Reservations Sales Agents: It Is NOT Our Job To Tell Them What’s Available; It IS Our Job To Help Them Decide!

Register your team and participate live, or view the recording, of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, May 17, from Noon – 12:45pm EST. REGISTER HERE

As evidenced by the pre-training mystery shopping our team provides for new clients, an awful lot of reservations sales agents do little more than find out the caller’s dates and number of people, and then quote them the same rates the caller has already seen online prior to calling. When you think about it, this approach is like treating a sales task more like ‘website help desk,’ and if that’s all agents do these days, their jobs will very soon be replaced by AI and ChatGPT. KTN President Doug Kennedy

In this webcast, Doug reminds participants that most callers have already been online. They have seen rates and read bullet points about amenities. Most are calling because they are confused by reviews, overwhelmed by choices, or just want to make sure they get the best rate possible. It’s NOT our job to tell them what’s available, Kennedy says, It IS our job to help them decide that we are the best choice and now is the best time. If we let callers go back online, if we’re lucky, they may still book our hotel, but they might also book another one listed in the search results or book us through a costly OTA.

Topics to be covered include:

• Understanding the concepts of “choice overload” that travel planners are experiencing when they search online and how that leads to FOMO, which is truly a psychological disorder many of us feel these days.
• Using investigative questions to discover “the story” behind the caller’s plans, gaining their confidence, while also controlling the call flow to minimize talk time.
• Using needs-based recommendations and suggestions that refer back to the caller’s needs and therefore have a greater impact.
• As callers start to decide, endorsing their choice as being a good option for them.

Topics for Doug’s monthly webcast training events rotate each month, covering hospitality and guest service excellence, transient reservations sales, and hotel group/event sales. In creating this series, Doug draws on content from his on-site training programs, conference keynote presentations, and his monthly training articles.

Everyone who registers receives a link to the recording, even if they cannot attend. The 40-minute format is perfect for “lunch and learns” or excerpts can be shared at staff meetings. The target audience is anyone who is interested in upskilling themselves or others, and the topic areas are broad enough to be relevant for all sectors of the lodging industry.

We are grateful to the generosity of our sponsors who have allowed us to offer complimentary admission, said Kennedy. It takes a lot of time to design, promote, and deliver these events, and so we would normally charge at least $99 registration per person, but this series is now completely free to all.

Sponsors include: Travel Outlook, the only KTN Certified call center, Better Talent, a subscription-based talent acquisition company serving the lodging sector, and Track Hospitality Software, a TravelNet Solution, whose products include a PMS and CRM.

Complimentary registration can be accessed at www.KTNwebcast.com. Here are the additional topics and dates scheduled so far.

Train Your Entire Staff To Elicit Kama Muta (Commonly Called That “Warm, Fuzzy” Feeling)

Friday, June 21 (Noon EDT)

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It’s something that virtually all humans have experienced in our lives, especially those who work in guest-facing jobs in the hospitality industry. It happens when we make an authentic, personalized, and heartfelt connection with another human. It is a mutually experienced feeling, felt across cultures, nationalities, and languages. There is even a common gesture that humans around the globe use when the feeling arises, which is raising the right hand and placing it over the heart. While we in Western Cultures apparently don’t have a word for this feeling, one can be found in the ancient Sanskrit language. The word is Kama Muta, which means “being moved by love.” It is written as काममूत. This webcast covers:

• Understanding the diversity of human travel experiences being lived out every day on the other side of the doors to your guest rooms, homes, and suites.
• Realizing that hospitality can be a philosophy for daily living that just might make you a happier human. What’s good for the guest and good for the company is also good for us personally!
• Bringing out the best in others, brings out the best in ourselves. In other words, we can have a lot more fun at work!
• Using your power of release, stomping out cynicism, and shining the light of hospitality to everyone we encounter.

How To Turn Every Guest “Conversation” Into A Sales & Marketing Opportunity

Friday, July 22 (Noon EDT)

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As tech solutions continue to replace “touch points” in our guests’ cycle of service, each remaining “conversation” becomes ever more important, especially since guests are more likely to reach out to our humans either when things go wrong or when they have a special request or need. With so many guests booking online, often through third parties, and with an ever-increasing number using self-check-in, any remaining interaction might be the only chance to put a “face” on your brand and foster loyalty. Doug’s webcast will cover:

• How to turn inbound emails, chat messages with “quick questions,” and in-app message exchanges on OTA’s into opportunities to convert a new booking, cross-sell, or upsell.
• Maintenance techs and housekeeping inspectors may be the only face of your company and in the best position to encourage a positive guest review of social media posts, especially for guests who check-in via an app or keyless entry.
• These days, it is often the random encounter in a corridor, walkway, or elevator that creates the best opportunity to humanize your brand.
• It’s everyone’s job to “know the product,” which is of course the overall experience, not the room, suite, or vacation home. Answering questions is good, but proactively offering “local insider’s tips” is a true gesture of hospitality.
• It’s the “people parts” that make the difference to guests. So in that sense, everybody sells!

Hotel Sales Habitudes For Booking More Groups, Conferences, and Events

Friday, August 16 (Noon EDT)

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Today’s hotel and event salespeople work in completely different environments than most of their leaders experienced. Meeting planning and event booking sites have created a flood of leads, which can be overwhelming for salespeople working within a sales role still designed for the era when most leads came in by phone or website inquiry forms. When revenues drop, salespeople are required to meet prospecting quotas, based on a set number of calls, sent emails, or door knocks. Yet those calls go to voicemail, emails go to spam, and the office doors are either locked, or if open, there's no one at the receptionist station. Self-serving “thought leaders” are pushing RFP automation and AI-powered prospecting, both of which lead to generic, spammy-feeling sales correspondence. If these challenges sound familiar, join us as Doug shares actionable, real-world training habits and mind-shifting attitudes for booking more business.

• When Product, Price, and Place are all essentially the same, which they are these days, it’s the People that make the difference. As a salesperson, YOU are your hotel’s superpower.
• Embrace your CRM and make it work for you. It’s the only way to follow-up in a way that is both tenacious and personalized.
• Sort and prioritize incoming leads. Craft more authentic, thoughtful responses to the hottest leads.
• Yet respond to all leads. This will require you to think creatively to get the help you need, and it may be outside of your “silo” of the hotel sales department.
• Use a “tech for touch” approach. Embrace tech solutions, but use them in ways that keep the human touch in hotel sales.
• Sure, subscription-based tools like Knowland and ZoomInfo can help, but you already own the best sources for contacts to prospect; previous clients and prospects, including those who did not book with you the first time.
• How to build the habit of prospecting into your daily sales routine, versus training to “find” that time when you can make all those cold calls.

For additional details, contact KTN at info@kennedytrainingnetwork.com or by phone (01) 954.533.9130 www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com

*Sponsored By Travel Outlook, Better Talent, and Track Hospitality Software.