The promotion looked great when you first saw the vacation spots that you would go too. timeshares seemed a lot better than buying properties at all these luxurious resorts rather than renting. But now the time has come to pay the piper.
Selling timeshares is definitely one thing that comes to mind when you are perhaps bored with the one you currently have. But have you figured out how to sell this kind of property more effectively? It could also be that you want to change it with one from a more exciting place. This article tries to give you some idea on how you can do it with ease and probably in the fastest possible manner.
Obviously there are many ways to sell timeshare.
People who have properties in urban areas, business centers, and tourist destinations have long practiced timesharing. Contrary to popular belief, it is not totally a waste of resources if one owns properties in different places. It is an excellent investment for the future.
I had an email the other day asking:
“How do I as a timeshare sales person sell timeshare during a recession?” All the reasons for not buying are related to “the bad economy”.
As it’s a question that I get quite regularly at the moment I thought we could address the problem here and hopefully find some answers for everyone.
Firstly I have to say that your failure or success as a sales person relies largely on your personal attitude and how you deal the negatives. So if you go around saying to yourself, “I’m never going to sell anything, there’s a recession on and nobodies got any money” I guarantee you will be 100% right!
You won’t sell anything but you can always blame it on the bad economy and make yourself feel better.
I’m not sure your bank manager will be quite as understanding when it comes to paying your mortgage?
The professional sales person will always look for solutions to the problems and find ways of turning negatives into positives, so let’s look at the positives and how we can use them in our pitch.
It’s a fact that most people even during a recession will still find money for three things.
Smoking, Drinking and Holidays!
The type of holidays might change; they might look for cheaper deals, shorter breaks, or wait for the last minute deals. But the average working class family will still try to fit in at least one holiday in a year.
Owing to the current economic situation, my investments had not protected my income, and I was in need of releasing equity.
First on the list was our Club La Costa Vacation Points, it was after all a luxury and the prospect of a holiday on the horizon looked very distant.
Following a research into how to sell timeshare points, I had registered my interest with a company called ‘Travel and Leisure Group’ who stated on their website, that they were one of the largest and respected timeshare resale Brokers, being members of the Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (O.T.E.). Vacation Owners Coalition in Europe, Resale Broker Alliance and Timeshare Consumer Guide!
So with those credentials, I decided to let them advertise my Vacation Points. A marketing fee of £154 was paid, which covered advertising in the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express and inflight publications from British Airways and B.M.I.
This fee covered 6 months worth of advertising.
After 6 months, I had received nothing, no interest, no updates and more importantly no money.
It seems that the timeshare companies here on the Costa del Sol are at last having to clean up their aggressive marketing tactics with the enforcement of the “Unfair Commercial Practises Directive”.
The Timeshare Touts that used to hang around the sea front and bus station in Fuengirola waiting for the next unsuspecting holiday maker to stop and accept one of their scratch cards are slowly disappearing as police are starting to enforce the strict marketing laws laid out in the directive.
The Unfair Commercial Practises Directive brought out around the end of last year and finally being enforced throughout Spain and the Canary Islands as of the end of March this year is an attempt to clean up the entire Timeshare Industry in Europe and give it a much more professional image.
Unlike the many half hearted efforts to get the Timeshare Touts off the streets in the past, this time it seems to be working.
Although the Directive is very in depth and far too long for me to cover all the points here in one article, the important part for residents, regular visitors and more importantly the first time visitors to the Costa del Sol are that you will now be able to walk along the sea front without being approached or stopped every two minutes by someone thrusting a scratch card into your hands and trying to get you to go on yet another five hours of hard sell timeshare presentation.
In a nutshell the Directive bans all forms of what they class as aggressive marketing tactics and makes all forms of scratch card marketing illegal.
This means that the genuine and legal Timeshare Companies will have to find different methods of getting people to look at their Resorts and products and the illegal Timeshare Companies will slowly be forced out of business.
Good news for all of us.
May I close by saying that as a resident on the Costa del Sol for more than 18 years now I am not against Timeshare as a holiday product and actually like the concept. I see the cleaning up and stricter control of Timeshare Marketing Tactics a welcome change to the tourist industry as a whole and can only see it creating a better image of the Timeshare Industry which can only benefit some of the bigger companies here like: Marriotts, MacDonalds, and Club La Costa Resorts to name but a few..