With Christmas and the New Year just around the corner and as this article will probably be the last one for this year, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the past twelve months and as is traditional at this time of year look at what we’ve achieved and also look forward to what we want to achieve in the following twelve months.
I started this site earlier this year as a loose mixture of Timeshare News, Resort Reviews, Industry Updates and some Sales Training, People Skills and Marketing Tips.
As you can see it has now developed by public demand into a full on Sales Training site dedicated to Timeshare Professionals and the Timeshare Industry as a whole, with a few bits of industry news and updates thrown in for good measure.
I have even changed the original name of the site from “Simple Sales And Marketing Solutions” to: “Timeshare Sales And Marketing Techniques” as I felt it summed up far more what the site is really about and allows me to dedicate the coming year to concentrating far more on the Timeshare sales training articles.
I will be taking some of my holiday time on planning and setting out my next twelve months strategies for continuing to expand this site and hopefully gaining a larger and more loyal reader base.
This is commonly known in the Timeshare industry as “Goal Setting”
I cannot stress enough the importance of goal setting in sales.
If you don’t set yourself goals, how can you measure your success?
How can you tell if you are having a good year or not if you don’t have some sort of idea of what you need to achieve to be successful?
This is what goal setting is all about.
You need to know what it is you want to achieve over a certain period of time, so that you can develop a plan to achieve it.
Have you reached the goals you set yourself last January? If not why not and what could you have done to change the outcome?
What goals are you going to set yourself for next year and how do you plan on achieving them?
Here are some tips on “Goal Setting”
Firstly set yourself realistic short term goals that are easily achievable. That will motivate you far more to reach your larger mid term and longer term goals.
When setting goals, be specific. If you want a new car, don’t just say, “In the next twelve months, I’ll buy a new car”. Specify the make, model, and even the colour! Find a picture of it and put the picture somewhere that you’ll see it every day, then work out how many extra sales you need to buy it and mark off on a daily basis how many sales are left to get it. You’ll be amazed how motivating it is to daily monitor how close you are to achieving your goals.
And lastly, don’t be too rigid in setting your long term goals. Remember, as I have personally experienced. Sometimes we need to make small adjustments to our original plans because our dreams change and our long term goals need to be changed accordingly.
I’d like to finish this week by wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a more than prosperous New Year and thanking you all for your loyal support and positive feedback.
Don't forget, if there’s a particular sales skill or closing technique that you would like me to cover in future articles, or an objection that you are having a problem overcoming, leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail
Remember: there is no such thing as a foolish question, only a fool who doesn’t ask questions.
See you in January.......
The Importance of Goal Setting
“If You’re Trying To Sell Me Timeshare, I’m Not Interested!”
I mentioned last week how it still amuses me when a new Timeshare rep asks me what to say if their clients ask if they’re trying to sell them Timeshare.
Timeshare in Europe, unlike America still has a fairly bad name as far as Joe public is concerned and this certainly isn’t helped by the national press trying to print anything slightly connected or similar to “Timeshare” or the Timeshare industry as a whole, under the banner of:
“Yet Another Innocent Victim Falls Prey To The Latest Timeshare Scam!”
So it’s of no surprise to me when a new rep is afraid to even whisper the word “Timeshare” in front of his clients and will spend more time denying that what he is selling is actually Timeshare (Regardless of what we are calling it this week) rather than just overcoming the objection of buying Timeshare just as he would any other objection and then closing the deal.
Nowadays Timeshare in Europe is gaining in popularity with the European public as an alternative holiday system and still remains one of the biggest growth sectors within the leisure and holiday industry throughout the world.
This has been helped with household names like Butlins entering into the Timeshare industry this year with their BlueSkies vacation club project at Minehead and some of the major players like Club La Costa continuing to invest in new projects like their luxury yacht club, their Real Estate Sector and continued investment in additional Hotels and resorts around Europe.
This still doesn’t stop new reps from being afraid to mention the word “Timeshare”.
After all, in training we tell them not to call it Timeshare. It’s called:
“Holiday Ownership”, “Vacation Time”, “Holiday Points”, “The You Can Go Anywhere Holiday Club”, “Martini Time”, but never ever “Timeshare”.
If I was ever asked, “Is This Timeshare” my answer would always be. “If it was would you buy it?”
