A Tour Is A Sales Presentation

Summary

A Sales Presentation

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Leasing apartments is a competitive business. Every person that calls or comes through the door either has visited or is currently in the process of visiting several other apartment communities. Prospects initiate a search to identify a new home. Their decision, however, will be based on the prospect’s evaluation of the presentation of the property and its units. The sales presentation is used by the leasing team to sell a property or apartment.

The primary function of the leasing staff is to sell apartments to prospects. If the attempt to close the sale is overlooked, forgotten or ignored, the sale may be lost. This results in many prospects being overloaded with extensive amounts of printed and verbal information, without ever being asked to commit to signing a lease. To properly utilize a sales presentation during the tour, you must understand each component of the sales presentation. The feature of a sales presentation is the product. The apartment home is the product.

[bartag_quote quote_text=”The feature of a sales presentation is the product. The apartment home is the product.” quote_width=”40″ quote_position=”right”][/bartag_quote]

To properly utilize the sales presentation during the tour, you must understand each component of the sales presentation. The feature of a sales presentation is the product. The apartment home is the product.

[bartag_quote quote_text=”To properly utilize the sales presentation during the tour, you must understand each component of the sales presentation. The feature of a sales presentation is the product. The apartment home is the product.” quote_width=”40″ quote_position=”right”][/bartag_quote]

 

Connecting With A Prospect

Connecting the prospect to the leasing team via telephone or email is the first step to securing an appointment. Schedule an appointment to bring the prospect to visit the property and tour the potential apartment homes. When the prospect arrives at the property, the leasing team must be ready with the sales presentation in-hand. The tour of the property and potential apartment homes is the demonstration of the product in the sales presentation. The leasing team must focus on  selling the apartment home and get a twelve month lease commitment.

 

Know Your Product

A successful salesperson learns all the features of the product they are demonstrating. The leasing team must understand every feature in the apartment and the potential benefit it offers to the prospective resident. The tour brings a vacant apartment to life. Every door is opened. Every inch of the apartment is explored. This demonstration of the apartment shows the prospect how each and every feature will benefit them:

[bartag_quote quote_text=”The tour brings a vacant apartment to life. Every door is opened. Every inch of the apartment is explored. This demonstration of the apartment shows the prospect how each and every feature will benefit them.” quote_width=”40″ quote_position=”right”][/bartag_quote]
  • “This is the switch for the cleaning cycle on the self-cleaning oven.”
  • “There are electrical wall outlets placed every six feet.”
  • “The twenty-one cubic-foot refrigerator with ice maker is larger than most apartment home refrigerators.”
  • “This walk-in closet has 24 linear-feet of hanging storage space, 32 square-feet of floor space and 12 linear-feet of shelf space for additional storage.”

The colorful, descriptive language paints a memorable image in the mind of the prospect. The one-dimensional image on the floor plan, comes to life as they continue the tour.

 

The Sales Team

The Hiring Manager should take great care and consideration when putting together the sales team. Leasing has a fair amount of administrative responsibilities, including the guest card, the application, as well as the preparation and presentation of the lease. Interviews will stress the importance of the attention to detail. It’s about balancing your administrative responsibilities with the need to sell, and asking for that lease commitment is often underestimated. This confidence to ask for the sale, is a personality trait that is easily recognized in a successful salesperson.

Oftentimes, a quiet or reserved personality is confused with a timid nature. A more reserved individual can still be very successful leasing, whereas a timid person is less likely to risk asking for the sale. The ability to close a sale, present a successful demonstration, and other sales skills can be improved or strengthened with training. However, training generally cannot change personality traits.

 

Training For A Demonstration

The training for the tour not only provides the team members with an understanding of the features and benefits of the apartment home, but also teaches them how to position themselves with prospects by enhancing the visual aspects of the tour. In training, you’ll learn where to stand when opening a door, which side of the patio door opens the blinds, and how to present a closet space to create a viewpoint for the prospect. This is to avoid giving an awkward walkthrough. Trainers and trainees jokingly refer to learning the demonstration skills as “Vanna White techniques”, in reference to the famous co-host and letter-turner of Wheel Of Fortune. While the demonstration style is similar, the ability to explain each feature is paramount to a successful tour.

Training always emphasizes telephone skills, confirming appointments with prospects, listing features, and being closing preparation techniques. You also will physically practice a demonstration by walking through each room, almost using stage blocking techniques to plan where the prospects should stand to have clear view of each feature. This requires practice and planning.

The conversation and description of the property provide the foundation of the sale. As the door is opened to the apartment, the demonstration of the home begins. It’s time for the product to prove its value. The demonstration of each feature will reinforce each item’s value in the prospect’s memory, which creates more reasons for them to proceed with the leasing process.

 

Ask For The Sale

Throughout the tour of the property, the leasing team should actively listen and watch for closing clues—“signals” indicating that the prospect is starting to make this apartment their home in their mind. That is when the leasing team needs to close the deal. Confirm that this is the best apartment home for the prospect, then reserve it for them. Use a leasing tablet to submit the application directly from the model unit and have approval secured before they even return to the leasing center!

[bartag_quote quote_text=”Ask for the sale.” quote_width=”40″ quote_position=”right”][/bartag_quote]

The purpose of bringing the prospect to the property and touring apartments is to allow them to see the home they would be living in. Make a reservation and submit the application to be approved for move-in. Again, individuals that are not focused on the importance of the sale, are only giving informational tours by failing to ask for a prospect’s commitment to sign a lease. The leasing staff must understand that asking for the sale is critical. The prospect will seldom ask, “What needs to happen next?” or “How do I start the leasing process?” Their mind is racing with all of the new information you just gave them.  The leasing team is responsible for keeping everything in order; moving the process forward; reserving the apartment; processing applications and scheduling move-ins.