How To Improve Phone Shops

We have a college intern working with us this summer -- we love Melissa! And I thought it would be interesting to have Melissa shop a management company's leasing consultants before their Rent & Retain seminar. Her reaction to the shops was absolutely priceless. After almost every call, she would hang up, look at me and say, "I can't believe it!" and tell me what happened.

You can probably guess what she was referring to -- during many of the phone calls:
1) the leasing consultant told the price and hung up (Melissa's quote: "If they only tell me the price and hang up, how am I supposed to decide if that is the place I should live?")
or
2) the phone rang and rang OR she got the answering machine
or
3) the calls lasted less than 30 seconds -- meaning that not a whole lot of information was given to Melissa. Not enough information means that Melissa had fewer reasons, as a prospect, to choose that community.

It's pretty dramatic when a 20-year old, with no sales training or experience in the apartment industry, is shocked by how this company's leasing consultants answered the phone.

Here are some quick ways to make your phone presentations better. Some may sound obvious, but this one company was not doing it... so double check to make sure YOU are doing it.

1) Answer the phone!

2) If you are the only one in the office, make sure your answering machine or voice mail is working. (What your message should contain is on page 20 of your I.O./ Increasing Occupancy Marketing book.)

3) Don�t just give the price and hang up.
If someone asks how much your 2BRs are, ask them if they want a 2BR with a patio or a balcony. This helps you sell features while getting the prospect to talk more. (We went into more detail with this in the September/October, 2002 issue -- pages 4-5. "Asking The Right Questions Is So Important" and "Know What You Offer."

4) Ask how they heard about you.
In many of the shops we do leasing consultants leave this out. This is critical to see which advertisements are working the best for you. If most of your calls are coming from newspaper ads, it makes sense to invest more money in newspaper ads.

5) Know what your sister properties have available.
Only one leasing consultant in the 23 properties called referred Melissa to a sister property that had a 2BR available... when, most of the portfolio did have 2BRs.

6) Take another quick look at the Score Better On Your Next Phone Shop article in the July/August, 2003 issue of Rent & Retain (pages 14-15). You may even want to make copies of these two pages and put them near your office phone.
Answering the phone is about employing the basics. Sticking to these basic guidelines will help ensure your success!

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