Nine times out of ten I would get the answer “No!” which would allow me to reply “Why?” then shut up and let the client dig himself a hole and finally admit that its because of all the bad press he’s read about Timeshare being a rip off or scam and that he doesn’t really know anything about Timeshare other than what he’s read in the newspapers or on the internet.
Now, rather than deny that I sell Timeshare I just gently point out that Timeshare has come a long way since the early days and just like any company continues to develop and improve their products to suit public demand, Timeshare has also been developed and improved over the years and there have been strict laws and selling guide lines set into place by the governing bodies to protect the consumer.
Then just to add some humour, I point out that if I was trying to sell him one of the original Ford Cortina’s I would understand him not wanting to look at it. But if I was showing him the latest Ford Mondeo to roll of the production line then I’m sure he would be interested enough to at least have a look at it and see how it compares to the car he’s driving around at the moment. This will normally be met with a laugh when the client realises how closed minded and uninformed his original statement was and the acceptance to at least have a look at it, way up the pros and cons, and at the end of my presentation give me a straight forward yes or no.
So don’t be afraid to mention the word “Timeshare” its unprofessional salesmanship that has brought the industry all the bad press it gets and not the product.
Always be honest with your clients. Not only will you gain their respect, you will also gain their business!
If there’s a particular sales skill or closing technique that you would like me to cover in future articles, or an objection that you are having a problem overcoming, leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail to: simplesalesandmarketing@gmail.com
Remember: there is no such thing as a foolish question, only a fool who doesn’t ask questions.
See you next week.
Some Words You Should Avoid When Selling Timeshare
As in all direct sales situations, there are certain words or phrases you should never use if you want to be successful selling Timeshare and I don’t mean the word “Timeshare”.
It still amuses me how many Timeshare reps are afraid of the word “Timeshare” and will waste more time and effort denying that they sell Timeshare and trying to convince the clients that they are not on a “Timeshare presentation” than actually presenting the product and closing deals but that’s another subject I will be covering in the New Year.
For this week I want to look at how fine tuning your conversational skills and changing one simple word in your daily vocabulary, will not only improve your sales figures but will also help you avoid verbal confrontations in your everyday life and personal relationships outside of work.
Just as body language will reveal what a person is really saying or trying to conceal, there is a meta-language that we all use subconsciously to disguise what we really mean without being too abrupt or hurting the other person’s feelings.
In sales there is nothing wrong with making things sound more attractive to gain the clients interest otherwise we would never get a deal. But there are certain words that should be avoided at all costs.
Never say “Believe me” i.e.: “Believe me this is the best deal you’ll get” You’ve just told the clients not to believe you and that if they hold out a bit longer the deal will get better.
Never ever say “I’ll be honest with you…..” That just implies that you haven’t been honest up until now and there is no reason that you’re going to be honest in the future. In fact because you’ve just said your going to be honest is even more reason not to believe you in the first place and normally produces the gut feeling that the biggest lie of all is just about to fall out of your mouth.
The word I want you to concentrate on changing this week is the word “But”.
“Yes but!.....” “I know but........!” “You have a good point but..........!”
The word “But” is very argumentative. It screams “I disagree with you!” and I’m going to give you my point of view regardless, which will normally be met with a brick wall as your client starts to dig his heels in to protect his own point of view.
Now if we change the word “But” for “And” we have a completely different angle on things:
“Yes, and........” “I know, and..........” “You have a very valid point, and..........”
Do you see the difference? You have agreed with them, stroked their ego and now you’re adding your point of view and complementing their original statement.
Nobody can argue with someone who is agreeing with them and out of politeness they will have to listen to your point of view and agree with you as you are really only adding value to their point of view.
If they disagree with you now they are actually disagreeing with themselves and their original statement.
As always you will need to practice replacing “But” with “And” as it doesn’t come naturally at first, but once you have mastered it, not only will you see your sales figures increase, you’ll also find you’re getting into less arguments and confrontations in your private life as well.
See you next week.
If there’s a particular sales skill or closing technique that you would like me to cover in future articles, or an objection that you are having a problem overcoming, leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail
Remember: there is no such thing as a foolish question, only a fool who doesn’t ask questions.
