By Jayme Soulati, Sea World 2013
Hilton Grand Vacations. This is the inspiration for this post because I sat in front of its sales team in Orlando, Florida for two hours. It was a low-pressure to high-pressure meeting; in the end the customer prevailed — I said no twice, much to my chagrin and emotional interest in saying yes.
The techniques used by the sales team at Hilton Grand Vacations began with the very first sales pitch and ended with an offer a customer could not refuse. I am still upset I could not say yes.
Successful Sales Techniques
In booking my hotels in four locations during spring break 2013, I was invited to listen to a sales pitch for 500 Hilton Honors points. I said sure, what harm was there in listening?
When the first customer touch point rep said Orlando, my ears perked up. Orlando was home to Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure in the Universal Theme Park. Kidlet, being 11yo and a Harry Potter freak, had to see it. It was a trip I’d been wanting to plan; yet, who knew when?
For $118 per night for three nights we stayed in a one-bedroom apartment (yes, it was) with washer/dryer, dishwasher and cleaning service, if you attended a two-hour presentation. We added one additional night and attended the presentation. As a reward for attending, there were 15,000 Hilton Honors points and a $100 voucher good for any Hilton property. All good!
The Presentation
A driver picked us up, breakfast was provided, a kids’ room with gaming was convenient, and adults sat down across a nice table with huge monitors.
For two hours, here’s what occurred:
- A credible, elderly (67yo) gentleman who owned five different weeks at various Hilton properties was the lead salesman.
- He asked personal questions about family, work, kids and overall lifestyle. He developed a friendly rapport for about 30 minutes all the while showing the 9000 worldwide properties available to members.
- He offered every other year of travel which reduced maintenance fees in half.
- The life-long deed would pass from generation to generation.
- Financing options were available.
- An additional 12,000 points were added to the deal to allow for travel in off years, too.
An amazing deal! The first no was delivered after 20 minutes of deliberation and a phone call to parents (voices of reason).
Second Level of Selling
The closer came to the table to check me out with this surprising deal:
- Six locations in the country — Hawaii, Park City, UT, Las Vegas.
- $1600 for 7 nights in Hawaii in a 3 bedroom/3 bath property
- For 18 months, the original deal was frozen
- With agreement to enter into the Hilton Grand Vacations program, the $1600 paid to rent the property would be the down payment to enter the program (they don’t call it time share because it’s a flexible week and location any time).
More deliberation and emotional pressure. The deal was too good to pass up; the pressure was intense because the deal was too good to pass up! (I know, I said that already.)
In the end, what it boiled down to for me was purely timing. A single mother with a middle school kidlet and select sports, sole breadwinner running a business, no vacation time ever, does not a good decision make.
The emotions following the experience were surprising. I wanted to do the deal; the Hilton Grand Vacations team is that good. When you tally up the cost per lead generated by Hilton Grand Vacations, it’s exorbitant. When you look at what happens when members get into the program (they continue upgrading and purchasing additional weeks), then Hilton wins.
The hang up becomes the customer because the sale and the technique are perfect.
Excellent breakdown of the vacation properties sales process, Jayme! We’ve been through a couple of those presentations ourselves over the years, one of them in Orlando. The pressure is intense, so cool heads must prevail.
We were already in Orlando for a vacation, having BARTERED a website in return for a week at a 2-bedroom condo. (We’re always open to vacation barters, if anyone is interested!) When we arrived in Orlando, everywhere we drove we saw little “shops” offering drastically reduced-price tickets to all the major attractions. We went in to one to purchase our tickets — or so we thought — and learned we had to make an appointment to sit through a 90-minute vacation property presentation the next morning.
After the presentation, we’d receive our tickets to Sea World. Free breakfast was included, too! Of course, we said yes.
It was really easy for us to say no to the sales presentation. Since we belonged to a barter exchange at the time, we knew our next vacation would be bartered as well, whether with a website, on-hold marketing, or a video. We were impossible to sell to, and actually felt bad for the salesman and his closer. They never had a chance.
What are Hilton Honors points?
New England Multimedia Hah. The predisposed no-sale! My elderly gentleman sales guy was really disappointed and he showed it all over his face. Shoot. He’s not paying my bills, right?
I’m a member of Hilton Honors loyalty program; you get free hotel nights once you accrue 40K points or some such by staying at any number of 10 Hilton properties? Great deal, actually. No cost, but you do need to travel and book nights so you keep up your level.
Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I really did feel bad for the salesman. But we told him right from the start that he’d never be able to convince us, because we belonged to a barter exchange. I think he was trying to convince us that this could be an investment for us — maybe even a business investment. But we didn’t think like that at the time. All we wanted was the reduced price tickets and a free breakfast!
Ha! We’ve been through this, too. And it paid off. They called us a couple of years ago with an offer of a free night in Vegas in exchange for sitting through a sales presentation. We love Vegas and were looking to do another trip (airfare is pretty cheap from here), so he bargained with them and got two free nights, instead. We did the trip and sat through their presentation. After we declined, they offered us a really low-level entry package with one of three destinations that would have to be used within two years. One of the destinations was Orlando, and I was already planning our final big family vacation for this year, as a trip to Disneyworld. I used my smartphone to look into the prices of hotels/rentals. What Hilton was offering us was equivalent or better, considering the quality. So, we decided to go ahead and sign up for that. It wasn’t actually purchasing one of their time shares. Just purchasing the one week, one time rental.
We made small monthly payments for eighteen months and I booked the week shortly before we finishing paying it off. Some friends kindly gave us their Orlando timeshare week this year, as well. So, by last summer, between their gift and the Hilton package, I already had our luxury accommodations booked for two weeks in Orlando. We just had to pay the park tickets and airfare (which is no small cost when you have a family of six).
We had to sit through another spiel when we took the trip in April, but we passed on actually buying a timeshare. It was well worth sitting through both pitches for the two-day Vegas trip and the two-week Orlando one. I have to say, the accommodations in Orlando were stunning!! Beautiful rooms. Huge pool with a slide and four hot tubs. Our last night we ate at the restaurant beside the pool while the kids played. We will always remember that.
We had the most incredible family trip. I’m so glad my husband didn’t hang up on Hilton–but I’m also glad we resisted actually buying into their program.
Neicolec It truly and really is an offer you can’t refuse and yet you’re so relieved when you do!! Someone tonight said they buy weeks on eBay! I will do more research and be really prepared to make the timing mine and not theirs!
Neicolec Oh, Neicole…you are a savvy woman! I love it!
FYI, did that sales presentation many years ago in the Valdoro Lodge in Breckenridge…and bought in. 😉
We’ve stayed at the Valdoro extensively, and we’ve stayed at a couple of the Orlando and Hawaii resorts and Fiesta Americanas in Cabo and Cancun. Even used the RCI exchange to get to Puerto Vallarta.
dbvickery So glad you’re using it! With a family growing like yours, Gramps, you need those huge apartments! And, I bet you get, like, paid vacation, too.