Ready to win £50 in Titan Rewards?
Answer three questions via the quiz below before 12 June to get yourself in the running! You can also complete an optional challenge – to write five of your own killer questions, and use them in initial conversations with clients – to hone your sales skills further should you wish. Good luck!
The competition closes at midnight on 12 June 2026.
This video is part of the TTG Smarter Selling Series in partnership with Titan Travel, a collection of six bitesize videos designed to enhance your sales selling skills:
- Tuesday 21 April – Episode 1: How and when to communicate your value
- Tuesday 28 April – Episode 2: How to make connection convert
- Tuesday 5 May – Episode 3: Your killer questions for initial conversations
- Tuesday 12 May – Episode 4: How to set the agenda, and why
- Tuesday 19 May – Episode 5: How and when to address the "B" word (budget!)
- Tuesday 26 May – Episode 6: What are the do's and don'ts of powerful proposals?
Each episode comes with a quiz and an opportunity to win £50 in Titan Rewards, with one lucky agent who's completed all six quizzes being entered into a prize draw for £300 in Titan Rewards (these can be spent at 250 retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Argos, Dunelm and Odeon). So make sure you watch all the videos and complete all the quizzes for a chance to bag the biggest prize!
Who is Helen Roberts?
Helen is a leadership and sales coach. She is passionate about helping businesses build high-performing teams empowered to drive their sales strategy, deliver exceptional customer experiences and exceed their targets.
Her career at Kuoni spanned 20 years, starting as a personal travel expert and progressing to sales director, where she led the retail strategy for eight years. She developed and executed a highly successful sales and service blueprint, creating an award-winning customer experience through the development of an innovative sales and service philosophy and exceptional team engagement. This blueprint empowered the team to go above and beyond, showcase their personalities, and truly wow customers. She has since helped numerous businesses achieve similar success, also working with them to implement new sales processes and service models.
After a hugely fulfilling career, driven by a deep desire to help others, she has taken all of her insights, along with her passion for people engagement and exceptional customer service, into developing new leadership and sales coaching programmes. She now coaches founders, directors and sales leaders to maximise performance and deliver results consistently through empowering, inspiring and engaging their teams.
Video transcript
Pippa Jacks: Hello, welcome back to episode three of the TTG Smarter Selling Series with our leadership and sales coach expert Helen Roberts. Hello, Helen.
Helen Roberts: Hello, Pippa.
Pippa Jacks: Thank you for joining us again. Episode three is called "Killer Questions" and we’re going to be focusing on the very best rules of how to shape conversations with your customers. Helen, one of your golden rules, I know, is about challenging the brief, isn’t it? So, when the customer tells you what they want or what they think they want, how should the agent respond in that initial process?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, that’s a really interesting one, especially if you don’t know the destination. It can be even more tempting to "order take." But actually, you can still ask some really well-thought-out questions to make sure that is what they want. It’s really important to challenge the brief; it’s another great way of demonstrating your value. Because if they can just go and book it online, what value have you added? So you might say things like, "Oh, tell me, what’s the reason you chose that destination? What made you think of that hotel? Have you been there before? Oh, what I like to do is just find out a little bit more about you before I go off and speak to my suppliers, just to make sure it’s right for you". So just spend a couple of minutes making sure if they’ve come to you with an order and something prescriptive, that you’re not just taking it and running with it. It might not be right for them. Yeah. And if that is all you do, you don’t get to demonstrate your value – quite right – just taking that order.
Pippa Jacks: Killer questions then, let’s go into those in a little bit more depth. Why are killer questions important firstly and what would some examples be?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, well it’s not "how many nights?" and "what airport are you going from?" That doesn't count. That’s nuts and bolts. So what we’re talking about is: What’s most important to you as a family on this holiday? What do you love to do on holiday? Where have you been before? When you think of your perfect moment on this holiday, what might you be doing? How do you like to relax on holiday? Where do you like to eat? Really just trying to be curious about what makes a perfect experience for them. If you skip this bit, how can you relay back a recommendation that really connects with what they need?
Pippa Jacks: Right, so they need to be sort of imagining how they’ll feel and what they’ll be tasting and enjoying and remembering, rather than looking at a list of possible hotels or whatever it is. Okay, so third on the list is actively listening. What is actively listening?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, well it’s asking – for a start – really well-thought-out questions. And what we all do is, we’re in solution mode, desperate to make recommendations. So active listening is where we’re asking open questions, so what, where, when, how. Less of the "are you, do you, can you" and really understanding and taking in what the client is saying and then drilling. I always say, when you think you’ve asked enough questions, ask some more.
Pippa Jacks: Right. And have plenty up your sleeve, I guess to be prepared. Your fourth golden rule is about taking a detailed brief. What do you mean then? How detailed are we talking?
Helen Roberts: Yes, it can be hard. Again, if you don’t know the destination, that’s why you need to rely on your expert suppliers. You know, the guys at Titan have got destination experts that can really guide you through an itinerary and what questions to ask. So yeah, asking these brilliant questions enables you to get enough detail to give your supplier a detailed brief that you can then partner together on to bring to life for your client. If you don’t, and you’re only getting the nuts and bolts of the amount of time and a couple of locations, you’re not able, again, to tailor a well-thought-out proposal that really lights their fire and makes them want to go there immediately.
