Ultimate Selling Workshop

I attended a workshop at the NY Times Travel Trade Show yesterday given by Scott Koepf which was quite interesting.

Just a brief synopsis of what he said during this Ultimate Selling Workshop.

We are not in the sales business anymore. Now we are in the marketing business.

The future of Travel Agents will be to create unique marketing, establish personal relationships and to establish the value of YOU.

He identified 7 steps of sales that the best sales pros follow regardless of industry.

1. Preparation- you must be excited about what you do. You need a positive attitued. No one wants to deal with a grump!

2. Opening- 1st impression or greeting. Otherwise known as small talk. It takes 2 seconds to make a first impression- so make it a good one.

3. Qualify- this should take 80% of your first meeting with a new client.
The goal is to make a lifetime client, not just to sell them 1 vacation. You need to find out everything you can about these clients so that you don't have to ask the 5 D's. You should be able to know the answers to these questions after you finish qualifying the new client.
The 5 D's
- destination
- date
- duration
- dollars
- desire

From your questions about their past vacations, likes, dislikes, what they did, what they wanted to do, their favorite part, their least favorite part, who they traveled with, what type of room/resort/cruise ship/cabin, etc. you should be able to have the answers to these questions without coming out and saying "what is your budget?"

Qualifying is the art of asking questions.

4. Research and presentation
5. Overcome objections
6. Close the Sale
7. Follow up

After qualifying, don't go directly into the presentation. Get their contact info. Do research and set up an appointment to discuss your results.


Even being in the sales business for most of my adult life, this was a great refresher course for me and I picked up quite a few pointers.

Mindy Gilbert