Doug Kennedy’s Next Training Webcast: Reservations Sales QUEST – 2025 Edition!
Complimentary Registration Now Open
Register your team and participate live, or view the recording, of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, December 20, from Noon – 12:45pm EST. REGISTER HERE
In the past, reservations conversations started with ‘Hi, I need to see about making a reservation for these dates…, but today’s voice leads are disguised as questions about accommodations, amenities, policies, and fees. Untrained agents simply answer these questions, letting hot prospects slip away and book through costly third parties, or worse yet, select another property. Kennedy Training Network Inc.'s President Doug Kennedy
Because KTN’s Reservations Sales Coaches regularly listen in to cloud-based recordings of real conversations, its training has been updated to help convert these pre-informed callers who are feeling a sense of “choice overload.”
Join in as Doug shares highlights from KTN’s 2025 edition of Reservations Sales QUEST, which has helped hundreds of hotels, luxury vacation home companies, and destination resorts increase call conversions and upsell higher-rated accommodations. This webcast covers:
- What is the most important metric for your reservations to think about every time a call or email inquiry comes in?
- The most important QUESTion to ask of EVERY caller in 2025.
- Doing “The Basics” EXTREMELY well truly does make you stand out these days.
- Using Investigative “Conversation Starting” QUESTions, including updated versions of traditional probing questions.
- Loop-it-Back© listening technique to solidify connections with callers.
- Storifying Selling©: Using “snappy taglines” to narrate the pictures they’ve no doubt already seen online.
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.
Recordings of previous webcasts are available on KTN’s YouTube channel and are now also being distributed on your favorite podcast channel or on KTN’s Spotify channel.
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, 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 scheduled so far.
How To Be A Lightning Rod and Truly "Ground” Guest Negativity
Friday, January 17 (Noon EDT)
While most everyone knows what a lightning rod is, not everyone knows what one actually does. When lightning strikes, it stands tall to attract the energy and then dissipates it harmlessly into the ground, which makes it a great model for expanding your traditional service recovery training. In exactly this way, properly trained staff can be ready when guests with negative vibes approach, receive that “strike” of negativity, and walk away unaffected and unscathed because they are prepared with the proper responses, proper actions, and just as importantly, with the coping skills to maintain mental wellness.
Join us as Doug covers some of the newest concepts from KTN’s on-site and private, live webcam versions of our latest hospitality and guest service training programs.
- When the next guest approaches or calls, it’s kind of like spinning a roulette wheel where each spoke has emojis representing different guest personas.
- If you encounter 50 or more guests per shift, the roulette wheel is bound to stop on the faces of difficult people. The good part is that you always get to spin again; odds are, the next face is a happy one.
- By striving to understand the experiences your guests are living out daily on the other side of the front desk, bar, phone call, or guest room door, you can better remember that their frustrations are with the situations and not with you personally.
- Showing sincere empathy before offering an apology helps defuse tense guest encounters, whereas a lack of empathy and a scripted apology can ignite guests’ anger.
- The difference between compassion and co-experiencing versus internalizing guests’ trauma. (You are going to be okay!)
- Break the habit of ruminating on negative guest encounters. Otherwise, you re-live the emotional duress each time you re-imagine the situation or retell the story.
- What to do when extreme bullies cross red lines, such as using personal insults, slurs, and inappropriate language.
Reservations QUEST Part Two
Friday, February 21 (Noon EDT)
If you are looking to get more direct bookings this year, join in as Doug shares additional highlights from KTN’s 2025 edition of our Reservations Sales QUEST training program that has helped hundreds of hotels, luxury vacation home rental agencies, and resorts increase call conversion. Because KTN’s Reservations Sales Coaches regularly listen to cloud-based recordings of real conversations, our training has been updated with fresh ideas for uncovering and overcoming objections, securing the sale, and following up proactively.
This webcast covers:
- Defining upselling vs. rate optimization.
- Using “Storified Selling” to upsell higher-rated accommodations.
- Securing the sale is a natural next step that benefits everyone, including the caller.
- When callers decline. Is it rate resistance, or are they just not ready?
- How to overcome rate resistance, based on the current rate strategy.
- Using “rate framing” to position mid- and low-tier rates as being a good value.
- A new approach to explaining top-tier/high-season rates.
- Following up proactively when callers are interested but not yet ready to commit.
For additional details, contact KTN at [email protected] or by phone (01) 954.533.9130 www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
*Sponsored By Travel Outlook and Track Hospitality Software.
About Kennedy Training Network Inc.
KTN is the lodging and hospitality industry's best source for hotel training programs and supportive services in topic areas of hotel sales, catering/event sales, hotel reservations sales, and hospitality & guest service excellence. KTN President Doug Kennedy has been a fixture on the lodging and tourism conference speaking circuit for decades. Hoteliers worldwide read his monthly hotel, tourism and hospitality industry sales training articles in this publication and elsewhere. Visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or call (01) 954-533-9130.
