4 Tablespoons Curb Appeal

1 Quart of Apartment Training

½ Cup of Welcoming Office Environment

¼ Cup of Targeted Marketing

1 Pint of Community Reputation

2 Cups of Answering the Phone

2 Cups of Returning Prospect Emails

3 Cups of Welcoming Prospects at the Front Door

2 Cups of Follow Up

1 Smile from Ear to Ear

1 Heart that Wants to Help Someone Find a Home

1 Handshake with a pinch of determination

Blend all these ingredients well.  Cook at 350 degrees of Passion.  Don’t ever let it cool.  Decorate the lease with resident retention rosebuds.  Make your presentation and make that resident drool with anticipation.  Repeat this process daily.  Don’t be wowed by any add water and stir recipes that are out there.  Stick to the fundamentals and you will bake something special every day.  Did I miss any ingredients?  Let me know in the comments below.

Written by Jonathan Saar  If you wish to subscribe to regular posts, please subscribe here.

Can there be any doubt of what a smile can do for another person.  When a prospective resident walks through that door, you have less than a couple of seconds to make that first impression.  It all starts with a smile.  Does a smile only come from your lips?  Absolutely not!  A smile comes from your whole body.  A genuine smile can be seen and understood from our whole demeanor.  Can you think of ways of how our whole body smiles?  Can a genuine smile really make a difference in gaining a new resident who will lease and call your community home?

How about our eyes?  Certainly they play a huge part.  Make sure your eyes on focused on theirs and not anywhere else.  Of course don’t be creepy about it; you don’t want to make the prospective resident feel uncomfortable.  Be relaxed about your eye contact; do not come across as forced.  Make sure you are not distracted by other things going on around you and remember that you are a professional.  Avoid eyeing the prospect from head to toe and back.  That would be really creepy.  If something does demand your attention while first greeting the prospect, make sure you say: “Excuse me”, turn to the person who is distracting you, address the matter quickly, then turn back and continue the conversation.

The handshake is also an important part of the smile.  That really helps translate the warmth, enthusiasm and overall happiness you are feeling towards the prospective resident.  In other words, don’t give the prospect a boiled spaghetti handshake, they need a determined and firm handshake that shows that their visit means the world to you and you can’t wait to fill their apartment needs.

Make sure our smile is natural.  Sometimes we can over smile.  This can come across as showing too much teeth or the cheese smile.  If we over smile it will be shown in our facial wrinkles.  You could be stretching your face so much that appears that we are completely overdoing what should be a natural act.

One of the best ways to get feedback about your smile and its affect is to ask someone.  There is only so much we can learn by looking in the mirror.  Ask someone close to you to give you an honest assessment of your smile in natural settings and its power over others.  Our ultimate goals are always to command the room…and it starts with a smile.  Does a smile really make a difference in securing leases?  Switch roles for a moment and pretend you are the prospect or consumer.  What impact did a smile have on you?

Written by Jonathan Saar

In case you missed it, check out our 15 steps to telephone leasing success.

The following letter was from a resident to one of our clients.  This letter was a must share and there is an interesting lesson to learn from it.  I removed the names for privacy purposes and I really appreciate our client forwarding this to us.  This is a huge testimony to what an overall company culture can do for an organization and how effective training in skills such as customer service really pays off.

“Dear Management Company:

I am writing this letter to Thank Awesome Leasing Professional, one of your leasing agents for her professionalism and hospitality.

On May 28, 2010, I arrived an hour before closing at Community Awesome in a frantic panic. I had just left a neighboring apartment complex where I was to move into one of the units on that very day; but to my dismay, the apartment that was discussed was not presented. In fact, the unit was located in an area that I clearly stated was not going to be comfortable or even safe enough for me to reside in. At that point management proceeded to show me another unit that was 4 flights up and to add insult to injury, at a higher rate.

