Newbie Needs Help - especially from Trendwest owners

[jugundle]

I've just taken a position in sales at Trendwest. ANY input from those of you more savvy than I would be appreciated. Tell me about your experiences with my company or others, good and bad.

While I am interested in the potential of a career in sales, I am more excited about how this can change the lives of people who become owners. I love and believe in my product.

I live in Reno, NV. I spent 15 years in a local casino dealing 21 and craps. My husband and I decided that I should be a stay at home mom after my son was born. My son is now in school, and I have found a career. My initial impression of Trendwest is great - I plan to retire with this company. From what I have seen, they place a high value on owner satisfaction, and take great care of their employees. Again, any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Anything you have to offer by way of feedback or suggestion to a woman who is not really a salesperson is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[MuranoJo]

Not sure how this fits under the MX section, and somehow this message seems really similar to one I saw a few years back.

 

[jugundle]

I'm new here...where would be an appropriate place to post this?

There may have been a similar post - I wouldn't know. I can assure you I really am a new salesperson - no scams or tricks here. I'm just curious to know how owners feel.

 

[Dave M]

I have moved it to the Newbies forum.

 

[spatenfloot]

To be honest, I don't think you want to hear our honest opinions of developer sales people. They tend to use the same dishonest tactics and distortions, no matter which company it is. People get pretty upset when they get home and find out that the salesperson lied about their timeshare and made promises that the company will not honor, especially since most timeshares can be purchased resale for less than half the price. It's true that some developers offer additional perks for buying from them, but they are generally not worth the additional cost.

From a customer standpoint, my advice to you is to be honest about the product. However your bosses will not want you to do that, so it may be counterproductive from your viewpoint. If you read all the topics here about Trendwest/Cendant/Wyndham and the specific timeshare you are selling (Worldmark or Fairfield), then you will learn a lot and probably be better informed than any of your fellow workers. I know many current owners who go to an update or sales presentation know much more about how things really work than the people selling it.

 

[LisaH]

I am a WorldMark owner and I love WorldMark. That being said, I would not want to be a sales person for Trendwest. Why? Because this is not an easy product to sell and I am in a sales related profession. The minute a customer buys from Trendwest (or you), he loses at least 50% of the value. The same product can be bought for half or less on the resale market. The only ones who buy from Trendwest directly are the uneducated consumers, and that number is diminishing as more and more people are getting savvy with the internet. I'm sure you will hear more from the other owners but this is just my honest opinion.

 

[roadtriper]

Research, Research, Research!

Well, I own multiple timeshare weeks but they were all resale purchases. I've never been through a Timeshare Presentation, but have read a lot about them here on Tug. the Favorable ones are few and far between! Here's my suggestions 1. Join TUG and research all the archives for the forums. there is a wealth of info there. 2. if you are still wanting to become a Timeshare sales person. Do your own "Mystery Shopper" thing! schedule a Sales Presentation for you and hubby at the Las Vegas resort. (SWA has cheap airfare) go in just as Mr and Mrs Vacation Traveler and dont let on that you are a potential/current employee. see how your sales experience is, that will be a good indicator of how the company runs it's sales tactics. Then report back! I Worked many years in Car dealerships as a service Mgr. the Sales staff usualy consisted of about 30% seasoned veterans who had been in the business 20+ years. the other 70% was a revolving door! in sales your only as good as your last month! so once a salesperson had sold all their friends and family members a new car... they had about a month. That's my .02 Roadtriper

 

[LLW]

I've just taken a position in sales at Trendwest. ANY input from those of you more savvy than I would be appreciated. Tell me about your experiences with my company or others, good and bad.

While I am interested in the potential of a career in sales, I am more excited about how this can change the lives of people who become owners. I love and believe in my product.

I live in Reno, NV. I spent 15 years in a local casino dealing 21 and craps. My husband and I decided that I should be a stay at home mom after my son was born. My son is now in school, and I have found a career. My initial impression of Trendwest is great - I plan to retire with this company. From what I have seen, they place a high value on owner satisfaction, and take great care of their employees. Again, any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Anything you have to offer by way of feedback or suggestion to a woman who is not really a salesperson is GREATLY appreciated.

Did you know about wmowners.com? It is a web site by over 3,000 Worldmark owners, for all Worldmark owners. Participants include current and prospective Worldmark board members. This is the address for its discussion forum:

http://www.wmowners.com/forum/index.php

It will tell you how WM owners love Worldmark, and the concerns they have. Spend some time there if you truly want input and feedback. Quite a few TW salespersons have gone there and learned.

 

[trice01]

Choose Now

As someone who enjoys timeshare vacations very much, I once considered working in interval sales. After taking a few sales presentations, I would never consider it again, nor could I live with myself if I did. You might want to look at Yahoo groups and join some of the groups specifically for timeshare sales people. I found it most eye opening to read excerpts from the exchange of sales strategies/tactics, and particularly the contemptuous way sales people talk about sales prospects.

The reason I could not sell developer timeshare is that there is no way you could sell the product honestly. You would be expected and instructed to lie or omit significant facts in order to make a sale, knowing that the buyer would never learn the truth until after their opportunity to rescind the purchase had passed.

