Building Trust in Your Leasing Presentation by Creating an Empathetic “Relationship”
The onsite leasing presentation is based on trust. Your success is dependent on the extent you create trust…or not. Why? Because sales and leasing isn’t something you do to people; its something you do with people. Its all about relationship.
Too often we see our rental prospects as an object to convert and CLOSE rather than a human being who needs our help. When you look at the prospect as a notch in your gun handle, your next commission, a step closer to your sales goal, or simply another conquest for you, it removes the humanness. Your rental prospect is a real person seeking one of life’s basic human needs; shelter.
The most effective leasing and selling feels like helping, because it is. That is empathy leasing. We try to walk in the prospects’ shoes and try to understand their experience and perspective. We listen for wants as well as needs. There is a difference. And we hear their concerns, previous rental disasters, and fears. We get in step with the prospect and walk together toward an answer. We help them get what they want.
Empathy Leasing is moving from the “how do I get what I want?” mindset to a prospect-focused “how do I help them get what they want?”. The only way to know what your prospect wants is by asking the right questions so you can share their feelings and create relationship. That is empathy.
Stop the corporate-speak and forget being a “solutions provider”. Our rental prospect has a housing problem. They don’t want to hear our solution until they know we understand their problem.
Not only does it create trusting relationships, empathy leasing has an economic benefit. When we walk with our prospects and help them get what they want, we create value for the property and long term residents. Its a competitive edge we can all use right now.