Topic: One leasing consultant converts the phone call into a tour, another converts the tour into a lease – Who gets the commission?

Who gets the commission's?

A leasing office has 2 leasing agents. Agent blue and agent Orange.

A prospect calls the office and agent blue answers the phone. Agent blue does a great job on the phone and schedules a tour for the next day.

The next day when the prospect comes in agent blue is out of the office and agent Orange conducts the tour. The tour goes really well and the prospect applies on the spot.

Who gets the commission's?

I always split it 50\50!

Agent orange. Always who does the tour. You win some you lose some. I did leasing for 8 years. I lost some like that but you make it up down the road. Not worth getting petty over.

Whoever gives the tour gets the commission.

Yep. I go off of whomever tours and secured the lease (in the event of multiple tours) unless you're on a pooled commission system.

Orange :-) Whoever shows the apartment first. They made the sale.

Agent Orange... we pay whomever does the tour. There have been many times I have spoken to prospective residents on the phone and given them information, however if my colleague does the tour because I am off, then I would not be upset in they took the tour. It is also part of that person taking the call to SCHEDULE a tour. If they schedule and it only works on my day off, oh well... my job is to assist people with our community... that is what teamwork is all about.

Split it

Agent Orange gets the leasing commission because Agent Orange conducted the tour. Agent Blue gets a call conversion bonus for getting them to schedule the tour. This has always incentivized leasing professionals I have worked with to ensure their phone calls are effective.

Tour is the standard but I worked at a company that gave $20 to the phone, 50 for the tour or 70 if you did both. My current company goes against the grain and gives it to the 1st contact so phone or email unless tour was 1st contact.

First contact

I disagree. Without the great phone call, prospect may have never come for a tour. She is completely responsible for getting them in the door.

Everyone gets a salary to do administrative work, answer phones and go on tours... the magic happens when you get a prospective resident to make that commitment and close the deal with you! That’s when a “bonus” of “commission” should be considered... whoever closes the deal, gets a bonus.

Who ever closed. Or have them schedule tours when they know they will be there to close themselves. Either way in these situations it evens out. I’m sure agent orange has had the same thing happen with agent blue. It’s about working as a team.

orange

And a great leasing agent will know to set appointments and make themselves available so they CAN close the deal

Rule of thumb is who tours but if she made an appt. The other agent should have asked her to wait if it's not too long, if she left knowing she had an appt...that's on her but if it was because she was on another tour or helping someone, I'd say the agent that toured should give it to the other one since it was out of the other person's control.

Orange ... whoever shows it gets the lease.

Orange always

Split it!

Orange. Plenty of good phone calls are not converted to leases. But maybe grab a Starbucks gift card for blue as a thank you for giving

Did agent Blue knew he or she would be off the next day? Why schedule it when you aren’t there? But old school rule is always whoever showed and collected the money, however I’ve had team players that split it. Golden rule still applies tho....whoever showed it and collected that deposit!

Agent Orange. You do the tour, you book the show. This is why, I personally believe don’t think you should book “appointments” when people come in. There’s no way I can guarantee that I’m actually going to be available at X-time. And I will feel really upset if someone comes in at 12:45 and everyone else is busy so I take the walk-in (who may or may not lease) and then my 1PM tours with someone else because I wasn’t available and that person rents. No appointments. When people call, give them your office hours and say “come on in”. If you’re busy and I’m a show, tell everyone to hang in the office (isn’t that why we have WOW fridges and TVs) and you will help them in the order that they came in.

I dislike this, coming from a leasing background...split all going forward

Agent orange should get the commission. Maybe your company could implement some sort of phone lead commission?

Orange. It has always been whoever shows the prospect first.

In the past when trying to split evenly it seemed that one person then always ended up doing all the work because the push to get there was gone. Why put forth 100% when I am going to get paid anyway, then the other thinks why put forth 100% when I’m doing all the work and getting half. I had a leasing agent famous for going to the bathroom anytime a car pulled up because commissions were shared.

Blue - they sold them enough to get them to the property. You don't really know the details as to why they weren't there - we don't make actual appointments, the only ones that try to do that are usually shoppers...

Split commission

Honestly Blue - because Blue was first contact and got them into the door.

Agent Blue should have tried to set the appointment when he/she was going to be there. If it wasn't possible - then the same will happen to Agent Orange and it all goes around and around fairly. The easiest method to determine is who collects the security deposit (except of course unless the person walked in and just handed it to someone).

Orange--and if you really want that commission, you will set the appointment for a time when you are going to be there and follow up with a reminder a couple of hours before the appointment.

Whoever takes the tour gets the commission

As a former leasing agent and now Manager, I know what it feels like to do just as much work as the other person and have the commission taken away. Either split it since they both did work. Or, depending on how much you give for commissions and how often it happens, give them both the commission. Giving both of them commission is not going to break the bank and will motivate both rather than making the one who took the call feel like its not worth answering the phone or working the call because it will just be taken away by someone who happens to be in the office when they show up.

Teamwork! Split it! If traffic was entered

Whoever tours is the rule I’ve always followed. Someone calling is already interested, the presentation on site is what seals the deal

This is an open question and could easily be resolved if you have a rule in place defining such, for noe I would pay 50/50 but put a rule in place so there are no further questions such as whoever talk on phone gets the lease or whoever shows gets the lease

I say Orange because they were the ones who made the connection during the tour to compel the prospect to lease.
Who is to say that if Blue toured then, that they would have had the same connection and got the lease.
Yes, in a perfect world you got them to COME to the property, but that’s the easy part. Getting them to lease is where your craft shines

Agent blue that set the appt should have made sure they were there avail & waiting on the appointment they set up.. the person that closed the sale (orange) should be paid. This will teach a good leasing agent to be great & “own” that prospect all the way through move in

I disagree with splitting in this scenario. Agent Orange handled the tour and closed the client. Leasing agents work hard for those leases and should be paid for them. If a Manager feels strongly about a phone call appointment versus a full blown tour, closing, application and the balance of the process pay them both equally. Otherwise, Agent Orange earned the full bonus.

IMO: We need to change the structure. Scheduling a tour and having them actually show up is not always an easy task. Paying a small commission if they schedule the tour and the person applies would encourage better customer service. Last thing I want to hear a leasing tell a prospecting that they should come the next day because they are off.
Maybe with CRM now becoming a norm, we will see a new commission structure

For those that say blue where is the incentive for Orange to show the apartment and try and secure the lease when the clients may take an hour of their time to show a few apartments? I feel you would have leasing consultants just walk someone to the apartment and not point out any features or may even skip the amenities.

I’ve worked for Gables, Lincoln, and ZOM/ZRS. At all of those companies it would go like THIS: phone rings and we tell the prospect the great deals specials and floor plans. We invite them in to tour. Naturally we give them our name and ask them to ask for us by name. Now in the event that prospect comes in and doesn’t mention your name / or u r sick / or out to lunch... oh well , that prospect is now fair game and the person touring now has an OBLIGATION to close the deal. Thus, it is the PERSON TOURING that actually closes the deal and gets the commission. Simple.

The agent that got them into the office. They are only there because the agent coach them in to tour and apply.