What Navy SEALs Can Teach You About Leasing Apartments

As Executive Vice President of the #1 apartment marketing and lead generator in the multifamily industry, I know a lot about the amount of energy it takes to bring hot, qualified prospects to an apartment community.

MultiFamily Traffic is famous for making the phones ring with ten times more renters looking to sign a lease, but if the property manager is not at their best, many of those leads don’t turn into leases. I want property managers to be at their best and I know, first hand, how though being a property manager is.

When it comes to the best of the best, besides apartment community managers, it’s easy to land on the Navy SEALs. Not only are there very few people who are selected to even be considered, but of those, only one in four successfully complete the training program each year. It’s grueling work, often pushing young men and women to the brink of exertion, even close to death.

I realize that working for Greystar, Cottonwood, AIMCO, Alliance or Lincoln may not have you parachuting out of a plane into battle or busting through the doors of an enemy compound anytime soon, but there's a lot you can learn about leasing apartments from these elite warriors.

In this article, I will cover the Navy SEAL guide to extraordinary success and achievement. Using the advice of this elite force, I will apply these principles to leasing apartments. Learn their lessons, follow their lead, and you'll find you're more likely to get leases from the leads we send you, crush your goals, impress your regional manager and get promoted.

1. Develop mental strength

Yes, many potential residents are going to say “no.” and lease an apartment from your competitor. And there will be times when the craziest of crazy and world’s most unreasonable ex-residents learn that they can let their freak flag fly on Yelp and other review sites bashing your community and staff without a single fact checker in site. These are the times to tap into and develop your mental strength. There are four pillars of mental strength: They are goal-setting, mental visualization, positive self-talk, and energy control.

2. Set (and achieve) micro-goals

Micro-goals lead to macro-goals, which lead to 100% occupancy and you becoming the next rising star in your portfolio. By creating micro-goals and determining what are the small components that lead to 100% occupancy, you can break down your career smaller pieces. Let’s say one smaller piece is “setting appointments” you can break that into even smaller pieces like “answering the phone quickly” and repeat as needed until you get to tiny achievable chunks. This way even on days you don’t sign a lease you can measure and see the benefit in your achieved micro-goals.

3. Convince yourself you can do this

How many times have you thought you couldn’t do something but surprised yourself? Well, that’s part of how you get through SEALs training.

As you progress in your property management, you’ll be faced with new challenges that will test you. When these challenges arise, that’s the time to say to yourself “I can do this”. Never say to a resident or your Regional “I don’t know” and NEVER lie. Tell them, “I will figure it, you can count on me.” Great property managers are masters of jumping on an opportunity before learning the details--committing to it and figuring it out later. I know this contradicts much of what you have been told your whole life, but succeeding in this industry often involves overcommitting yourself and then strategizing to handle the unexpected. In the end, you will figure it out and accomplish what you signed-up for.

4. Control your energy

When our bodies feel overwhelmed or in danger, we release cortisol and endorphins. These chemicals cause our palms to sweat, our minds to race, our hearts to pound, and our bodily functions to malfunction and to cut off valuable mental resources.

In addition, when we’re bored, we tend to take mental vacations.

Finding your optimal energy will allow you to be at the top of your game. I have found a great way to do this is every morning write down your goals. The bigger your goals the more energy you will have. If your goal is just to “make more money” a year your probably not going to get your energy aligned. If your goal is to become the CEO of a REIT and change the apartment industry forever you are going to have more energy to get thru the small stuff that is thrown at you during the day.

5. Be aware

This is called sensory acuity. Basically, you need to be aware of how your resident or potential resident is responding to your message. This includes actively listening and observing body language.

6. Avoid bad situations

This one is obvious, but how many times have we taken on a resident in an argument that we knew we should have avoided? Petty arguments, gossiping about the company and speaking negatively at all about your community, residents or team members is a bad situation that should be avoided at all costs. Let everyone know you and your community are “No Negativity Zones”

7. Practice humility

This one means that you recognize you don’t have all the answers. When a resident/prospect asks a question and you’d don’t know the answer, tell them “great question; I will figure it out or find someone that knows the answer.” Fail to recognize this, and you're likely to flat-out fail.

8. Find three mentors/coaches

You should always have three people who are paying attention to your results.

• Someone senior whom you would like to emulate
• A peer who you think is better at the job than you are
• An outsider (coach) who has a unique perspective

You’ll be constantly learning, growing and improving by keeping these three people active in your property management career.

9. Do small things right

This should make obvious sense, and this extends beyond leasing apartments. There’s a saying, “How do you anything is a reflection of how you do everything.” So take a look outside your Guest Card entries and resident follow-ups. Are you doing the small things right in other areas of your life?

10. Be informed about evaluating others

We’re talking about personality styles. Knowing your own personality style and being able to identify those of your prospects/residents is essential in building rapport and signing more leases. MultiFamily Traffic will send you hundreds of hot qualified renters each month, but each person has their own personality you will need to adjust to.

11. Suck it up

We’re all faced with tasks that we don’t want to do, or residents we don’t want to call back. Suck it up and do it anyway. Most individuals behave in accordance with their feelings, especially when they don’t want to do something. Observe the masses and do the opposite. Start by picking up rather than walking by every piece of trash you see on the property. Soon it will become unconscious and you have no idea how much more powerful it will make you.

12. Sometimes, be first

Think out of the box for a resident solution or how to approach a prospect. Often we get trapped into doing things the same old way. Think out of the box and be first to test an idea; it’s OK, you’ll live. All the great things we talk about when leasing apartments today were once “crazy ideas” someone was the first to try. Your idea may even become the next Valet Living or MultiFamily Traffic.

13. Take on the sharks

We all have the one property in our portfolio, you know, that one that can never do anything wrong and gets all the budget and resources before anyone else. We often back down and give into our feelings that we are inferior. There are many stories of a handful of SEALs taking on hundreds of an enemy with more firepower. Go ahead and challenge these big star properties. Tell your team we are going head-t0-head and we are going to become the best damn community in this portfolio.

14. Identify the W.I.N.

W.I.N. stands for ‘what’s important now.’’ Often, in property management, we are pulled in multiple directions, and it’s easy to get lost. By keeping W.I.N in mind, you’ll make the correct decision to take the best action possible.

15. Be happy - if you can't – be happy anyway

Let’s face it, no one likes to be around a grumpy person, no less a grumpy leasing agent. No matter how bad you perceive the situation at the property to be, be happy. If you’re not, find a way to be. Being happy will translate into happy residents/prospects.

16. Persevere — don't ring the bell

One way that SEAL training is a lot like the rest of the world is that there is an easy way to quit. You can simply give up, ring a brass bell in the middle of the compound in front of all of your peers, and walk away.

If your occupancy is dropping, persevere. If your prospects aren’t signing leases, persevere. If your regional manager is a maniac, persevere.

Many people enter the profession of property management, but only a few make it a career.

In the words of Winston Churchill: “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

If you, your property or your portfolio needs ten times more hot, qualified renters calling the leasing office every day, MultiFamily Traffic is the perfect solution for you. We are the most cost-effective way to get more leases. You can reach us at 888-683-5885 or my direct line 303-803-7372 / [email protected] www.MultiFamilyTraffic.com