Apartment Marketing Idea: You are not Your Apartment Prospect

I think one of the easiest traps to fall into when marketing to apartment prospects or residents is to think that they want what you want and they will like what you like. It is really easy when you don’t take the time to understand who your customer is and what they value. In order to that you have to be willing to spend time asking questions, trying new things, testing new theories, crushing sacred cows and refining your successes. All in the name of your client’s changing tastes.

Always done it that way

We have all heard the statement that if you keep doing what you have always done expecting a different result – you get the definition of insanity. It’s as true in our space as it is in different industries across America. We keep at it year after year because it’s easy. It’s really hard to go against the grain. It’s really hard to convince the powers that be that giving up tried and true processes is a good thing. Problem with this is that change, if not embraced, will free up your future sooner or later.

The ABC’s of change

In selling ABC stands for Always Be Closing, in understanding that you are not your apartment customer it stands for Always Be Changing. With the advent of the internet came the rapid acceleration of change. In one fell swoop we had every piece of information we could every want at our finger tips. That is not to suggest that it has not taken time to morph our imbued information gathering habits but it is to say it’s not your older brothers world anymore. If you don’t like change you will like irrelevance even less and that is your prize for standing still today.

How do you keep up with your customer

Tom Peter’s popularized  the phrase Management by Walking Around [MBWA], defined by BusinessDictionary.com this way;

Unstructured approach to hands-on, direct participation by the managers in the work-related affairs of their subordinates, in contrast to rigid and distant management. In MBWA practice, managers spend a significant amount of their time making informal visits to work area and listening to the employees. The purpose of this exercise is to collect qualitative information, listen to suggestions and complaints, and keep a finger on the pulse of the organization. Also called management by wandering around.

I think it is a fair way think about how to keep up with your customer. We should be interacting with them both on and offline. Here are just a couple of ideas on how to do that;

• Ask for their opinion any time you see them
• Hang out where they hang out
• Eat where they eat
• Read the magazines, blogs and tweets they read
• Read the books, ebooks and ezines they read
• Ask permission to enlist them on your Facebook, MySpace and Tweet pages
• Participate on their Facebook, MySpace and Tweet pages
• Shop where they shop
• Read what they review
• Ride the buses they ride
• Frequent the places they work
• Experience the products and services they like
• Work out where they work out
• Ask what keywords they used to find you

How about we call this Creating Experience by Walking Around [CEWA]. The real key to remember here is that you are not your customer and in order to understand your customer you must engage and participate with them. And, make it easy for them to do the same with you.