Have you ever thought, when God mysteriously sends you the perfect opportunity to do something new and different, “Should I or shouldn’t I snap this up? It’s almost too good to be true.” Yeah, me, too. And the times I have passed on such things still haunt me to this day.
But not today, my friends, not today.
Meet Susan’s and my new best friend on Oahu and in our Marriott Vacation Club family, Alberto Maldonado, who quietly and magnificently serves a small tribe of less than 500 clients as a Senior Sales Executive for Marriott Vacation Club in Ko Olina, Hawaii. More important than having just sales education, training, experience, and success, however, Alberto has a winning personality, expert credentials as a surfer (he is the former Peruvian surfing champion pictured here to the right), and the Aloha spirit of being willing to serve people without expecting anything in return.
Which is how I came to be standing atop his soft top board in the picture below. Wait for it.
For the last week of every year since the 2000, Susan and I have gone to one of our Marriott vacation villas located around the world for our annual “Last Year – Next Year Think Week,” where we recap what all we did over the last year and set our course for our happily married adventures during the next year. During each of those visits, we schedule a meeting with a Marriott sales associate to stay up on what is new in the Marriott Vacation Club program so we can squeeze as much value as possible out of this key item of property we count among our life’s precious resources. Because we are experienced owners who aren’t necessarily looking to add to our portfolio, we usually get assigned to some of the newest, greenest associates in the ownership center. This year, however, we got picked up by a senior sales associate, to wit Alberto Maldonado.
A lean, well-tanned Peruvian, Alberto chatted us up with his romantic South American accent in the reception area over our complimentary hot tea and then invited us back to his office. As he slid up to his side of the desk across from us on the other side, he asked the perfect salesman’s question, one I have tried to teach sales training clients to put first and foremost in their minds, one I have planted on the top of my branding for decades. Alberto asked, “How can I help you today.”
“Well, I’m glad you asked that just the way you did,” I replied. “Because it makes us feel so much more cared for than you just trying to sell us additional weeks.” He nodded with gratitude, as I continued. “In fact, we are trying to decide whether to sell our weeks, convert to hybrid weeks to access the newer resorts, or just sit still.”
Alberto did next what I have taught salespeople to do for years. He turned over his information sheet on me, picked up a pen, and put the pen to the blank side of the paper, and said, “Okay, tell me what you want to do and let me see if I can help you do it.”
Long story short, he fashioned a solution for us that was better than we had imagined. The GRRRRReat! part of the story, however, was Alberto’s interest in deepening our collective connection after we had closed the deal.
“Have you ever been surfing, Ken and Susan. Because I like taking my customers out surfing. I’m a great instructor and I know a great place, where only the locals go. If you want, I can take you out there tomorrow and teach you how to surf.”
It just so happens, I have always wanted to learn how to surf, and the warm weather of Hawaii made the prospect even more promising than my experience of learning how to snow ski in Breckenridge in 1982 (but that’s a different story). The next afternoon, Alberto took us to a beach with a great view of Diamond Head, sat us down for the pre-ride class, went over the basics, strapped his board to my left ankle and off we went into the water.
Here’s the result of my second attempt.
I’m the guy riding on the front of the wave. The real victor, however, is Alberto Maldonado, the guy in middle right side of the shot with his hands in the air holding me up from yards away, having helped me, in his own Aloha way, serving me and expecting nothing from me in return.
My new lifelong friend. Not lifelong because we’ve been friends for long, but rather because, we will be friends forever.
[reminder]What’s your most recent example of someone else living the Aloha way, only doing something for the service of others? Tell us about it in a comment below. [/reminder]
In the meantime, you GOTTABGATT!, so go out there today and be Great! All the time!