LETTER FROM CHAIRMAN

June 2014

It’s June, already and we have reached the middle of the year. Some of us have achieved our targets, and maybe others have some catching up to do.

Way back, when I was much younger, a senior mentor of mine gave me a few useful tips that I am sure will help young marketing professionals of today. These are simple, easy-to-follow and implement. In fact, so simple that people will wonder why I am sharing them as action pointers.

But then, some of the most valuable tips from the Gurus have always been plain, simple and motivating..

• Tackle the most difficult customers first
  If you have 12 customers to tackle in the month and six are difficult, make a beeline for the really difficult chaps - first. On the other hand, if you tackle the six easy ones first, you will get a false sense of accomplishment - of finishing 50% of the target set. On the other hand, tackling six difficult customers is an enormous task in itself – and maybe twice as difficult. So finish with the difficult customers first, the rest will be a breeze.
  
  
• It’s always useful to be ahead of the clock
  Most of  us like to take things easy initially – especially when you set the clock on target numbers and dates. There doesn’t seem to be any urgency when you start, but suddenly, you find that your date pad has flipped through more than half way down and you could still be at the starting blocks. That’s when things can go out of hand. Start right and start in all earnest - you’ll be okay.
  
  
• Put yourself in your customer’s shoes
  Customers always like to feel that you understand what they are looking for. They also feel a sense of comfort when you can identify with their apprehensions, constraints and fears. That’s why it is important to take an unbiased view of their needs, concerns and maybe, budget constraints as well.
  
  This is true especially with timeshare customers. Because you could have people on your list belonging to different age groups, professional backgrounds and maybe in different stages of making up their minds. (See my post last month, where I describe typical customer profiles.)
  
  
• Listen to your customer’s point of view
  When you listen to your customers, you must do this without waiting to interrupt. Today’s customers do a lot of homework by comparing resort offerings, plans and payouts. They look at timeshare in a very logical way, and arrive at their own quality and service ratings. So it helps to make your sales conversations “two-way” – giving customers an opportunity to have their say. The customer too has an opinion, a clear expectation and a right to his side of the story. As you’ll soon see, it pays to listen - a customer can give you useful feedback on how he views the industry, and your product.
  
  
• Respect a customer’s wish to change his mind
  There are times, when a customer may feel that he wants to reconsider his purchase decision on timeshare. That’s when, as a responsible sales person, you should give the customer a step-back option. AIRDA resorts give prospective customers the convenience of a ten-day cooling period from the sign-up date – during this period a customer can rescind the contract without any penalty, by giving a logically valid reason.
  
  It is also important, as marketers of a serious product, we give customers what is fair to them in terms of a convenience clause. It makes our product even more approachable and fair value.
  
  Having said all of that, I also urge you to allow the customer to scrutinize the sales contract carefully – we owe him that, and it is his right. Also make sure that all services offered to the customer are put down in writing. Avoid verbal assurances that a customer cannot refer to in case there is some confusion in his mind.

I hope my views on looking at things from a customer’s point of view have added to your own sense of fair value and judgment. After all there could be another situation where we are the customers, expecting the same kind of treatment from a manufacturer or marketer.

B. S. Rathor
Chairman, AIRDA