Many of the ideas below are already developed and ready to go. If you're interested in using our team to help you execute any of these strategies, we’re here to help. If not, then consider them our way off giving back to an industry that has been so supportive of Brand Tango over the past four years. Our goal has always been to be a strategic extension of our clients’ marketing team, and now is no exception.

Strategy One:
Target, Optimize, and Manage Your Leads for the Best-Qualified Prospects.

Rather than "less is more," the new game is "less with more." Lower numbers of highly qualified tours will be needed to make the kind of down payments required by lenders to make your paper attractive. Without sound purchasers, many developers risk selling themselves out of business. Shifting away from high-volume shotgun tour strategies to find the best-qualified prospects will be crucial. Credit scores, not just incomes, will be the new qualifiers. Focusing on touring those who have the means to purchase is more important than ever.

Through our Tango Marketing System, Brand Tango provides a proven, low-cost method to manage and optimize leads, campaigns, and tours. If you've been forced to scale back on marketing staff, then having an intuitive way to launch targeted campaigns is more important than ever.

Click here for an appointment and personalized web demo of the Tango Marketing System

Strategy Two:
In the World of Sales There's a "Yes," a "No," and (most often ignored), a "Maybe."

When a prospect decides not to purchase today, we assume it's a "No." This assumption sends all the associated marketing and sales dollars down the drain. Many of these "no's" are actually "maybe's." Launch a sound Web-based post-tour communications strategy with a timed VOI deal extension, along with an enrollment in a low-cost Web-based travel club that offers seasonal options for prospects to return to your properties. This strategy helps to save deals, lowers marketing costs, optimizes occupancy, and creates a strong pipeline for re-tours through in-house sales in the off-season.

Brand Tango's "maybe" program is an off-the-shelf post-sales communications strategy that accomplishes these goals. Some might call it a tour-no-buy but it's more robust than other lackluster programs we've seen launched in the industry.

Click here to learn more about Brand Tango's "Maybe" program

Strategy Three:
Just because leads are not qualified to purchase a VOI doesn’t mean they’re not qualified to purchase.

NQ’s will continue to escalate as older models for generating leads and tours are retooled to target more credit-worthy prospects who can make the larger “full downs” that developers now seek. Don’t just walk away from NQ’s; offer them a low-cost online travel product. Do this through your telemarketing operation, and even tour brokers, to help you fund new tour-generation strategies. Again, look to sell a new kind of lower-cost product to the consumer. Later, you’ll have a significant group of potential timeshare owners to whom you can market.

We can help you adopt this 100% sales strategy. Since these low-cost off-the-shelf products are Web-based, you won’t have to add bodies to service what you’ve sold. A program manager is all you need to take advantage of this opportunity.

Click here to learn more about Brand Tango's NQ program

Strategy Four:
Everyone else is selling access to the industry’s unused inventory. Why aren’t you?

We’ve seen a tremendous growth in non-deeded vacation clubs over the past 10 years. Think about it. You’ve made the investment and taken the risk to develop, operate, and maintain your resort(s), only to have unrelated companies sell consumers the right to use your product with little to no financial exposure. This may be the time to develop a new kind of drop-down product with priority access to your off-season inventory and access to everyone else’s via the large amount of unused exchange-company inventory. Bundled with discounts to other travel and leisure experiences, this strategy creates a high-value, lower-cost product and helps keep consumers who appreciate the timeshare concept coming back to you for future visits. When the economy returns, you’ll have a group of consumers who are prime prospects for upgrade.

Brand Tango has developed several off-the-shelf Web-based travel clubs that require very little human servicing.

Click here to learn more about creating a new type of drop down product

Look for more strategies in your in-box over the next few days.