By Hilbert Haar
The timeshare-industry is important for St. Maarten because timeshare owners spend a lot of time on the island and – more importantly – they are spending a lot of money here. These people love our island, otherwise they would not come to our shores year after year and – in many cases – decade after decade.
Unfortunately, this industry comes with marketing activities that regularly get on people’s nerves. Sometimes these marketing activities infringe on the lives of residents, but mostly they make the lives of cruise visitors rather unpleasant.
OPC is the confusing alphabet soup that stands for Off Premise Consultant. If we’d just call them timeshare-barkers, everybody would understand what OPCs are doing on our island. They are mostly drifters without work permits who roam the streets of Philipsburg and Marigot looking for unsuspecting tourists with only one goal in mind: to get these people to visit the timeshare project that has unleashed them.
The other day, when I returned a lease vehicle to my garage, I found the instructions for these timeshare-barkers in the glove compartment. It’s interesting reading and I want to share some of the contents with my readers here; not for entertainment purposes, but to explain what they are up against.
The OPC-training gives timeshare-barkers pointers for their job. The first challenge for OPCs is to stop people and engage them in conversation. The suggestions from the training manual are rather mundane: “Folks, come on over!” or “Come and get your free map and activity guide.”
Next the OPC will ask how long their target is staying on the island, where people are staying and what they are planning to do. At this stage, the OPC will also start talking about a gift.
All the while, tourists are left in the dark about the real purpose of this generosity. The OPC has to establish that their target is qualified. I figure that you qualify for a visit to the timeshare project once it becomes clear that you have a big enough income to spend some dough on the product.
The training provides a qualification list but that was not part of the papers I found in my car. But I did find this apparently important hint: “The pitch does not tell them that this is a timeshare presentation or that it takes at least 90 minutes. They must be told this before they leave as a part of your qualifying process.”
The OPC also has to show that he believes in the product he (or she) is selling. “Getting sales makes you a more valuable OPC,” the training manual states the obvious.
There are also some suggested one-liners to stress this point. “If you see something you like go for it. You only live once!” And: “Come back and let me know how many weeks you bought,” followed by what must be a comforting message: “All we ask is that you have a good time, and keep an open mind.”
OPCs want to make sure that their targets really go to the timeshare project. How does that work? Well, in the manual I saw the OPC asks for a $20 deposit.
From the manual: “Look them in the eyes and say (use the man’s first name) – What I do here is take a $20 deposit to hold your spot. It’s given right back to you as soon as you walk in the door. Then break eye contact and keep typing. Do not wait on a response.”
I won’t bother my readers with the one-page pitch other than, according to the manual, it has to be “delivered with excitement and enthusiasm.” And then there is that last line: “You guys are going to love it. What’s your last name?”
Of course, the OPC is going to love it even more once a target bites, hands over the $20 deposit and heads for the timeshare project. Because, last thing I heard, the OPCs earn $100 for every tourists who buys the story and goes through a one-and-a-half hour timeshare presentation.
Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of happy timeshare owners on our island and our economy needs them. On the other end of that equation you’ll find cruise visitors who are constantly bothered by timeshare-barkers while they are strolling down the city center.
There must be a better way to sell this product.
