I want you to imagine that you have just “made a date” with that really cute guy (or gal) that you’ve been hoping to go out with for months. You’re taken it on your shoulders to plan the date and you’ve decided on a great new seafood restaurant that you’ve been dying to try. Then when you meet up you discover(to your horror!) that your date doesn’t like seafood … now what?

Would you still insist on sticking with your original plan and go to the seafood restaurant? Of course not, right? (Well, not if you want to have a great date!) 

My guess is that you would “shift on the fly” and find something that would work for the both of you. Maybe you’d take out your phone and see if Siri could find you a great place to eat. Or perhaps you’d agree take a walk down the boulevard until you found something that you both fancied. Whatever you decide, I'm sure you’d choose to be flexible, so that the date had a chance of being a success. 

No! This is how it needs to be!

In leasing apartments, you also need to be flexible with your approach to the sales process! Take this example…

A client walks in (obviously in a rush) and asks to see the model. You offer him some refreshments, which he refuses, saying he only has a few minutes before he has to get back to work. You grab a guest card and try to get him to sit down, so that you can fill it out and go through the normal information gathering process. 

He looks at you and says, “Can you just take me to the model??? I’m in a rush and just want to see it…”

So, what do you do? 

• Option One: You tell him that you really need to have the guest card filled out before you can take him to the model … 

• Option Two: You choose to be flexible, ask him for his ID, grab the guest card and a pen and head on to the model, knowing you can gather information on the walk over, while still working with his time crunch. 

Which one do you think would be more positively received by your prospect? 

Don’t Get Stuck!

I can’t tell you how many times during my career and now in my consulting business that I’ve seen leasing consultants refuse to be flexible with the different needs of their prospects. So instead of accommodating the prospect (when applicable) they decided to say “no”, I must do it this way, even at the expense of making the sale. Then when the prospect walks away they often tell themselves, “Gee, he was a jerk!” Not knowing they had a role in triggering that behavior and response in the customer. 

If someone doesn’t want to see the model and just wants to see the vacant apartment, why insist on showing her the model? 

If a prospect has no interest in the tennis court, do you need to show it to her? 

If a client is in a rush, do you really need to show him the laundry room?

If a customer seems to need some “space” why not let him roam the rooms of the model alone for a few minutes before re-engaging, instead of feeling the need to say, "And this is the kitchen!" (Like he couldn't tell!)

One Size Doesn’t Fit All!

The great leasing professionals are the ones that know when to bend, shake, shimmy and roll with the situation in front of them. So, the next time you find yourself trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with a prospect, consider throwing the peg out and playing a new game!

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