Internal Lease Up Campaigns/Contests

Does anyone have any clever themes for lease up campaigns to help increase occupancy, renewals, and lower delinquency (something where all properties can compete and includes all members of the team)?

The brilliant Sharon Ruttenbur of William Lyon ran a contest called...(I love this)...The Biggest Leaser. Now that could most certainly involve everyone and get people motivated, couldn't it? I am not famiiar with the television program upon which it is based, but I'm sure you can take their guidelines/rules and adjust them to leases and renewals. Whaddya think?

What a great idea Sharon! Love that Lyon Team!

Thanks for reporting Lisa.

Funny that you mention "Biggest Leaser" idea - I just rolled out the "Biggest Loser" campaign and the properties are being judged on how much vacancy they lose "property fat" - they are having a great time with the contest and we are seeing improvements in their numbers.

It was important to the staff that we have a contest where the whole team can participate PLUS everyone wins at the end, not just one person...but the whole property.

I'm thinking about doing something around American Idol but maybe calling it "Property Idol" - setting goals for each team member and see who can be the top performer in each region. They could even send in a video of their "talent" so we could judge who's shows teamwork...still working through that part though.

Lisa,

Can you please describe the Biggest Leaser Contest?

Thanks!

Tracey

My property manager just started a reward board for our team, both leasing and maintenance. Maintenance team members earn points for "no call back" turns on apartments. For leasing, we earn a point for every two apartments leased. For every ten points we earn a $25 gift card.

I think any kind of reward system will be dependent, and effective or ineffective based, on the workings of a team. For me personally ... I'm extremely competitive (have been ever since I was a kid. Ask my dad what it was like playing Shoots and Ladders with me ), so when I see the leasing consultant catching up with me my competitive instinct kicks in and I want to lease more. At the same tie, I know I'm not the best leaser (good call on not making me a leasing consultant, bosses! haha) so it's also in many ways incentive enough when my property manager tells me my most recent closing ratio. I started (in February) with a 17% closing ratio ... I'm up to 77%. About a third of that change I attribute to watching, learning, and stealing techniques from the leasing consultant (she's a super star when it comes to closing on apartments!). About a third is from my own stubborn hatred of having a low score. The last third is just from the manager being SO supportive every time I improved.

I think something as small as a manager coming to the team and saying, "Hey, Property A is at 95% occupancy, but guess what? We're at 96!" can be enough. Or, on the other hand, "Team B is at 96% occupancy at we're at 95 ... Who thinks we can cream their average next month?!" Just little competition like that, where it's friendly "rivalries" (i.e. I joke with the leasing consultant that I think she's shredding leads to bolster her score, so now every time she enters her traffic she shouts across the room at me, "I ENTERED ALL MY TRAFFIC!" and waves her stack at me!), can make a huge difference!