The dissemination of information at the early stages of the sales process has long been debated and there are believers in both sides – holding back information and throwing it all out there. Let it be heard (read) here, times have changed and the process in which we provide information to interested prospects is a crucial element of the sales process. Fractional sellers need to provide a wealth of information so buyers can educate themselves.

The typical perception is that the information might be too complex and too confusing, or the reader might directly relate the project to timeshare and thus lose interest before completely understanding it.  So marketers will throw a little bit of information out there with the hope that enough interest is created resulting in more inquiries. Therefore, the sales process is often extended into months rather than weeks.  We all know that this industry is nothing like timeshare and these fears must be conquered.  The prospect must be provided the information needed to make an educated and informed decision in a reasonable amount of time, a 90 day forecast to contract is nonsense.

The debate is this: if we present too much information too fast then the vomit effect comes into play and the sale is lost.  Most sales people who have been subjected to any type of basic sales training course have likely been introduced to something similar to what I like to call the “Vomit Crevice”.  It’s not pretty, but “Vomit Crack” was even worse.

The premise is that sales people stand on the edge of an empty crevice which lies between them and their prospective buyer.  This crevice represents the buyer’s lack of understanding of the product or service they are considering.  The only way to facilitate a connection between the buyer and seller is to fill up that void with valuable and relevant information that is important to the buyer.  Each valuable and relevant question answered represents a large boulder that is tossed into the crevice.  The result is a crevice that has been filled with a solid foundation of boulders (information) thus giving the prospect the means to walk across and shake hands – a closed sale.

However, many young sales people are hell bent on spewing as much information as humanly possible regardless of whether or not the buyer actually cares about any of it.  This is a classic rookie move.  The default for freshly-trained sales people is to vomit every bit of detail about their product or service that they have just learned in their product training classes.  (This is where it gets really gross.)  A crevice full of vomit is nothing but a disgusting pool that the prospect will sink into when attempting to walk across and therefore results in a lost sale for the sales person.  Needless to say, no buyer is going to shake the hand of someone who just led them into a pool of vomit.

How does all of this apply to fractional ownership sales?  Easy; fractional sales people have a more challenging task than a typical real estate agent.  Fractional folks don’t play in a world of just granite countertops, cherry wood floors and 5,000 square feet.  That stuff is easy.  In the fractional world the prospective buyer must completely understand everything from why it is a logical real estate purchase, to the unmatched experience provided in residence, to the fair and flexible reservation system and why it’s not a timeshare.  You can see why it becomes very easy for a fractional sales person to become completely immersed in all of this information and commence vomiting all over the place.  Information starts flowing about the Residence Club’s logarithmic tie-break system when the prospect simply wanted to know if they could go skiing next year.

So, you’re thinking the clear lesson here is to make sure that your sales people do not spew all of their information up front and take it one step at a time, easing the prospect into those nitty-gritty details.  Not so fast.  There is another factor at play here; closing the deal while the iron is hot.  This is a major rebuttal to the vomit crevice.  After all, in similar fashion to the “first 48” that cops have to catch their criminal, sales people have a limited window to reel in their interested buyer as interest can fade almost immediately.

This is basically a catch 22.  It seems as though the answer is to proceed with information overload to try and bring in the sale while the prospect is hot.  Actually, this is correct.  The way to do it is with coordinated messaging between your sales team and your sales materials.  When I refer to sales materials I mean marketing brochures, FAQ’s and the website.  A second document entitled Advanced FAQ’s should also be considered for those hot leads in the final stages of the sales process.

Too many times I look through web sites of Private Residence Clubs that have literally no information except the beautiful mountain surroundings and granite countertops.  This is the “tease strategy” and the idea is to get the buyer interested enough to make the phone call so the sales person can take over.  The result…  vomit.  The poor prospect has now been completely overwhelmed with (deep breath) planned vacations, space available vacations, the flexible tie-breaker system, pricing, supply and demand, HOA dues, consumer financing, the daily tidy vs. the mid-week clean, the reservation deposit, no pets but your brother can use it but only on planned vacations, and I almost forgot - the upcoming price increase.

Next will surely come those famous words: “I’m not interested in a timeshare”.

Don’t go this route.  Give the prospect more information before they call.  An informed prospect is a valuable prospect.  Put the price on your website!  Yes, I’ll say it again.  Put the price on your website! If the price is surrounded by valuable information regarding how the club works along with the unmatched experience that is provided then the price will look great and the phone will ring.  What you don’t want to do is vomit all over your website, there is a happy-medium here.  Simply put, there is stuff that can go on the site and there is stuff that can’t.  For example, explaining how the “rotating priority tie-breaker to be fair to everybody” policy works should NEVER be explained in any detail on the web site.

The sales team should work in concert with the marketing team on the dissemination of information to the buyer.  The sales person should hang up with an excited buyer, not confused.  They should be anxious to read more detail on the website or in the e-brochure that has just been sent to their inbox.

In summary, we must vomit to a point; a point that creates excitement and moves the sales process forward in an efficient manner.  However, the spewing should be done by the marketing materials and the web site in addition to valuable information from the sales team.  As the sales process moves along the questions and answers will become more advanced and cover more detail.  It’s much easier to explain the “rotating priority tie-breaker to be fair to everybody” policy when the buyer is already excited for their first trip.

Now start spewing.

Eric Pierce is President of Pierce Group, LLC a full service fractional ownership consulting firm. Pierce Group specializes in the design, sales and marketing of upscale Private Residence Clubs. Our clients are developers, land owners, senior lenders, and private equity firms involved in the development of fractional real estate projects. We have consulted and managed properties from Florida to Flagstaff, Chicago to Cabo and Idaho to Israel.

FORESIGHT COSTS LESS THAN HINDSIGHT^SM