We Need to Have a Conversation About Sales in Multifamily

I’ve written before about how credit checks, pricing, property management systems and marketing have all been radically changed in the past 10-15 years; yet most operators still model, coach, train and measure sales essentially the same way they did 20 years ago. This is despite the fact that everyone agrees that renters don’t shop and buy the same way they did 20 years ago.

Why is this so? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I believe that one of the key reasons is that sales and sales approaches are just not really part of the conversation—in the industry or in the C-suite. I go to a lot of conferences each year. There’s plenty of content on pricing and even more on marketing. There are various technology sessions and plenty of discussions on different ways to improve operations. There’s even plenty of conversation these days on data breach risks.

But there’s almost no content focused on sales! And I think the conversations in the C-suite are equally bereft of this focus. CEOs and COOs talk about revenue growth, occupancy and rent growth. They may even talk about the need to “sell better,” but this conversation usually stays at a simple level with questions like “How do we hire better salespeople,” “How should we change our bonus system to drive better sales” or “How can we train people to close better?”

The industry and C-suite conversations need to be more plentiful and get to some deeper truths. Here are a few questions to get the conversation going:

• Do we have a sales training or a sales approach problem? Most of us treat sales structure or approach problems as training issues. In reality, we have found that there are usually issues with the entire sales ecosystem, issues and opportunities that are not solved by training alone.
• How does the “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) model for modern shopping affect the apartment search process? What does that mean for how we should change our sales model to accommodate this? The reality of the ZMOT radically changes how we need to approach leasing.
• Is our sales approach truly prospect centered or do we just pretend it is? We’ve looked at a couple of dozen sales systems for clients and prospects, and every single one of them is essentially process, not prospect, focused. We teach our leasing associates how to handle leads and work them through (our) pipeline; instead, we should be teaching how prospects make a leasing decision and how we can help them through their process.
• Does our sales approach leverage, or conflict, with the realities of our employment base? We don’t pay enough to attract real sales superstars, so we need to make sure our sales approach works for the more service-oriented talents and skills we’re likely to attract.
• What do you do to makes sure learning “sticks?” We find that “single event” training rarely sticks. Participants go back into the work environment where the old culture swamps the new ideas. For learning to stick, it needs to be supported by coaching, measurement and structured opportunities to practice the new behavior and reflect upon what’s working and what needs to be modified.

I believe sales is the “next big thing” for improvement in our property operations. But that won’t happen until we start having the conversation.