What is a Multifamily Sales Ecosystem?

In several blog posts over the last 12 months, I’ve talked about the need for a conversation in the multifamily industry regarding sales. While in my experience, very few multifamily operators are satisfied with their sales/leasing process, but to date there has not been a lot of discussion about how to improve it.

Multifamily operators expend significant resources – time, effort and money – to attract prospects to their communities, and engage in a wide variety of marketing activities to generate leads. Yet the process to convert leads to leases (sales) has gone relatively unchanged despite radical changes in prospect behavior (see Google’s seminal Zero Moment of Truth [ZMOT] study for just one important component of that change). This fundamental lack of attention to this “last mile” of the demand management platform, the place where all those investments in demand generation pay off with leasing, must be addressed.

It’s easy to state the problem but much more difficult to actually solve it. So what does a solution to improving multifamily sales performance look like?

It Starts with the Sales Ecosystem

One of the things I’ve observed with the growing recognition that sales has been the neglected stepchild of the multifamily world, is that when they decide to address it, operators approach the sales issue as a “training” problem. They want to improve their leasing associates’ success by implementing new training. They figure a focus on training will almost certainly get some form of incremental improvement—and besides, it’s unlikely to hurt.

But today that is simply not enough. Think about other major successes. Pricing and revenue management wasn’t successful because we implemented training—or even because we implemented software. It succeeded because most CEOs/COOs viewed it as a significant strategic and cultural change, and they supported it beyond just the project. They hired and/or promoted people with specific skillsets, created new positions, changed rewards and incentives, etc. And, as part of the change, they also introduced new and updated training.

Substantial improvements in sales performance require no less broad of an approach. In fact, I would argue it probably needs an even broader approach. There is a “hard math” component to pricing compared to sales which is mostly about soft skills. A more holistic view of the leasing process needs to be considered, ensuring that all elements of the leasing “ecosystem” align with the overall business strategy.

So what is a “sales ecosystem?” Dictionary.com defines an ecosystem as “any system of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business,” and that’s exactly what I mean for a sales ecosystem. For sales to truly flourish, all the interconnecting parts must work in concert. Training is, of course, a critical component, and it’s clearly necessary. However, it is certainly not sufficient!

As a start, make sure you consider the following:

• Business strategy: How sales driven do you really want to be? How many things, other than sales, do you expect your leasing associates to do?
  
  
• Recruiting: What are the specific competencies you are hiring for? Inside or outside sales skills? What kind of talent pool are you likely to attract with the compensation you offer?
  
  
• Economic rewards: What do you bonus for? How much do you balance base versus variable compensation?
  
  
• Non-economic rewards: Who wins the “leasing associate of the year” or is part of “The President’s Circle?” What do you give compliments to? What do you criticize?
  
  
• Coaching and behavior modeling: Do you have a coaching-oriented environment, and have you equipped leaders to support it? What are the key behaviors modeled when regional and senior operators tour? Do they even ask about recent sales won or lost, prospects in the pipeline, etc.?
  
  
• Marketing messaging: Is your marketing aligned with the unique aspects of the community as well as the sales presentation points?
  
  
• Measurement systems: What do you measure and report on? If you say you want to be customer-centered, but ding associates for not asking for the lease on every tour, is that aligned with being customer-centered or “us”-centered?

I’m sure that if you think for a moment, you can come up with one or two more. The point is that training, while necessary, is only one lever; and it is not the only lever needed to improve your sales performance and maximize your sales system. In a successful sales ecosystem, it’s critical to think past training and cover all components of the leasing business.

For more information about how to define your sales ecosystem and improve sales performance, download The Keys to Effective Multifamily Sales Performance below.