KHM Travel Group RDC Spotlight: Heather Allison, West Region
Written by: Guest on June 21, 2016
One of the most valuable resources our independent travel agents have are our Regional Development Coordinators. Not only are they experienced, successful travel agents themselves, but they help KHM Travel Agents out on a daily basis.
Some of you have already met your region’s RDC, but we thought it’d be beneficial to introduce them to you, and ask them to share a little of their expertise!
Heather Allison, the RDC for the West Region has been a KHM Travel Agent since 2009. She decided to research host agencies when her brother-in-law asked her to plan a multi-destination trip to Europe.
She had helped plan trips at her previous jobs, and felt that she would already have a solid base of clients that would book travel with her. After two weeks of research, she determined that KHM Travel Group was the best fit for her.
Now, she loves that she can earn additional income while working from home, and not have to sacrifice any time with her four boys. In their free time as a family, they enjoy vacationing, camping and off-roading.
It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing, however. Five years ago, she was ready to throw in the towel. She was occupied by a family medical issue, and she didn’t have confidence in herself when it came to selling travel.
“I didn’t tell a whole lot of people that I was a travel agent,” she explains. “I was scared that they would ask me a question that I didn’t know the answer to and I would stumble on my response.”
Rather than let discouragement slow her down, she pushed through and immersed herself in training. Gradually, the confidence came, and she reached $100,000 in sales the next year.
It’s no surprise that Heather points to training as the number one key to success as an agent. She connects agents with supplier training events, and also helps coordinate several regional events hosted by KHM Travel during the year.
“The more training you do, whether it’s in person at a KHM Travel Group Boot Camp or Destination Success, live at an event near you, or an online webinar, the more confident you are going to be to sell travel,” she says.
She loves seeing agents have those “a-ha!” moments during training, because she knows it means they are learning something new.
Heather also advises agents, regardless of where they are at with their business, not to give up. One of her favorite quotes is, “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”
“You will get out of this business exactly what you put in,” she adds. “Get to more training, and put yourself out there more so that your clients can see that you are serious and knowledgeable.”
To make gaining knowledge even more accessible, Heather and our other four RDCs are tasked with keeping our agents informed of educational opportunities, ship inspections, and other travel agent events in their area.
Heather says that the RDC Calendar is a great tool for KHM Travel Agents. It includes full details on local events and how to sign up.
Each RDC aims to have two KHM Agent-Only trainings in their region during the year. The next event Heather has organized for the west region is October 1st in San Francisco.
Current KHM Travel Agents can visit the Regional Training page on TravelAgentMeeting.com to learn more about the October training event, and check out their region’s RDC Calendar in the Portal under the Education tab.
Our Regional Development Coordinators are just one of the many resources KHM Travel Agents can rely on to reach their business goals. If you’d like to learn more about joining our family of home-based travel agents, simply fill out the form on the right or call 1-888-611-1220 to receive our free information packet.