Is being an honest salesperson suppose to be ridiculously stressful?

[TalkToMeForAdvice Member Find all posts View Profile Close TalkToMeForAdvice]

Yeah, I'm really trying my best to educate people on what the true benefits of timeshare and it's starting to get really stressful. It's like people assume I'm trying to "sell" them, and I don't care about "selling" I just thought they wanted a decent vacation. Also, people always tend to give me false names and what not. Anything you guys recommend to relieve the stress level?

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

You should make a change to sell timeshares on the resale market. I find most of the timeshare resale brokers I deal with to be honest and truthful. They have to be since the buyers are educated and can sniff out a fraud prety quickly. So, they have adapted to that reality and the most successful ones tend to be the most value-added. It sounds to me like that it what you want to be. You will probably be more satisified doing that.

The best timeshare sales people are those who can really connect and bond with their clients immediately and establish trust without sharing a lot of the details of the product. The key to the sale is for the timeshare buyer to trust the sales person and to fall in love with the concept of travel and vacation ownership without looking too closely at the details. It's an emotional sale more than anything else.

Top timeshare sales people make over $200k per year. It's a 100% commission job with huge accelerators for each incremental sale in a given month. So, the top people make all the money and others get very little.

Top timesharing salespeople are the best in the world. After all, just think about how hard it is to sell a person the 2nd or 3rd most expensive product they will buy in their life in a couple of hours when they come into the meeting with the clear intention of NOT buying. To turn that around in 2 hours is truly amazing.

This can only happen with emotion, not logic.

[TalkToMeForAdvice Member Find all posts View Profile Close TalkToMeForAdvice]

Thank you.

I appericate what you've said considerably Boca. Your words ring quite true, I like dealing with people face to face a lot more than through other channels.

Thanks again for the detailed and well thought out response, sir.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

The shortest answer is, "Yes."

I am a very straight-shooter and always have been. After Moo U I took the road less traveled by, direct sales. I got into it because I believed in the service I was selling, because I had used it personally.

I did it for 10 years. I did well, created innovative marketing techniques, and won all the awards.

But it tore me up inside. I don't believe there is any way you can stay true to yourself and do what you have to do to be successful in direct sales. I get that knot in my stomach just reading the Branson ads, the terminology and pure greed says it all.

Amazingly, even with that knowledge, I am once again faced with the possibility of going back into sales. Timeshare sales no less.

There isn't much of a market for someone who wants to help others timeshare wisely. No, not much of a market for giving out information or sharing experiences, other than selling. I have not done very well, financially, the past 8 years sharing what I know.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Jim,

Will you be going into sales for the developer or from your own resale outfit?

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Yeah, I'm really trying my best to educate people on what the true benefits of timeshare and it's starting to get really stressful. It's like people assume I'm trying to "sell" them, and I don't care about "selling" I just thought they wanted a decent vacation. Also, people always tend to give me false names and what not. Anything you guys recommend to relieve the stress level?

Yeah - if you truly have sales skills, those skills are portable. Switch to selling a service that you can sell with a clear conscience.

*********

I got a good chunk of my sales training via Zig Ziglar's materials. One thing Zig stresses is the difference between ethical and unethical sales.

In eithical sales, your focus is truly on helping the other perosn solve their problem by taking action. If you succeed in doing that, there is no need to manipulate or leverage people - the sale follows as a matter of course. As Zig puts it, you can get whatever you want by helping enough other people get what they want.

Unethical sales, in contrast, is focused on doing whatver is necessary to close the deal to get what you want, and needs and interests of the other party are irrelevant to the sales person, except to the extent the sales person can manipulate those needs and interests to get what the sales person wants.

Ethical sales goes beyond contracts and sales agreeements. In raising children, dealing with spouses, or resolving workplace problems, for example, it's far easier to persuade others to take voluntarily actions that are in their best interest than to try to compel those people to take those same actioons. Ethical sales techniques work effectively in that context. It's still very much a sale - you are trying to get the kids to do something you want by helping them see it is in their best interests to make that decision. You are getting what you want out of the deal. (In this case, instead of wanting a signed contract you want a specific behavior. The fact that you're not negotiating for a contract or something else of tangible value doesn't make it any less of a sale; as long as you are trying to persuade someone to take an action you want them to take and you are getting something you want in return, you are trying to make a "sale".)

