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Oct 08
2009
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A new spin on child-proofing your sales techniques
Posted by: Tara Smiley on Oct 8, 2009 01:00 Tagged in: Untagged
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I admit it... I shamelessly took my children (4 year old twin girls) to shop one of my property's competition this weekend. I told them we were pretending to get a new house and that they needed to be mini-inspectors like their mom and check to see if the apartments were "good". In my kids' minds, things are either "awesome", "fine" or "crappy" - just to pre-warn you.
Comp #1 featured a comparable rental price and quare footage, but horribly worn berber carpet that according to my oldest, looked like the "crappy sidewalk" by their favorite park. This comment went unchallenged by the leasing agent.
Comp #2 featured a higher rent, less square footage, but big money amenities on the property and in the unit itself. The leasing agent completely neglected my kids on this tour, refused to ask their names and even told them "Now don't touch anything, girls." My kids' reaction "I don't like her face."
Comp #3 was beautiful. Aggressively priced, good floorplan, great property and an excellent customer service standard. Completely catered to the girls. Right until we walked into the apt. that this leasing agent said "You guys are going to love it. Plenty of room for Nada and Frankie {my girls' stuffed panda and dalmation} to play!" Nobody could get past the smell of mildew, damp, and obvious hidden water damage. My youngest said the apartment smelled like poo. At which point the leasing agent completely lost his cool and said "Sweetie, why don't you just let me talk to your mommy."
At this point you may be wondering why I blatantly used my children to evoke reactions in this shopping trip. The answer? I seem to get the most candid and transparent reactions. Yes, I used my children to see if the properties were "child proof" in their ability to cater to ALL their prospects, not just the ones with an active credit score. And I would (and probably will) do it again.
And what did we learn? Parents pay attention. No different than speaking to just one member of the couple that walks thru the door. Or refusing to acknowledge a pet that someone brings with them to the appointment. If you want to sell, then sell to every aspect of your prospect. You sell to their needs, wants, potential concerns, etc., so sell to their lifestyles, families, friends and whoever else joins them in their shopping. If you don't, you may just get the thumb's down from two four year olds, whose final pronouncement was "Mumma, those places were crappy crap!" Couldn't have said it better. Now if only they could type this blog themselves.
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As the leasing agent, fair housing laws require us to treat everyone 'exactly the same', so I'd hesitate to cater to children on their level. Managers have faced huge fines and even criminal prosecution for doing so.
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As to whether mystery shoppers should take their children along - well, that's a separate issue (child labor laws, etc.). As long as you as a leasing agent aren't enabling in favour of or against families, I should think that it's perfectly fine to engage children as children.
And if it isn't ... maybe we should change that.
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I am not a leasing agent. I am simply one of those people in our industry who tivo's everything industry related, feels like i am on first name basis with various people on mfinsiders (yes, your names come up over dinner), and shops comp's (for fun!
) on my off-time. I do it to improve my skills, if nothing else. @Rose - I hear the concerns re: child labor laws. No argument there. But I do not believe the issue specifically ties to this experience. As for fair housing issues, my point was to cater to the prospect. If the prospects comes in wearing an environmental t-shirt, recycled handbag and what i recognize to be shoes that once were tires, I will comment. Consider it rapport building. I do the same for any resident, prospect, detc. that walks through my door. My point was simply to evolve your sales pitch to the future resident, and not forcefeed your standard spin. Thanks for the feedback, truly. It's always great to see reactions that I didn't anticipate or even consider!
@Sara - I may reconsider taking the girls next time given their request to have nametags and be called "Inspector". Might give me away too easily.
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Even their wording states we must treat everyone not 'fairly', but 'exactly the same'. They are quite strict here, so we are not able to tailor each tour to the prospects individual needs. I am very fortunate that I passed my fair housing shop with flying colors, but guess why? Because I didn't treat a handicapped visitor any differently from a non-handicapped visitor (I did not point out available accommodations.) I treated both prospects 'exactly the same'.
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Treat the same. Always. In All Areas. But not in a minimalistic fashion and not by exclusion of your appropriate attention.
Love this dialogue!
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Augh.
(Not that I blame you for any of this - you didn't write the rules, after all.)
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Starting next year, landlords cannot charge any fees (none at all), and since we all have move in fees here, thats a huge amount of money lost by landlords. And we also must give 60 days notice if we want a tenant to leave, whereas a resident only has to give 30 days notice. It's hard to keep track of the changes.
I've had visitors from out out of state who were denied simply because they couldn't fill out the application completely. They just dont carry all the out dated information around with them. I think our application has over 75 boxes to fill in.
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!THanks for the discussion on this, people!
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