Life as a Timeshare Sales Representative

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Life as a Timeshare Sales Representative

If you have never been to a sales deck presentation of a timeshare associated product, this article will give you an insight into what goes on. For one week in September/October 2000 I tried my hand at the timeshare sales game, writes Alan Winter.

I'll be the first to admit that I was not a success. This particular Club were operating out of an office building off a Hertfordshire town centre. I am reluctant to reveal more identity due to clauses in a sales associate agreement. And besides which, I have been on the customer side of similar presentations, and the format is generally much the same.

After a cursory interview I was given a few days to collect my thoughts and training began on the Wednesday. I was asked to sit in with two other sales reps to watch how they did things and to learn the script.

This particular sales company had a format of

1. Meet and greet the UPS (Unqualified prospects)
2. Ask them why they are here
3. Explain the free holiday inducement on the letter
4. Work through a survey sheet, getting to know them, where they holiday, what their aspiration holidays would be
5. Make an offer to combine all the findings from the survey check sheet into a package.
6. Show the Club's brochure, explaining how it works.
7. Introduce RCI and explain the exchange system.
8. Show a video.
9. Do a boardwalk showing off letters from bankers, trust company, OTE, and so on to reinforce credibility.
10. Go through the financial logic of owning versus renting, in laymans terms.
11. Ask them what would prevent them from saying YES today.
12. Bring in the T.O. (table operator) to finalise the presentation, bring in some initial real figures and credit payment plan.
13. Button-up - into the office for paper signing with an even more senior person from the sales team.
All the while, the T.O.'s (experienced sales reps - take-over) were to be brought in to explain any aspect the reps were unsure of, or just to re-emphasise various points along the way.

It has been an interesting experience. I began by spending 2 days watching other reps in action. Character number one was Stan (not his real name), who had managed 7 sales in the previous week, and while I was there managed at least another 5 sales. At a minimum commission of 500 GBP a week sold, that was making some money! Stan's style involved running down Airtours (and every other tour operator) as a wasteful outfit and making the conclusion that out of a typical £2000 holiday in Europe, Airtours were wasting 80% of the punters money. His classic finale on this is to toss a bundle of brochures on the floor for dramatic effect, exclaiming, “It's a waste! ”

In sharp contrast, Boyo (not his real name) muddled through the first tour I witnessed, but in his second tour he impressed me with his skill at talking. I cannot say the UPs were hypnotised, but they probably quickly gained the impression that Boyo was so knowledgeable about all the things dear to them, that he could not possibly be a con-man of any description. I do believe they spent more time talking about Wales and biking than about the product on offer.

Then I spent some time with the sales manager who showed me the way he wanted it done. The Timeshare Acts were never mentioned as requirements for Sales Representatives to be knowledgeable about. Cooling off periods were not to be mentioned by the reps, and as I had explained my involvement with this timeshare websites to him, no mention was to be made on the tour about the Internet. Then I was let loose on my first tour. And he made that clear to everyone else, for reasons I could not fathom directly.

When I look back at the five tours I was subsequently given, I think I had some tough customers, but probably no worse than any other set of UPs provided by the marketing department. One of the reps explained to me that, coming from the marketing offices, he knew how the UPs were recruited. People were queried on the street, rang up at home, and if the UP was still a good prospect their credit worthiness was checked out. Finally a letter inviting them to a 2 hour presentation in exchange for an unspecified European holiday was mailed out. So it was that Wednesday to Sunday each sales representative had the potential to do 10 full tours a week, one at 11am and one at 3pm. In practice, 2 hours was the bare minimum and 3 hours the norm for a full tour. And much longer if the tour went into button-up.

My first couple professed enjoyment of 3-week holidays in camper vans in France, whilst the husband gloried in staying in 5 star hotels around the world for the past 2 years. His body language told me from the off that he was not interested. And his wife was more concerned about getting away at 5pm so they could get on with their wedding anniversary. Luxury accommodation for them held no appeal. I hardly saw the point of showing them the brochure, but I did and went through the whole tour. I probably missed bits out as I was so nervous on this first outing.

The next couple bit their nails right down as they were given the final figures, and although they had both told me they were employed, finally admitted they were awaiting a sickness benefit as their way of saying “no, we can't afford it ” to the sales closer. They had never had potential from the off, so far as I could tell. Their holidays to date had been very cheap bargains, so trying to match that kind of meagre spending to a repayment plan on new timeshare would never have been right for them. I had had difficulty seating them, as they came with 2 children. I learnt from the T.O.'s, later, that I should have placed the couple in the middle and the children on the outside. That way I would have been able to better engage the couple in conversation.

Another couple intrigued me for their blatant denial that they ever wanted to be involved in a survey. He came in drunk, but suggested that his wife always took the decisions and that he was always happy to go along with them. They actually re-affirmed their pact in the ladies toilets. I had gone after them to try to keep them from reforming their bond, but when I entered the toilet area, Don was just stepping into the ladies cubicle with his wife and refused to come out when I informed him that the gents was next door. At the closing stage Don finally came to life making it quite clear that whatever the cost, and no matter the 20% discount, there was no way he was going to be buying today. They were simply out for the free holiday enticement vouchers.

My next couple were not even a couple. They lived together - probably - but their very shifty eyes were trying to tell another story. The name of the couple in front of me was different to the names on the invitation letter. The female of the couple became extremely agitated when she saw an 0870 (mobile) telephone number on her letter, and used vigorous strokes of her pen to erase it. They didn't take holidays together, but had lived together for a year, which was apparently sufficient to qualify them for the tour. When prompted for the company she worked for, she replied Cedant Corporation, which of course we all know is behind RCI. So, as far as I could tell, there was never any point in continuing that tour. Except there was. It was to help keep a buzz going in the interview room, the sales manager later explained. I hopped around the prescribed presentation, picking out bits and pieces from here and there. The T.O.'s, if they hadn't sussed it by now, must have wondered what on earth I was doing. In fact, that tour had already finished.

My final couple were obviously comfortably off, but came with preconceived ideas of timeshare that neither the T.O.'s nor I could dispel. Previously owning a villa, they did however overcome their fears of being tied to one place, and appreciated the system for at least the ability to exchange elsewhere. They were never interested in going further than the survey sheet.

I never managed to make a sale and it was a relief to me, when I left at the end of the week, to escape from the cigarette-smoke filled sales-deck. ( I hate smoke).

At that time, the company was charging between 7 thousand GBP for a one bed red week, and 8 and a half thousand GBP for a 2 bed red week. Their biggest selling point was the idea that the old timeshare system was one week in one place at a fixed time of year. Under the newer timeshare system (theirs) you bought one floating week in their club, then requested time at any one of the 27 resorts in their brochure without incurring exchange fees, but if you wanted more choice you could pay RCI. My other thought on this was the fact that the UPs are offered a RED week to purchase, since Florida and Tenerife are largely all RED time all year round. In reality I suspect most will really want to go during UK school summer holidays to places like Tenerife and Spain when the actual availability will be very poor due to VERY HIGH demand.

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