day. Not Friday afternoon, when detail has already faded
- Record what they said, not your interpretation. “Prefers not to connect through Heathrow” is useful; “difficult about routing” is not
- Set the next action before closing the record. A contact with no next step goes cold
- Note why deals didn’t close. Reviewed quarterly, that becomes the most instructive data you hold
- Review dormant contacts monthly. Some are worth a genuine reason to reconnect
A Note on Data Protection
You are storing personal information about individuals, often including travel patterns and family details. That carries obligations, particularly if you handle clients in jurisdictions with data protection regimes such as GDPR.
Practically: keep it secure, collect what you need rather than everything you can, and be able to delete a record on request. Private aviation clients care about discretion, and how you handle their data is part of that.
Where This Sits in the Bigger Picture
A database is infrastructure, not strategy. It supports the relationship work — which is covered in our companion article on building relationships with operators and clients, and in more depth in the Finding Your Clients Masterclass.
For sourcing and operator data specifically, Mastering Avinode covers the platform side.
Compare the certification tracks or schedule a free consultation.
FAQ
What CRM do aircraft brokers use?
There is no industry standard. Brokers use general-purpose CRMs, aviation-specific platforms, or spreadsheets. Consistency of use matters more than the choice.
How much detail should I record about a client?
Enough that you could quote their next trip accurately without asking them to repeat themselves — but only what is relevant to serving them. Collecting more than you need creates obligation without benefit.
Do I own my client data if I work for a brokerage?
That depends entirely on your contract. Check before you need to know. Many brokers assume they own relationships they have built and discover otherwise on departure.
How often should I review dormant contacts?
Monthly is workable. The purpose is identifying who is worth reconnecting with for a genuine reason, not contacting everyone indiscriminately.
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