Best Way to Sell...is not to Sell

There is nothing worse than having to sit through a time share presentation. You're fished in because of a fantastic offer (free weekend, tickets to Disneyland, free golf etc) and you know that the only objective of the 'representative' is to find out ways to take your money and put it in their pockets. In this day and digital age, if you are not authentic and sincere, you stand out like a dandelion in a manicured lawn.

We happen to own a time share at a resort about two hours away, and have owned it for over ten years now. Very rarely have we ever spent time there, usually opting to trade our week for destinations elsewhere. So periodically we get invites from the resort to come up and visit for a few days and see they 'improvements'. The only condition, of course, is that you spend 'only one hour' in their presentation.

I know many of you have been through this experience. It becomes a game...and the true success is when you can finally escape with your wallet in tact and your dignity secure. What kind of relationship is that?

Over the years, our travelling experiences have allowed us to explore many different alternatives to the time shares. They have left us wanting to return, making the time share experience a thing of the past.

Then there's the phone company....you know the one I'm talking about. Over the years, not only did we get their phone service, we got their satellite, their wireless and their internet. It was all smiles and giggles when we first started our 'relationship', spending thousands and thousands of dollars a year and all was well...until we had problems, which didn't take long.

Every call to our 'friends' at the phone company was directed to someone with little experience with the 'mother tongue'. Every concern turned into a battle of frustration with no record of previous calls or their misguided solutions. Every attempt to communicate turned into an attempt to upsell. What kind of relationship was that?

In fact, once we got rid of them, we ended up getting cards saying 'we miss you', or 'has anyone seen Bill'? We actually received multiple cards of the same issue from their different departments. We received calls from many people in many different departments asking the exact same questions and not having any record of the other calls. How sincere is that?

We still have our timeshare, but for how long is questionable. It served it's purpose, but I am finding many alternatives that we use far more often.....and I feel clean and happy when I use these alternatives. We moved to the 'other' phone company....and so far they are treating us with respect and genuine concern. It appears that they have a centralized customer relationship system where all their reps can see the history of all the previous dialogue. How refreshing is that.

When the focus of the company shifts to true customer satisfaction and clearly demonstrates authentic concern then sales and loyalty are a given. The best way to sell....is not to sell, but to be true, sincere and authentic in every aspect of your organization.