LETTER FROM PRINCIPAL ADVISOR

October 2014

This month I’d like to focus on methods employed when a marketing person is closing a timeshare sale. Closing a sale is the most important step in the selling process. If you can’t close a sale, there is no sale.

Over the years, I have interacted with several sales and marketing people in the industry and there’s a lot I have personally learnt from them, in terms of tactics and leverage points. And I must say that the aggressive, pushy salesman one hears of, is not part of the picture here.

A presentation is the highlight of a salesman’s interface and a laptop or tablet is invariably a good support tool to get your message across. But there’s more to it than presentation logic and sound reason. That’s where emotional appeals come into play. Logic and reason can buy someone’s attention, but you also need to tug at heart strings, with related emotional appeals.

Marketing experts talk about the need to build your story on strong facts and logical reasoning. As a first step, I would recommend a strong core story line that presents resort properties, facilities, activity options and location benefits. That’s the logical part and can include how a customer can finance his purchase.

When you’re closing a sale, you need to go emotional – talk to the prospect about taking the family at least once in a year for that well-deserved holiday. You need to talk about quality time, family time, time with grandparents and things like that.

As I have seen, it’s important to fine tune your appeal to the kind of buyer you’re dealing with. It could be a young professional in his early thirties. Or someone in his mid thirties, or forties. It could also be someone who has just retired. You have to remember here, that these are not just individuals you are talking to, but people with families. And the moment families come into the picture, you get a foot in that door to make a sale.

While each profile is different, we have seen that the early thirties prospect is easier to sell to. Here’s a sample profile. Sunil Kumar of Bangalore is 32, already in his third job and fast moving into the core levels of management. His wife is 30, has a good job and is a good support system in terms of the second income. They have just invested in a new apartment and a car, and primed to make another family related investment. You can’t ask for a better prospect than this. The age is just right, and this age group leans towards working hard and playing hard – which includes well-deserved breaks, at least once a year.

Insurance salesmen are known to use emotional appeal to good advantage. They talk about the family’s dependence on the “bread-winner” in more ways than one, and the need to protect the family’s interest if something were to go wrong. The product lends itself very well to emotional appeals.  

At the end of the day, it helps to  remember that customers don’t like more drama than necessary. They don’t come for a presentation to be entertained – they accept your invitation to be better informed about a timeshare opportunity.

Let’s take it on from there.

B. S. Rathor
Principal Advisor & Member - Executive Committee