Well, you can imagine, I had a lot of emotions come over me all at one time. I was hurt, angry, disappointed, and scared about where I was going to live. I had a time frame to be out of my current home and had reserved a moving truck, turned on my electricity, moved my phone and internet service along with getting all of the monies together to move into this apartment the following day.  When I asked management about what we had discussed, they simply said “Well, this is all we have available, think it over and get back to me later this evening, take care”. I was floored! Here I am, scheduled to move in the next day and there was absolutely no concern about my well being or about what was discussed in regards to the living space. I got in my car and drove directly into the parking lot of Community Awesome.

Thank God for Awesome Leasing Professional! I had met her previously before when I initially was looking for a place to live. As I quickly walked into the office, her face was the first thing I saw. I immediately started rambling about my situation and how I needed to move in ASAP! In fact, if it was possible the next day. She was so kind and accommodating as she pulled up my information and calmly took charge of my chaos.  She explained to me exactly what I needed to do so that she could get the ball rolling for me. At this time, it is just a little after 5pm as she handed me the application to complete and gave me instructions on the next course of action.  I still needed to go to the bank and get my monies redistributed to bring back the money orders to finalize my application.

Awesome Leasing Professional, waited patiently for me to complete my transactions as I returned just a couple of minutes before closing time. She assured me that everything was going to be okay, in fact she stated that she was going to come in the next day, which just so happened to be her day off, to ensure that my paperwork was done for me to move in by June 1, 2010.

To say Thank you just isn’t enough. I was moved to tears, and grateful that she took it upon herself to not just get another tenant, but she showed heart felt compassion and empathy for my situation. As a consumer, it is refreshing to have people really listening to you and taking the time to resolve your issues.

I want you to know that Awesome Leasing Professional is a true Gem. She represents your organization to the highest levels of integrity. I personally wanted to thank her for being here for me in my moment of despair. She brought the sunshine into a cloudy day.

I am now a resident and this has been a wonderful beginning. I am happy and excited about living here.  Your whole staff has been amazing! Please continue to support them, because it is “rare” to get great service and it has been impeccable! Thank you again.”~~Contributed

Did you notice that this resident initially had made a decision to move into another community?  Can you imagine the situation if the Awesome Leasing Professional did not create a memorable experience when the potential resident first met her?  There are some amazing lessons to be learned by this situation.  You never know how you are going to close a lease.  Even if it seems that you may not get the sale, can you not see how important it is to maintain a full force customer service demeanor right down to the end.  Awesome Leasing Professional did and the results speak for themselves.

What are your thoughts on this letter?  How do you maintain that full force customer service demeanor through the entire process of dealing with potential residents?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Did you know that our Learning Management System is not only a fantastic value add for property management companies but also for apartment associations?

1. When the telephone rings, answer it!  - With a smile!

Do you have anything you can add to this list?  I look forward to your comments.

Posted by Jonathan Saar

We are looking forward to seeing you at NAA in June! We will be in booth 1740.  Come by and say hi!

Want to get more leases from your internet leads? Try these 12 steps when responding to prospects.

~~A  post by Mechelle Flowers-President of The Training Factor

1. Reply to it!

2. Reply to it within 2 hours.

3. Use a catchy subject line… Example- “Your perfect home is waiting”

4. Use a personal greeting… Example – “Hi there Deshawn”

5. Speak to the person… Answer all the questions. – Don’t use a canned email!

6. Write with features and benefits of the apartment and community –

Example 1-  “The apartment I have in mind for you has a roommate floor plan.  That means that your bedroom will be separate from the other bedroom, giving you a little place to escape at the end of a long day.”

Example 2 –“You mentioned that you have children, what are their names?  They will love to play at our beautiful playground that is within view of your living room window and during the hot summer months, they can swim in the sparkling pool while you relax on one of the many lounge chairs.  If they like video games (what kid doesn’t?) we have an arcade and small DVD and book library for those rainy days as well.  The schools here are beyond compare and your children can hop on the bus while you wave to them from your balcony as you sip your morning coffee.”

