Managers – change how you train new consultants

INDUSTRY leaders need to change
how they approach the training of
new consultants.
During an interactive session
discussing agents’ new and old
pain points, agents agreed that new
entrants often lacked the passion
and training to do an effective job.
Agents say colleges don’t train
potential agents adequately, with
new recruits still being only “ordertakers”
instead of consultants.
Yet this issue is an old one, with
not much new resolution on how
training at colleges can be changed:
Representatives of colleges in
attendance say there is a big gap
between school leavers and collegeready
students. All conference
delegates agreed that colleges
and industry players needed to
engage more to create appropriate
curriculum content.
But some agents suggested there
were simpler ways for industry
management to tackle this issue.
Ben Langner, md of CWT,
suggested that managers should
screen potential recruits better. As
passion for travel is often lacking
“we must simply ask, have you got a
travel ambition list? And if so, what’s
on it?” he said.
Sharon Mason-Gordon, national
operations manager of BCD Travel,
agreed and said one way she
encouraged enthusiasm among
new staff was by conducting weekly
product quizzes. “This encourages
a sense of competition among them
which eventually makes them more
effective consultants.”
Management needed to be more
proactive about how they arranged
educationals, said Lara Casasola,
owner of Lara Travel. Often there
was the excuse that suppliers
didn’t want to help in arranging
educationals, but how often did a
manager pick up the phone and
negotiate with a supplier, she asked.
Agents agreed that, by encouraging
a culture of “aspiring to travel”
it was more likely that more new
entrants would see the travel
industry as a viable career option.