Some of the most obvious lies/areas of misrepresentation are:

1. Resales weeks at the same resort you are selling are defective, and you offer huge advantages by buying direct. These of course could never offset a 400-500% markup over resale prices.
2. Certain resorts in your chain have huge advantages over other resorts in your chain, and it's a secret, but you are kind enough to share that with the prospect.
3. The prospect is assured that any time they grow weary of their timeshare, they can easily dispose of it for a good price, because people are waiting and anxious for available weeks. Not true. The resort family I own at offers their direct weeks for 4-5x resale prices, and I could buy for the resale price any day of the week. No way you will ever get anything approaching the original price.
4. A big one- by using the RCI or II exchange system, you can trade into any resort in the world. They make it sound nearly automatic- red for red, white for white, etc. In truth, the exchange systems use a complicated secret supply/demand matrix, and there are many desireable resorts and areas that are nearly impossible to trade into. They will show an II or RCI catalog and just say "pick someplace you want to go" and the prospect goes gaga. It's all based on a false promise.
5. Floating weeks are sold on the promise that you can reserve any week during your "season" of float. In many cases, prime weeks are sold out as fixed, and the competition for the remaining weeks is often keen and a user may never have access to a prime week in their ownership life.

There are many other developers lies. Frankly I think you will be forced to make a decision soon as to what you can ethically live with. If you stay here, and learn, you will find out more every day how badly you will be required to mislead people in order to remain employed. I fear that once one becomes dependent on telling lies in order to get a paycheck, it becomes much easier to do. That is not a person I would want to become.

 

[PeelBoy]

Wrong Place

You posted at the wrong place. Tuggers in general are advocates for resale, not expensive purchase from developers.

I bought both from developer and at ebay. IMHO, a healthy time share industry should include the spectrum of developers, resale brokers and ebay-ers; otherwise, we will not find new properties to enrich our selection. In fact, every year, there are more units sold by developers than those changed hand in the secondary market.

My advice is:

1. Be honest with your clients. Timeshare is location, location, location and time, time and time. Every property and every week are different. While there are so many blue/white weeks from overbuilt areas or poorly managed properties, quality resorts and prime weeks are rare finds in resale.

2. Sell to meet your clients' needs. If they need prime week on the beach, sell hem a week if you have the inventory. Don't sell them a late fall week in a sky resort. They will be unhappy.

3. Don't sell them the loan, which is a rip-off. Provide honest advise like a line of credit or a home mortgage to pay the timeshare.

4. If your product is a float week or a club point, tell your clients how to maximize the value.

 

[m61376]

As a buyer, of course I'd want you to tell me that I could buy the same product for a lot less - of course, you wouldn't remain employed for long .

That said, as a newbie to the whole timeshare scene but an astute shopper, I can tell you what turned me off when I met with a Marriott timeshare person: being told I could go anywhere anytime, including cruises, etc.. He made it sound so simple. For ex., I was told if I bought a unit at Ko'Olina and deposited it with II I would get a bonus week which I could easily exchange for a 2 BR anywhere but Hawaii or Colorado, at a cost of $199. Exchanges were there basically for the asking as he portrayed it.

I would have appreciated being told that there was an exchange company (in this case II) that I could use to trade my unit for other units, as available. If he had told me that Hawaii or Aruba (the two places we were discussing) were top traders and if I reserved a prime week that I would have a good chance of trading into other places, especially if I had some flexibility with dates and, that I would likely receive an AC (or bonus week as he termed it) for my deposit which would be good for a variety of primarily off-season weeks - or, if I had the flexibility (which I do) of booking within a 59 day window that there would be many great trades available... I would have been much less suspicious. There are ways to put an honest spin on things, like letting the customer know that trading works best when they have flexibility wrt time and perhaps even location; if it doesn't come up this year then trade for something else or enjoy your scheduled week and try again next year.

As others have posted, great trades can be made with the least desirable weeks, esp. during Flexchange. Besides the pricing of the developer sales (which is beyond your control) from reading the forums I think the biggest gripe here is that the salespeople make promises which they know are unrealistic at best. If people are locked into school vacation weeks and need to schedule their work vacations 6+ months in advance, then selling them a unit which will only be useful for last minute trades when they are looking for a good trader is only going to breed resentment.

I think you can do well as a salesperson if you try to sell customers what will work for their needs. Personally, I am a consumate consumer and probably would have done some research before buying anyway. BUT- if the salesperson didn't make me suspicious by telling me I could have whatever I wanted whenever (practically) I may not have looked further. Also- engendering trust will help your sales success. Others may not agree (and it seems that most salespeople don't) but I think you'd be more successful if you didn't paint an unrealistic picture of timeshare ownership. That way, the rest of your sales spiel will be more believable and people may feel good about a purchase and not research the price issue further.

Of course, if they find Tug first, selling will be like

Good luck- oh, and btw, I don't think it is a horrible profession- just like car sales people and the like...you may take a lot of flak for it herre, but you are doing a service even to people on this Board; if the developer doesn't sell them, people don't have them to sell resale and developers won't keep on building....