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Reading Room Articles Is Your Team Sending Busy Signals or Leasing Signals? By Patty Morgan-Seager Written for Sales & Marketing Magic Faced with dropping occupancy levels? Experiencing a significant reduction in your traffic? Looking for ways to increase your in-person traffic and closing ratio? The answer is only a telephone call away. Start by asking yourself, "When was the last time I took a close look at my team's attitude regarding the importance of answering the telephone professionally and effectively?" Here's a great way to evaluate the attitude of your leasing staff when it comes to answering the telephone. Start your next team meeting by asking each staff member to write down the first ten words that come to mind when they hear the telephone ringing in their office. The answers will be eye opening. The most significant, yet most commonly overlooked traffic generating sales tool is the telephone. It is the lifeline to your business. Yet, alarmingly so, shopping reports conducted on the telephone indicate that the telephone continues to be the weakest link in the leasing cycle. In this article, you will learn the key steps for improving the performance of your team on the telephone, and once in place you will find this process will become an important part of your training program for your property management team. Preparation is the key: Creating a lasting first impression on the telephone is vital, and part of insuring a good first impression is being prepared. Provide your team with the proper sales tools prior to their answering the telephone. Start by making certain they have a property information binder for their community. This binder should contain all the vital information about their apartment community. Action point: Include your on-site team in the information gathering process. Ask each community team to prepare their own community binder consisting of all the significant information and sales tools needed for an effective telephone presentation. Be sure to incorporate such items as brochures, guest cards, an updated rental structure, an availability list, clear and concise directions to their community, and a site plan of the property. Is your team ready to answer the telephone effectively? Enthusiastic greeting: The first 30 seconds of interaction on the telephone sets the tone for the entire presentation. Nothing takes the place of genuine enthusiasm and a warm friendly greeting. Is your leasing team excited about answering the telephone? Can your future residents hear and actually feel their smile? Are they sincere about helping each apartment shopper? If they are, it will show. Action point: Create a telephone greeting that is warm and friendly, yet short and to the point. We live in a very fast paced world so long and drawn out greetings tend to get lost. Be sure your property management team answers cheerfully, identifying both the apartment community and themselves. Have them ask each future resident their name and ask them to use it frequently during the conversation. The average apartment shopper calls 6-8 communities before they decide to visit, so it is very important that your leasing team makes a good first impression or the apartment shopper will not feel the need to come out and visit your community. Consultative approach: Teach your leasing team to develop a rapport with each future resident in a short amount of time on the telephone. The traditional method of interrogative questioning and dominating the conversation has been replaced with a more sincere approach to gathering information and asking questions that encourage a mutual level of respect and an exchange of information. Action point: Conduct roleplay workshops with your team members and practice the art of questioning in a non-confrontational style. Review the importance of asking permission to ask questions, first. Something magical happens when you ask permission. It lowers the defense of the apartment shopper and creates a feeling of trust. Have your team develop some questions that are effective, and that will enable them to pre-qualify the apartment shopper quickly, yet generates interest in what they have to offer in their apartment community. Try having your leasing team ask questions like what do you like the most about where you live now? Or tell me a little bit about what you're looking for in your new apartment home? And remember to ask open-ended, thought provoking questions. These are questions that require more than a yes or no answer. This type of question will encourage the apartment shopper to be more conversational and they will open up and share those things that are most important in their apartment search. Paint vivid pictures: Ask your leasing team to describe their apartment community in a fashion that is exciting and creates a sense of urgency to visit. Beware of the "feature dump" telling the prospect every little detail and description of the apartment and its features before your team has established the apartment shopper's specific wants and needs. The presentation becomes impersonal and boring and the apartment shopper loses interest and becomes impatient. Action point: Encourage your on-site team to write detailed descriptions of their community and the apartments they are leasing that are interwoven with words that paint powerful pictures in the mind of their callers. These presentation scripts are very effective over the telephone as vivid word pictures can create a positive impression of your community in the shoppers mind before they ever visit your community. Stay a step ahead of your competition by having each team member shop their competitive communities on the telephone on a monthly basis. It's a great way to incorporate new and fresh ideas in your telephone presentations. Extend an invitation: One of the key objectives to every telephone call with a prospective future resident is to have them come visit your community. Your leasing team has invested the time and effort during the telephone conversation. ItÕs now time to extend a warm invitation to come out and visit. Train your leasing team to invite each future resident to visit their community and to experience first hand what a great community they have to offer.Action point: Make sure that your leasing team realizes the importance of making a specific appointment with each telephone caller. Offering rental office hours and suggesting the apartment shopper stop by anytime is not enough. Replace "Can you come out and see the model/apartment?" With "Can you come out and see me?" It's more personal and inviting, and establishing a specific appointment with the apartment shopper instills a sense of commitment. It also conveys a level of professionalism and personalization on the leasing consultant's part that is second to none. Studies have shown a significant increase in percentage of closing with those apartment shoppers that made an appointment and actually showed up at the community versus an apartment shopper that walks in cold off the street. Incorporate these tips in your telephone training program. You will see an immediate increase in pre-qualified traffic at your apartment communities and your leasing teams will experience an improvement in their closing ratios. These higher closing ratios will increase your occupancy levels and thus allow you to maintain a healthier bottom line. Want to hear more about this important traffic-generating topic? Send an e-mail to morsea123@aol.com or fax a note to (614) 761-8587. Author's Note: Patty Morgan-Seager, president of Patty Morgan-Seager and Associates, Inc., is an national speaker and coach who designs custom training programs for the multi-housing industry as well as other sales and servicing organizations. Patty can be reached at (614) 761-2567 or by E-mail at morsea123@aol.com.