Register your team and participate live, or view the recording of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, November 21, at Noon EST. REGISTER HERE
This month’s topic helps your hotel group and event sales team convert more inbound leads from prospects who inquire about booking groups and events, while also boosting their proficiency at prospecting in today’s world where most planners are buying remotely.
“Increasingly, prospects who are planning weddings, meetings, and events are foregoing traditional site tours and instead meeting virtually with hotel salespeople,” says Kennedy. “Even those who do come by in person often start with a virtual meeting. Rather than simply replying to an RFP with a proposal and price, or simply speaking by phone, if you want to close more deals, you’ve got to be really great at presenting on Teams or Zoom.”
Too many salespeople these days just respond to inquiries with a standard template in PDF format or send an eProposal. To stand out from the competition, you’ve got to make stronger connections by using a “tech for touch” approach to keep the “people parts” at the heart of sales conversations.
In this webcast, Doug Kennedy will share training content and tips from KTN’s Hotel Sales Habitudes for a New Sales Habitat workshop. Here are some highlights:
- How to audit and improve your website inquiry form to get prospects to share more details that will help you prepare personalized presentations.
- Using online scheduling apps like Calendly or Outlook’s Book With Me app to make it easy to connect.
- Preparing (or updating) your pitch deck template and how to personalize and contextualize it for each prospect.
- “Pro-tips” for webcam and lighting.
- How to keep participants actively engaged.
- Using a “Storified Selling” style to make presentations alluring and enticing.
- Asking for the business in a way that makes them want to say “yes.”
- Following up in ways that are both tenacious and personalized.
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.
Everyone who registers for this and all KTN webcasts 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, 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.
Using The Value Pyramid Model To Sell Guest Experiences and Not Just Rent Them Rooms (Or Units!)
Friday, December 19 (Noon EST)
In this webinar, Doug Kennedy will cover KTN’s “Value Pyramid” as a model for helping reservations sales agents remember to sell the comprehensive features that create the overall guest experience. Too often, today’s contact center reps simply quote the same rates and options that prospective guests have no doubt already seen online prior to reaching out, effectively providing what is merely “website search support.” Instead, those who join in will learn new and better ways to engage callers in genuine, authentic conversations, allowing them to sell the overall experience. When you take time to consider that the average guest spends very little time in their accommodation, versus being out and about during their stay, their experience will be far more impacted by the destination itself, the location of the accommodation within that destination, and the amenities and services that are in-house or in the neighborhood.
Hospitality IS…
Friday, January 23 (Noon EST)
To kick off our 2026 training webcast series, KTN is excited to have Doug Kennedy present highlights from our brand new, advanced-level hospitality training course titled Hospitality IS… Doug has been researching new content for this new half-day, on-site training workshop for over a year, and it was just launched in late 2025. Highlights to be presented include:
- Hospitality IS… The biggest “thing” that differentiates you from your competitors.
- Hospitality IS… The only way to increase NPS (net promoter scores) is through a punctilious attention to seemingly “little” details that actually mean the most.
- Referring to hospitality training as “soft skills” is just plain wrong; it is better labeled as “heart skills.”
- Sentipensante IS… the heart-mind connection as a model for connecting guest service “standards” with the foundational philosophy of hospitality.
- Hospitality IS… A vibe that can only be shared when you are truly present with others.
- Be an illuminator, not a diminisher. (Thank you, David Brooks.)
- Projecting “5G Positivity” as it relates to Marth Welch’s work on Co-Regulation & Cardiac Calming.
- Hospitality vibes must be “intentionally communicated,” not forced and scripted.
- Hospitality IS… Diminished by cynicism BUT grown by empathy.
- Hospitality, IS… Foundational to a happier work-life balance.
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 +1 (678) 466-9173.