When people realise a "seller" is mostly dialed in to radio staion WII-FM ("What's In It - For Me"), it won't take long until those people see the seller for the mainipulating, conniving, slimy person the seller really is.

And when a seller knows that is what he or she is doing and that seller hasn't been morally and ethically desensitized, that person will feel stressed and pressured.

An ethical sales person has no reason to feel ashamed of what they do. An unethical sales person has every rationale to skulk and slink.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

So, can an ethical sales person be successful in a timeshare developer sales job?

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

So, can an ethical sales person be successful in a timeshare developer sales job?

Maybe Fletch can answer that qeustion!

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I think it's possible to be an ethical sales person and sell developer timeshares. Zig Ziglar could do it. So could Tony Robbins.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

It's amazing how you can know someone for a long time, several years, and not really know them.

I went through the Richer Life Course in Dallas with Zig himself instructing. That would be about 30 years ago. I purchased the video format course, those big old 3/4 tapes and the player, and used it in training my sales staff.

After my ten years with the company I referred to above, I was Zig Ziglar of Kansas City for a few years. I made motivational presentations to sales organizations, such as real estate offices, sold tapes and books, and taught The Richer Life Course myself.

Anyone want to know how to train fleas, boil a bullfrog, prime the pump, or why some biscuits get cooked in the squat?

And, yes, my business card was a round tuit.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

... Anyone want to know how to train fleas, boil a bullfrog, prime the pump, or why some biscuits get cooked in the squat?

And, yes, my business card was a round tuit.

Words from someone knows the short rows!

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Sales is a tough business. In my experience, I dealt ethically with every customer. Funny thing was that when I got very successful, the challenge was gone and I lost interest. I suppose I could sell timeshares at the developer level, but I doubt I would stoop to some of the tactics used by many of the slimeballs in the business. I wouldn't want to hide when former customers came to stay at the resort for the week they bought from me.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

The shortest answer is, "Yes."

I am a very straight-shooter and always have been. After Moo U I took the road less traveled by, direct sales. I got into it because I believed in the service I was selling, because I had used it personally.

I too was in sales and sold what I believed to be the best in the field. I was also quite successful at it. Most of my managers would just let me go home if I sold a system or 3 in the mornings.

But it does wear on you, horribly, especially if you are cold calling or selling something you believe is flawed or not "right" for a customer. There were quite a few times when I would look at a client and say "You don't want what we can provide you need what XYZ company can provide you." Reactions like that didn't pay the rent but I could get up each morning and look at myself in the mirror. I don't imagine I could do timeshare wholesale as no one really NEEDS it.

Anyway I left sales and went into design, implementation and support which I truly enjoyed.

You may need a job change too.

[CaliDave Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close CaliDave]

You aren't just getting that response because you are a timeshare salesperson.

I tell family and friends all the time about the fantastic vacations and benefits I get form timesharing. They trust me with everything, but they think I'm trying to sell them into some cult when I bring up timesharing.
Timeshares have such a stigma, it's hard to get out from under it.

I understand why people give fake names and numbers. We are all so used to spam, cold calls and constantly being bothered by someone trying to sell something.
If I call a saleperson with a few questions. I don't want this person having my home phone #, I figure they will feel they have a license to call me every other day to offer me that "good for today only" deal.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

I tell family and friends all the time about the fantastic vacations and benefits I get form timesharing. They trust me with everything, but they think I'm trying to sell them into some cult when I bring up timesharing.
Timeshares have such a stigma, it's hard to get out from under it.

My friends, and family seem to have the exact same reaction. I have been trying to talk my brother-in-law, who vacations 4-5 times a year into purchasing a timeshare.....He won't even consider it....