Sundance Vacations Harrisburg Sales Team Wins ARDA award

Sundance Vacations, a wholesale vacations company with offices in New Jersey, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Northeastern PA, has developed quite a knack when it comes to capturing prestigious awards in a wide variety of categories.

The most recent award was garnered by our Sundance Vacations Harrisburg, PA location for having the “Best Team Project,” a category that allows recognition for a whole team including support staff. The Harrisburg office was selected as the winner for single site or small developer.

The award was presented by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing the vacation ownership and resort development industries. The ARDA World 2014 awards’ presentation took place April 6-10 at the Venetian Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In addition to winning in the “Project Team’ category, the Sundance Harrisburg office also was nominated in the Call Center: 250 Agents of Fewer category.

“The annual ARDA convention is always so thought-provoking. We always come home with new ideas and theories to test. This year we returned home with an extra bonus – new ideas and recognition from our industry’s leaders for our own innovations and accomplishments,” said Tina Dowd, co-founder of Sundance Vacations.

The ARDA Awards Program is committed to recognizing the best nominees submitted in categories that include overall professional excellence, outstanding sales and marketing accomplishments, product design, advertising and staff, according to an ARDA spokesman.

Sundance Vacations’ Harrisburg office won the ARDA “Project Team” award based on criteria from a five-question survey that had to be submitted by competing companies.

Personnel from the Harrisburg office had to respond, in detail, to the following questions:

* What makes the nominee’s performance and contributions outstanding?

* Describe new ideas and methods introduced by the nominee in 2013, including specific examples of achievements, character, team effort, community involvement and traits that set this team apart from others.

* Describe the nominees marketing and/or sales philosophy.

* Describe market conditions and identify/describe any unusual conditions relating to the nominee’s performance, such as competitive environment, market area and seasonality.

* Describe marketing programs and techniques used to attract prospects, avenues to produce sales and compensation and/or fees assessed upon the completion of the sale.

The reponses compiled by the Harrisburg sales’ team are quite detailed. In part, they are as follows (in sequence as listed above):

* “Despite several obstacles that would impede the success of many sales’ organizations, this team outperforms its competition. Internally, the team has earned the top sales office award for five years in a row even though it operates in one of our (Sundance’s) smallest markets.”

* “This team focuses on taking care of every customer need from simple, physical needs like making sure every customer knows where the restrooms are to fulfilling a customer’s more complex emotional needs like his/her sense of belonging. As a result of this type of commitment and attention to the complex emotional needs of each customer, this sales team has been able to win the tops sales office award every month of 2013.”

* “We implemented the Net Promoter System (NPS) following a keynote speech at ARDA several years ago. As a result, our sales team’s performance is not just measured on closing percentage or volume per guest. The team we are nominating has take the idea of creating promoters to the maximum. They consistently have the highest NPS score of any sales office and it’s no surprise there is a direct correlation between really happy customers who are willing to promote your brand and over-the-top, unbeatable sales results every month.”

* Even though our ideal market is three to seven million people, this sales’ team gets record-breaking results from a small, metropolitan market of less than one million households with modest, median incomes.”

* “The company employs a permission-based marketing program to secure prospects for its’ sales locations. Company representatives collect leads at various high-traffic events. The company employs a call center team of 200+ outbound telephone sales representatives (TSRs) who book appointments for potential prospects to attend a brief sales’ presentation in six different markets. We conduct 45-minute mass presentations to groups of about 10 to 15 customers at a time by using a multi-media presentation.”

ABOUT ARDA: The American Resort Development Association has almost 1,000 corporate members ranging from privately held firms to publicly traded corporations with extensive experience in shared ownership interests in leisure real estate. ARDA offers industry professionals educational and networking opportunities each year at the annual ARDA Convention and Exposition. ARDA pursues business and growth opportunities through alliances with organizations in related and complementary industries in the United States and overseas.

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