The Coming TS Frontal Assault!
-by Scoop
May 14, 2010 — TS developers who read the recent Fitch Ratings report indicating that Timeshare ABS (Asset Back Securities) delinquencies fell during the 1st Q of 2010 may believe they are beginning to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel (and hopefully they are).
However many other TS developers (perhaps most of ‘em) may be doomed by another disaster on the horizon that will assuredly make the recent financial calamity seem like mere child’s play, and the demise of those developers is not only rapidly approaching but pretty much guaranteed, too!
To set the stage for this disaster, ponder for a moment the military tactic of massive waves of combatants (aka: “Human Waves”) charging their enemy’s positions to simply overwhelm their adversaries by sheer numbers and to do so regardless of inevitable high casualties.
Now apply that pandemonium to a future human wave of 110,000,000 (million) well prepared prospects charging a TS developer’s sales center, armed to the teeth with modern day ‘gadgets’ such as ‘hand-held’ devices (and other ‘toys’ yet to hit the ‘market)…
And here is the dilemma, like it, accept it, or not! According to the U.S. Census bureau, today’s ‘NQ’s’ (prospects below the age of 25) represent approximately 110 Million people (1/3 of the entire US population) who are being educated, trained and conditioned in the ‘Virtual’ Universe, beginning from the kindergarten years through High School(s) including all ‘trades’ and all the way up the food chain to the University level.
And when the millions show up to the presentations, and they will, they will have with them instant access to ‘content’ that will surely pulverize the developer and their sales staffs (who are using antiquated selling strategies) like a $.99 kite in a Cat 5 Hurricane!
And yet, that ‘future’ has already arrived as each month rescissions and millions in lost revenue are directly attributed to new owners getting online and within the cancellation period they are discovering the ‘big-picture’ about the industry, the competition, the various ownership plans, vacation clubs, resale and rental inventory and so forth.
By the way the phenomenon is no longer restricted mainly to U.S., Canadian, Mexican, Australian and UK developers and markets because the fact of the matter, worldwide, easy access to online content is becoming as readily available as a cold beer is in Utah, and the day when planet earth is totally ‘wired’ is just around the corner!
The answer to this quandary, in part, any developer in the race for the duration needs to immediately set up a secondary online marketing and sales strategy and an ‘A-Team’ (starting with just one ‘rep’ would be a giant step forward) and begin evolving, today, to meet the inevitable.
What I suspect, however, like the resale issue that first confronted TS developers more than a generation ago, is they’ll mostly ignore the ever changing online world including technological trends, social-networking, the future ‘twitters, ‘facebooks’, ‘youtubes’ etc., which is fine because as we all know there is no sense or purpose in beating a dead horse…
But the smart money (including sales and marketing careers of the future) is on the nose of those who grasp today’s realities, develop and implement a long term strategy and convert readily available knowledge into tomorrow’s profits.
Email Scoop: scoop@insidethegate.com
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