No Matter Who Signs Your Paycheck, You Are Self Employed

While traveling this week I overheard a conversation where two people were discussing their disappointment that someone got promoted over one of the ladies in the conversation. They were clearly unhappy and found a number of reasons why their company had failed them. I overheard excuses such as the promoted person had an easier property to manage, the president wanted a man in the position and she had not received enough training. And so I started thinking.....

While we are employees and someone signs our paycheck, we are really in charge of our own career. If you want something, ask for it. If you are told you are not ready for the next step in your career, find out why and change it. There are few victims when it comes to business. However, there are a whole lot of lazy people.

On the day that I was promoted into the coveted position as Director of Training, I was told that I was probably too young for the job (ahhhh, to be 24 years old again) but that I had the skills and the talent. The president also expressed to me that the most important quality I had going for me was that I took charge of my career and planned out the steps I needed to get the job I wanted. He called that ambition. I agree. I was the youngest person out of a sea of 27 more tenured people than me that applied for that internal promotion. Ambition pays off!

What can you do today to prepare you for the next step in your career? Email me at kate@KateGood.com if I can ever help you with your career goals.

Trend: Better Offers Are Not Aways Bigger Offers

Know what your customers want. Don't just offer the same special as the community down the street. When we do this, we are actually feeding the “bigger, better deal” mentality which challenges the customer to find a better deal. Take a different approach and create an offer so unique others cannot match it. For example, a community I am consulting with is using coupon books which give the customer complete control as to how they want to use their concession. Each coupon is worth $30 and the customer can use any number in their book at any time. This unique offer cannot be compared to an offer for one month free even though the dollar amount is the same. Strategy!

Trend: Customer Service as Part of the Sales Process

45% of every client interaction involves customer service. My research illustrates that customer service has decreased in many organizations possibly due to the fact that we may be operating with leaner staffs and they are simply stretched too far to give your customers the personal attention they crave. Since customer-to-customer influences have become vital to success, it is increasingly important that leasing professionals focus more on their most vital asset-the client.

Anything which would be considered a administrative function should take a back seat when a customer calls or visits. And yes, leasing is all about customer service. In fact, today’s successful consultant knows the secret closing more traffic today is find out what the customer is looking for and service their need to find a new home.

Trend: Greater Focus On Lead Conversion

The world of apartment leasing and marketing will never be what we knew as early as 4years ago. The items that made your marketing plan a sure fire success will not get you the same results today. The leasing consultant that ranked number one during your leasing contests may be struggling. Does this mean that we should throw our hands up and site a bucket load of excuses? Not if you want your job!

People are still renting apartments so why not rent one from you? If you want your unfair share of the available leases, and to keep your job, study these trends which I will be spotlighting in my upcoming blgs and make necessary adjustments, not excuses.

Let's start with Lead Generation.

The issue of lead generation has increased in the last two years. Technology has helped gather leads but the conversion factor has not increased. Simply put, leads must be converted and there will be increased attention to convert and close more leases. Your marketing and leasing strategy should include a solid system to follow up every phone call and email lead. Work that customer until they lease. We are using more advertising sources than ever before, make sure you are counting all the traffic they are delivering and take a closer look at your teams ability to convert that lead to a lease.

6 Common Unintended Consequences in Leasing for 2010

1. Overdoing the “friendly” part of sales can frequently backfire on us. Residents don’t trust disingenuous people. Customers realize you don’t care about them that much.

2. Asking prospects intensive qualifying questions can put them on the defensive. No one likes being backed into a corner.

3. In order not to push customers, we frequently don’t introduce everything to our customer. This guarantees they will be looking at your competitors to find it.

4. Pushing for a close is so 1950’s. Again, no one likes being backed into a corner. When this happens, customers bring out the heavy artillery loaded with plenty of objection bullets.

5. Don’t most of us already know that talking poorly about the competition always cheapens us and ironically gives more credibility to our competitors?

6. Selling to a non-decision-maker (e.g. recommender, information gatherer) makes us feel good because it’s easy and we feel we’re making real progress. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re in fact wasting our time and alienating the real decision makers because: a) They don’t think we’re smart enough to figure out who the real decision makers are, and b) They think we perceive them as unimportant.

My "Super Freakonomics" Book Report

I love the "freakquel" for Freakonomics titled Super Freakonomics. It is a super interesting read and please don't let my book report replace reading the book. My hope is that it will lead you to check it out of the library, stroll on down to Barnes and Noble or download it onto your Kindle.

People respond to incentives. During 2009 the apartment industry became the perfect case study for this fact. However, what we need to be concerned with is explained in this book. "People respond to incentives, although not necessarily in ways that are predictable or manifest. Therefore, one of the most powerful laws of the universe is the law of unintended consequences." When we understand this concept, we might start to see what is next for the concession driven markets.

The book explains numerous examples of unintended consequences of from a vast number of incentives. It will certainly change your way of thinking. I found myself empowered to make better decisions understanding the true cause and unintended effect that can often result.

Too often we feel that solutions do not exist unless they are right in front of our eyes. The authors take us through history to show this is not the case.

As sales and marketing experts, we must understand how people make decisions, change their mind and act on an opportunity. Super Freakonomics teaches us how an environment and or personal motivation could create a shift to a completely different intention by a human.

Don't pick up this book if you want to understand the economy and where it is going. The book says if you "understand the incentives that lead a schoolteacher or sumo wrestler to cheat, you can understand how the subprime-mortgage bubble came to pass."

2010 Marketing Trend: Simplicity Makes the Buying Decision Easier

A article in USA Today leading the money section on October 28 introduced us to the powerful marketing mantra for 2010, simple is better. The graphic which leads the article asks via multiple choice, how many ingredients are in a scoop of Haagen-Daz's Simple 5 coffee ice cream. The answer is five.

If 2009 effective marketing message was about buying stuff cheap then this new trend will most likely build on that foundation. For example, my co-speaker on the Apartment All Star Tour is Lisa Trosien. All year she has been reminding us to follow the trends of major brands such as Subway with the $5 footlong. Leave it to Lisa to even sing the jingle on stage. This is a perfect example of trying to sell twelve inches of sandwich pretty cheap and keeping things simple by not making the pricing complicated.

When you keep things simple, you create a tangible reason to buy a product or service. For starters, it is easier to understand. Next, it helps build confidence that nothing is hidden or unexpected. This is what you get, just 5 ingredients that you can pronounce. A strong message in a food industry that has mass production.

I was working with a client today trying to work on removing reasons why someone would not rent from us. One thing is that it is a complicated formula to figure out what you have to do and what you owe if you break your lease agreement. Sure, the formula seemed like a good idea at the time, after all, we don't want them breaking their leases. Yet now, in a economy where job growth is non existent, people want to know what the obligation will be if they get laid off. We decided to roll back to yesteryear where we asked for 60 days notice, one months rent cancel fee and payback their concession. Still some meaningful money, but much easier to understand.

What else should we simplify?