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Company: Marriott Vacation Club
Company Description: Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is the leading global pure- play vacation ownership company offering a diverse portfolio of quality products, programs and management expertise with more than 60 resorts and more than 420,000 Owners and Members. In late 2011, Marriott Vacations Worldwide was established as an independent, public company focusing primarily on vacation ownership exp
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Global Sales Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Marriott Vacation Club - How can a focused team of sales professionals survive the yo-yo effect of the global economy?

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

THE CHALLENGES OF A FAILING GLOBAL ECONOMY

It is often said that “when the U.S. economy sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”. One need look no further than the 2008-2013 global recession, that started with an imploding real estate market in the United States and quickly became a global crisis. The Marriott Vacation Club sales and marketing organization has successfully overcome the weakness in the worldwide real estate market by customizing both the product offerings and the sales approach to the unique needs of each global region.

ADAPTATION IN THE GLOBAL MARKETS

The Hawaii market has always been one of Marriott Vacation Club’s most successful U.S. markets for its weeks-based vacation ownership product. In the summer of 2010, Hawaii transitioned to the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations™ points based product along with the rest of North America and the Caribbean in order to offer greater flexibility, further personalization and more experience opportunities for Owners. Marriott Vacation Club recognized, however, that a large share of its Hawaii success was due to Asia-based vacationers who wanted to own a piece of U.S. real estate. U.S. based guests were being presented with the opportunity to purchase the new points based program, while residents of Asian countries only had the opportunity to own a deeded week at Marriott Vacation Club’s Hawaii resorts.

To adapt to the uneven recovery in Europe and the Middle East, Marriott Vacation Club has focused their marketing and sales efforts on southern Europe and the Middle Eastern customer. The Mexico, Central America, and South America vacation ownership customer has a high propensity to vacation in the U.S. To maximize sales to this unique customer base, Marriott Vacation Club’s primary strategy is to use local contractors who know the local market, but focus on providing their vacation needs via Marriott Rewards Points. Marriott Rewards is the world’s leading hotel loyalty program, and Marriott Rewards points can be used at any of over 3,200 Marriott properties around the world, including the 12 Marriott Vacation Club resorts in Florida and 3 in the Caribbean that are popular with the Latin America customer. Overall, their more than 50 resorts worldwide offer the vacation traveler consistent quality standards no matter where they travel in the network.

COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Despite the downward spiral of the global economy, Marriott Vacation Club’s sales team has proven itself a world leader in vacation destination sales. The evidence of this success is in the numbers: the brand experienced the highest three year jump in performance in its history and reported a 28 percent increase year-over-year in VPG (Volume per Guest). This is a major accomplishment when measured against the industry average of 2 - 3 percent annual increase. Coupled with this improvement our new hire performance alone is up 121%. The total effect of this increase in VPG since contract sales make up more than half of company revenues, the stock market has rewarded the improvement with record valuations. This success would not have been possible without the combined effort of our award winning team and their focus on providing memorable vacation experiences for over 400,000 families around the globe.

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Brian Miller is the executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation since 2011. Miller joined the organization 1990 as national director of marketing operations and was appointed vice president of marketing in 1994. From 2007-2011, Miller oversaw the global distribution of Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s timeshare, fractional, and whole ownership products, encompassing three brands – Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott. Additionally, Miller oversees worldwide customer service operations for those brands, as well as customer research, corporate communications and the company’s Internet operations.