The analogy behind this is simple.  Technology and tools do not replace effective apartment leasing, they only make it easier.  Think back to the first time you swung a hammer, how well did you do?  When we were young a hammer was a very clumsy tool that we knew would work as a result of seeing our parents or a carpenter use it effectively.  What did it take for us to use a hammer effectively?  It took training and time in order to learn how to use a hammer effectively.  Once that skill was mastered, accomplishing tasks and reaching goals became much simpler.

On the flip side having a pile of hammers at our disposal that are not being used is simply a waste.  Hammers, like technology, that do not have skilled people using them are simply a waste.  Not too long ago,  my friend Bill Sitko made a comment in a podcast he participated in that is something we preach all the time.  “You have to measure your people” was the expression he used.  Technology is only part of the equation when evaluating your cost per lease.  I wrote about his not took long ago in a post called ‘Mystery Shop Failure-You’re Fired’.   When you train your people how to do their job and how to use the technology at their disposal they will succeed.  Throw a bunch of pretty hammers at them and you will have a bunch of untested and unused tools.

I do a lot of volunteer roofing so I have a bit of experience with hammers.  So imagine I am in a hardware store and I notice this beautiful cool super-duper hammer and of course it looks so cool I buy it.  When I get up on the roof to use it as cool as this hammer was something happened.  It turned out to be the wrong tool for the job.  I literally almost broke my forearm trying to use this thing.  I realized I had been suckered into buying something that I really had no idea if it would work.

The lesson speaks for it doesn’t it?  First of all no matter what the technology is, make sure you have ascertained that it is the right technology for you and your team and secondly whatever you decide to use make sure your team is properly trained.  The training needs to be focused on the fundamentals with technology supporting apartment leasing and not the other way around. 

If you have any thoughts on how you are effectively measuring your people and providing proper training, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Written by Jonathan Saar--The Training Factor