Pippa Jacks: Okay. Golden rule five is about matching the client with the best experience. What do you mean there?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, I know it sounds obvious. Actually, what I’m making a nod to here is if we’re fixating on price and not on the customer experience, then we’re again losing that opportunity to demonstrate value. So genuinely ask brilliant questions, work with your brilliant supplier and match them with the most amazing experience. Put that as number one rather than being governed maybe by offers and price, which can really compromise the customer experience. Right. Let them see what the perfect solution is, even if it was a little bit higher than their original budget.
Pippa Jacks: Quite right. So they can understand value before price always. Golden rule six is around tailoring the proposal to their needs. What’s that all about?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, so if we don’t ask these brilliant killer questions, then we won’t be able to do that. And then it’s not going to resonate. So it really is the difference between listing features, you know, copying and pasting an email or, you know, from a website or whatever. You know, "it’s got a pool, it’s got, you know, really large, spacious modern bedrooms. Oh, you’re near the beach". All of these things are lovely, but if you’ve not asked great questions, you don’t know what’s going to resonate. You know, if they don’t love swimming in the swimming pool, they love swimming in the sea, then you know, why make a big thing about the swimming pool? So it’s about really understanding what the customer wants and then delivering your proposal over the phone or face-to-face in a way that really connects with them. You know, "You said your little girl loves boats. You wouldn’t believe it, the room overlooks a marina." "You said you love a G&T at sunset. Wait until you see this balcony of this suite. It is unreal, and the sunsets are pink, you’re going to love it". So it’s just, it’s about vivid, descriptive language. You know, we’re selling holidays, not insurance. And really you can only do that well if you’ve found out what they love first.
Pippa Jacks: I love that. Speaking back to them with the language they use themselves as well. And finally, golden rule seven, don’t fuel choice paralysis. What’s choice paralysis?
Helen Roberts: It’s where sometimes it comes from a great place because there’s so much choice. It can be over-enthusiasm, or you’re wanting to show that you’re balanced and independent. But then we actually give the client too many options. Know your value, have an opinion, glean all of this wonderful information about your customer, work with your supplier and then make a firm recommendation. For me, max a couple. You know, once you start sending four, five, six recommendations, where’s your value in helping them really edit down the choice to something that’s perfect for them? So what we don’t want to do is fuel overwhelm and get customers looking at other websites or other operators. We want eyes on me, eyes on me. Let’s keep having a conversation so I can understand your needs and I can then, partner with my fantastic supplier, recommend the most perfect escape for you. So yeah, not offering too many options. It can have the adverse effect.
Pippa Jacks: Have the confidence in what you’re putting forward. Quite. That sounds great. Moving into our challenge then for episode three, we would love you to write some killer questions. Shall we say just four or five do you think, Helen?
Helen Roberts: Yeah, that would be... let’s go for five.
Pippa Jacks: Five. Round it up. Five killer questions, which you can keep up your sleeve – maybe you have them on the wall in your store, on a Post-it note on your laptop if you’re working from home. Those killer questions which you’ve thought really carefully about, which you try to use in conversations as well. So we’d love you to share with us what the killer questions you’ve come up with are. You can certainly steal some of Helen’s if you liked any of those that she shared earlier on, and insert those in the quiz when you do it and give us some feedback. We’d love that. Thank you for joining us for episode three and don’t miss episode four coming soon.
Amy Ford: Hi everyone, I’m Amy from Titan, and I’m going to talk to you about how to use those killer questions to really convert more sales with Titan. So, as you’ve just learned, great questioning isn’t just about building rapport, it’s really about unlocking opportunities that you might have otherwise missed. Asking those really right questions can take the conversation a completely different direction. So for example, you could ask, "Have you ever toured before?" or "Have you ever considered touring?" This might kind of open that conversation about Titan to someone who necessarily didn’t contact you about a tour in the first place. Or even more generic, it could just simply be, "What do you enjoy most about a holiday?" From there, if your customer says that they really love seeing and experiencing a destination rather than just relaxing by a pool, then Titan really could be perfect for them. The more detail you get from your customer during the conversation initially, the more you can really bring that Titan tour to life. All of our tours have named accommodation, so you can really bring up each hotel, take a look at the pool, take a look at the location, where it is in relation to other things, just like you would with any other holiday. With Titan, you’re not just getting that kind of vague outline of what the package might look like, you’re really getting all of the activities, all the excursions that are included, all of the accommodation names throughout, and really a day-to-day plan. So by doing that, you can really kind of bring that tour to life and link it back to their preferences that you found out about in that initial conversation. So really kind of using that to bring to life the door-to-door chauffeur service. They literally don’t need to lift a finger throughout their entire tour. It starts from their front door. So by doing this, you’re not just kind of recommending a Titan tour, you’re really fully bringing that built experience to life for them and linking it with their preferences. Thank you so much for watching episode three. Stay tuned for episode four next week.
Competition terms and conditions:
- Applicable to travel agents in the UK and Ireland only. By entering this competition you agree to the TTG competition terms and conditions.
