New Rules for Sales and Marketing for Vacation Ownership/Timeshare Resort Businesses

“Our owner base is shrinking, and our reserves are shot! What can we do?” “With COVID shutting down our property, how can I reach new prospective owners?” “I’ve recently become discouraged, thinking we’ll never make another sale. Is there any hope?”

These and other questions are on everyone’s mind right now.

On July 16, 2020, beginning at 1:55 p.m. EDT, you will have an opportunity to join Shari Levitin and Ron Roberts to hear their remarks and ask questions of your own during an interactive, live-streaming Total Town Hall.

If you’re in the Vacation Ownership/Timeshare Resort business, then chances are you have sales and marketing in your veins. The problem these days, is that with social distancing and a reluctance to travel for a timeshare vacation or to take a tour, things have gotten a lot more challenging. These changing times call for “New Rules”!

That’s why we have asked the industry’s foremost sales training guru, Shari Levitin, to be our first presenter. Whether you’re sitting across the table from a couple on their Honeymoon; checking in a family of four at the front desk (or, more likely these days, in the parking lot); or working with social media to entice visits, we are all promoting our resort business and ourselves. Selling yourself is the one skill we all need to possess for success. And, believe me, it doesn’t necessarily come naturally.

So, when I first read Shari’s book, Heart and Sell, it literally changed me! That was more than a year ago, and since then, I’ve downloaded it on my Kindle and review it now and then when I feel the need to be refreshed. With Shari’s help, you’ll make some discoveries that help you walk away with a roadmap that you can follow to become a better representative of yourself, your business, and the industry. I guarantee that you will get some Ah-hah! Moments from listening to her presentation (or your money back)!

Another presenter, Ron Roberts, confessed he’s been in real estate for 43 years – most of it in the timeshare business. Ron’s beef? (It’s everyone’s beef these days, actually.) Illicit exit companies! Ron will share a few of his ideas about how to declaw them, plus he has a lot of other tips on how to bring a dying resort back from the brink. Of course, some resorts are too far gone to regain their glory days, but Ron makes a point that perhaps a resort you may have thought of as a goner, actually isn’t. He’ll tell you what steps he’s seen implemented in his experience that might work for you, also.

Our Town Hall event last month – “Resort Resilience” – took a look at myriad concerns resorts are facing as they reopen following government-ordered closings. That interactive session, like this month’s and August’s, is being presented by Resort Trades, sponsored by The Contact Group, CustomerCount®, GBG & Associates with assistance was provided by Locher and Associates. It featured Jay Anderson of Grand Pacific Resorts Management, Lena Combs, and Tom Durkee from Withum, Ann (Barker) Donahue with Raintree Resorts International, and Melanie J. Gring from Global Connections, Inc. 

While it did not include live-streaming as the July 16 session will feature, presenters did walk through PowerPoint slides as they spoke. An audio-visual recording is available at Resort Trades.com/LearningCenter.

The August Town Hall will study “Customer Communications and Feedback.” If you have a suggestion for a speaker or topic for this session or a future month’s Town Hall, or if you’d like to ask about sponsoring a future event, please write [email protected].

PART I: “The Adaptive Seller”

Shari Levitin, the Levitin Group

What You’ll Get:

• Learn what the three types of selling behaviors are and why only one of them is useful in these challenging times.
• Hear how sellers are appealing emotionally and ramping up significant sales figures.
• Get the secret 10 Universal Truths you need to know.
• Find out how Shari helps teams increase efficiency and effectiveness.
• Discover her revolutionary system of sales techniques and how you can apply it to your customer engagement.
• Learn how to train, inspire, & motivate your team!

Every successful resort professional is essentially a seller. And, lately, the rules have all changed! Whether “sales” is in your title or not, you will benefit greatly from hearing what Shari has to say. She has shared her wisdom with sellers, students, and heads of sales at Hilton, Harvard, Comcast, Staples, Adobe, and at YPO with rave reviews. Now you can learn some of the same visionary secrets for absolutely no cost!

Levitin is the author of the bestseller, Heart and Sell, a frequent contributor to Forbes, CEO Magazine, Huffington Post, and guest lecturer at Harvard. Shari started in the timeshare industry in 1997, and her team has increased revenues for companies like Wyndham, Hilton, and RCI in over 40 countries.

PART II: “Save the Sinking Ship”

Ron Roberts, Sage Marketing Group, Legacy Solutions International

What You’ll Get:

• Learn what he has to say about battling exit companies and avoiding bad PR.
• Pick up tips on how to stem plunging revenues.
• Find out what a few legacy resorts are doing about aging owners, maintenance fee delinquencies, and unsold HOA owned weeks and decide if it’s for you.
• Hear ideas about how to rescue your resort and add value. You’ll get tips you can use IMMEDIATELY.
• Explore how HOA’s can avoid Special Assessments, replenish sinking funds, eliminate deferred maintenance, and keep the resort on a solid financial footing.

Roberts is President and CEO of Legacy Solutions, International, a customer service company specializing in overcoming legacy issues for older, mature projects in need of solutions such as the unwanted buildup of HOA inventory, missing maintenance fees, delinquencies, and effects resulting from an aging owner-base. He is also President & CEO Sage Marketing Group, Inc., a real estate and leisure property marketing and consulting firm with offices in Colchester, Vermont.

Sharon Scott Wilson, RRP, Publisher, The Trades Publishing Company. Connect on LinkedIn.com/SharonScottWilson and send me your ideas.
Resort Trades’ 5 Free Media:
1.            Resort Trades magazine, mailed monthly
2.            Resort Trades Weekly, emailed each Wednesday
3.            Members.ResortTrades.com, the industry’s connection spot
4.            ResortTrades.com, updated continuously
5.            Live, interactive multimedia events