*S*A*F*E* Leasing: SYSTEMS

The roller coaster ride that is the real estate market can sometimes get downright intimidating!

How can you be SAFE in this treacherous and competitive rental market?

SAFE – Systems · Accountability · Focus · Execution

You MUST have Systems in place to monitor and measure on-site performance. The old management saying is still true today: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!”

Systems that measure performance make on-site professionals responsible to desired standards and achievements.  We like to say it is better to lease SAFE than sorry!

Effective Systems are the foundation to SAFE sales and marketing. Systems allow companies to operate in a purposeful and calculated manner.

Training Systems

Leaders in sales performance use thoughtful and simple Systems to maintain superior sales skills and achieve leasing excellence. Some companies utilize Training Systems that hone not just sales skills but also professional and personal skills.  Some curriculum includes classes that encourage a balanced life.

Enthusiasm, conflict resolution, and a zest for life are skills that are as crucial as telephone techniques and overcoming resistance. If the leasing professional is happy with their job and content with life, the rental customer can see that in their presentation. A well rounded training program could well teach leasing professionals how to be the kind of person that others like to do business with!

While sales techniques are an integral part of your training curriculum, it’s also a good idea to integrate your corporate traditions into this process. If your on-site personnel have buy-in to their product and the company, the prospect will be able to see this. Their leasing presentation will have more energy and be more persuasive. However, it’s not all about the ‘warm fuzzies’!

The fact is that top performing companies in sales typically invest significantly in sophisticated and high caliber Training Systems which focus on a performance-oriented curriculum. They educate not only on-site leasing staff but also service technicians, bookkeepers, porters, and managers. They review corporate culture and general sales training, and they introduce the staff to the shopping report – the tool by which their performance will be measured.

Classroom training, mentoring, mirroring, one on one coaching, web-based training – companies utilize different platforms based on their needs and the return on their investment.

Recruiting Systems

The road to being an industry leading company starts with recruiting and hiring the best people. Some organizations express their commitment to finding quality people by employing a full time recruiting team who personally interviews all on-site candidates. Many times, best employee prospects come from the referrals of other quality on-site employees.

In employee selection, you must start with a core group of qualified and skilled managers – key players who become magnets to attract other quality on-site professionals to the team. Offering comps for referrals doesn’t hurt!

Personality and key characteristic profiling is another system or hiring tool used by top sales performers. They identify characteristics and traits that are common in proven sales people already on staff, and then they match leasing professional candidates to these identified “key” traits.

Systems simply for systems sake are not what we advocate.

Find what works best for you and go with it, but stick to your Systems!

Systems will help establish a SAFE leasing effort that puts more prospects into apartment homes.