The Big Shift in the Multifamily Property Market
Daniel Steinberg
Nail your speaking engagements - w/o the stress of preparation or delivery anxiety | Rabbi, ex-comedian, marketer
These days - and I'll never go back - my go-to system for marketing a company is Story First.
It's different than traditional sales and marketing pitches, which typically lead with you focusing on your prospect's?problems or pain, which can raise walls of defense, or even worse, yield apathetic responses like, “We’re generally okay in those areas."
Instead, we start by invoking a?huge,?objective change in your prospect's world,?i.e. something?that is occurring in their industry, irrespective of your product or service - that they can no longer ignore.
Get this step right (easier said than done), and it will generate all the attention and interest for you, without any direct mention of your prospect's problem or pain.??
In the multifamily property market - I found this survey, and articles from the National Apartment Association, Multihousing News, and the National Multifamily Housing Council, all of which pointed towards the following huge industry change:
Step 1. Old World Vs New World
Smart apartment technology was once considered a luxury, but more and more multifamily communities feature smart home technology for apartments, and many renters now expect these amenities within their home.
(Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash)
Consider this quote from Andrew Livingstone, Managing Director of Greystar, the largest third-party management company in the country for 11 years running...
"Access and smart-home technology are now an 'absolute must have' not a 'nice to have' – “it won’t just be in some apartment buildings; it has to be in all the buildings.”
Sure, prospects can lull themselves into complacence by ignoring this Shift and refusing to take action, but you and they both know it's not going to go away, even if you do.
Step 2. Winners and Losers
Next come the “Stakes”. This is where you clearly articulate how the Big Shift is going to create Winners - people who choose to act - and Losers - those who are slow to act, take the wrong action, or choose to not act at all.
From what I can gather, winning at the the game of multifamily property owning, management & development consists of some combination of the following wins:
(Photo by Sebastian Scholz (Nuki) on Unsplash)
The best way to nail this step is by showing, not telling, and giving verifiable, and preferably well-known examples, of multifamily companies that have already begun winning...
Like Damien Romero, Director of Asset Management for Kromer Investments Inc.:
“Residents love it and resident retention has increased because of it. Residents get accustomed to it and do not want to move to another location. This allows us to decrease expenses because we don’t have to turn around as many units as we did in the past.”
Examples of losing due to inertia in the face of this big change could be companies who are losing leases to competitors because they have yet to implement remote-access, self-guided leasing tours....
The brilliance here is that you’re not telling your prospect what they?should do;?in fact, there’s no mention of your offering at all. Laying out the stakes in a very non-personal, objective way allows prospects to process the shift and come to terms?on their own?with the consequences of not acting.
All you’re doing is just showing the consequences of acting - or failing to act and doing nothing - in the face of the huge, objective Shift you brought to their attention above.
Step 3. Tease the Promised Land
The next step is called “The Promised Land”. The way this works is that you show (don’t just tell) what winning looks like to the prospect. It’s the natural progression - and blown-up version - of what happens to winners who act on the high stakes from the last section.?
For e.g. Greystar implemented smart home technology at its flagship Luxury Waterfront Apartment Complex "2Bayshore" in downtown Tampa, FL to the tune of an estimated $2.3M estimated asset value increase.
"We’re seeing unprecedented changes... involving companies that offer this with their valuations.”
-Andrew Livingstone, Managing Director, Greystar
Typically, an industry will have easily identifiable benchmarks for success (for e.g. NOI, ALV, occupancy vs vacancy rates, resident retention and churn, etc.).
Your job is to put these metrics into the context of having acted on the catalyst of the Shift and Won - and show what the fast-forwarded, rosy future looks like for your prospect.
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Said another way, Winning is the first step on the journey, but?the destination?is The Promised Land.
Step 4. Magical Gifts
Step 4 is usually where most sales people begin.
Features and benefits.
The biggest problem with features and benefits selling is that you leave yourself vulnerable to always being undercut. Unless you position your product as something larger than its individual features and benefits, what happens when someone comes along who can do it faster, cheaper, or better than you...then what?
That's why this step is called “Magical Gifts” - because when the features and benefits of your offering are presented in the context of a?huge, dramatic Shift?in your prospect's world, a shift that they must undeniably act upon or face certain business death....
And failure looms large - we can literally see the scattered caracasses of the losers from Step 2 all around us...
But success is sweet - we can see the clouded peak of The Promised Land from Step 3, thousands of miles off in the distance...
(Photo by?Archie Binamira?from?Pexels)
And we?know?now that we?must?act...but we can't do it on our own.
We?need?outside help.
We need a guide, we need tools, and we need some badass weapons if we’re going to embark on this life or death journey towards The Promised Land....
Now in Step 4, your features and benefits take on much more meaning than just a better mousetrap.
They're representative of?a movement.
They're the lightsabers that help Luke fight the Dark Side...or the spell books and potions Harry Potter and his friends use to fight He Who Shall Not be Named.
(Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash)
And they are the "Magical Gifts" that will help?your prospect?reach their Promised Land.
In the smart apartment technology space, nifty gadgets and features like:
all represent so much more than just a better or cheaper way to do something. Seen in this light,?you?become the prospects mentor or guide, their Obi Wan or their Yoda or their Dumbledore on their journey to their Promised Land.
Step 5. The Proof
The last step is the simplest and most straightforward. Proof.
That is, proof that people have followed this path and arrived at the Promised Land.?
Prospects don’t want to take our word for it, they want?other?people (and the more prominent those people are, the better) telling us about the stakes they faced, and how your Magical Gifts help them overcome them.?
If you already have satisfied, loyal customers that can go to bat for you, that’s ideal. Get them talking or quote them on vivid aspects of The Promised Land, i.e. what life from the Winner’s circle looks like for them.
A perfect example is this promotional video by KC startup Homebase.ai
"We're looking at almost $1M additional value to our project, once we're fully leased. It's phenomenal. "
-Mark Moberley, Sunflower Development
The beauty of the Story First method is that once your story is locked down, each step can be broken off at any time and applied individually to address specific sales and marketing concerns, across?every?marketing asset...websites, videos, sales decks, flyers, social media posts,?everything...across every channel.
For e.g. you might want to write a whole blog post just on the topic of "The Shift" in your industry (Step 1), or post some client testimonials on social media (Step 5), or show off some cool, new "Magical Gifts" your company just released (Step 3)....
The result? Graceful intention and consistency, in all your sales and marketing efforts, in all your assets, across all your channels.
About me - I help startups, companies, and organizations attract attention, create interest, and drive urgency in their prospects' world through the power of a compelling story.
Want to learn more? Visit https://getmesteinberg.com/