7. Include Links to helpful information:

Example-

Web commercial – Click here to see a video of our community - www.webmercial.com

Website – Click here to see our apartment and community features - www.website.com

2×2 floor plan- This is the floor plan I had in mind for you.- www.floorplan.com

Local School Website- www.localschool.com

8. Ask questions back: Example -

“In the hallway, you’ll find a large closet with your washer and dryer connections which would comfortably fit, not only your laundry appliances, but a comfy corner for your kitty as well!  What is your cat’s name, by the way?  I have a cat too and I just love her!”

9. Include the community phone number.

10. Use some sales skills!  Paint pictures with your words focusing on the prospects needs.

Example – “You mentioned that you have children, what are their names?  They will love to play at our beautiful playground that is within view of your living room window and during the hot summer months, they can swim in the sparkling pool while you relax on one of the many lounge chairs.  If they like video games (what kid doesn’t?) we have an arcade and small DVD and book library for those rainy days as well.  The schools here are beyond compare and your children can hop on the bus while you wave to them from your balcony as you sip your morning coffee.”

11. Invite them to come to the community and include your office hours.

Example- I can’t wait to meet you and your children!  When will you be able to come and see your new home?  I am available to meet you, either over the phone or in person all this week.  Our office hours are M-F 8:30am to 6:30pm and on the weekends from 9:00am to 5:00pm.  I’d love to talk to you, so please email me back, call me or stop by soon!  Your home is so great that I would hate for someone else to snatch it up before you have a chance to look at it!  I’m including some more information about your home, so please take a look when you have a moment.”

12. Make sure your email is grammatically correct.

Please share any tips you may have for internet leasing success.  The more feedback the better for the industry.

Written by Mechelle Flowers

There is a fine line between training and application.  Take a trip back to your school years and reflect on the moments when you said to yourself or your teacher: “Why do I need to learn that?  I will never use it.”  As we made our way into the workplace, we should be able to see why advanced algebra, trigonometry, calculus, physics and other subject have served us well.  They developed our ability to think, reason, multitask, and progress in our career path.  It taught us the ability to emotionally handle challenges and to not just give up.

So this brings us to our current moments in life and how we view and apply our continuing education we receive at work.   How can it be possible to score 100% on a multifamily leasing course but only score 60% on a secret shop?  You can add as many thoughts as you want in the comments below.  Follow me on this analogy.  Last week I purchased some paper towel in one of those bulk packages.  I left it in the hallway to see if one of my children would take the initiative to put it away for me.  I left for Pittsburgh for a few days and returned to see that the package was still in the same place, which I then pointed this out to my children.  One of them decides to “put it away” for me and when I opened the cabinet this morning this is what I found.  Yep, the package was just “shoved” into the cabinet.  Now do my children know how to reorganize a cabinet? Yes.  Do my children know how to take the plastic wrapping off a package and stack the contents in a cabinet? Yes.  Do I have smart and intelligent kids?  Absolutely, they are both straight A students.  Do I love my kids?  Yes I do, and they are going to crack up when they read this.

So what’s my point, what was missing?  Education is only the beginning.  Application, drive, and initiative are everything.   How is this achieved?  It can be achieved on 2 levels.  Our clients are using our performance evaluation tool to measure the relationship between education and on the job application.  In other words it’s important to have a follow through program in order to ascertain if the learner is applying what they have been taught.  The other level comes down to individual drive.  When I had the pleasure of visiting Gerry Hunt and Tara Smiley from McKinley, this became part of our discussion.  Gerry pointed out how some leasing professionals can score perfect on their guest cards and yet not be able to close a lease like someone who has their own internal drive and can be basically “human” about the whole experience.   Mechelle Flowers the President of The Training Factor used the expression “Lease with a purpose”, which helped sparked some conversation on Multifamily Insiders.  My thoughts are more towards a less “canned” approach to our career.  In my former industry I had salespeople that could describe the beauty of the flowers over the phone so well, that had arrived at our market that morning that the client was sold without ever seeing them.  Does that occur for your telephone and internet leads?  Please don’t “shove” your leases.  This is your career; this should be your passion.  Achieve and aim high for yourself and for your company.  A future blog post will talk about the “canned” approach to our leasing style, but for now I would love your thoughts on what it takes to bridge the gap between education and application.

Written by Jonathan Saar