Why Don’t You Have the Specials That Those Guys Do?

Written by Apartment Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

29bd_7ce9Has this happened to you … you’ve spent a good amount of time with a prospect, you’ve developed rapport and built a good relationship. You think you have a handle on what s/he wants and know that you’ve just offered your client the perfect new home, when s/he looks at you and says,

“Wait…your rent is $1,250 for a two bedroom apartment. The Willows across the street is renting a similar place for $1,100. Why are YOUR rents higher than their’s?”

I dreaded this as a front line leasing associate and I’m not alone! Whenever I do a training seminar on closing the sale and overcoming objections, this specific question regarding specials

So what do you do when a competitor has lower rents, a better special and/or more attractive incentives than you can offer?

I would encourage you to use, what I call, the “Chuck Norris Response”

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This can also be referred to as the “Most Popular Guy/Gal at School Response,” the “George Clooney Response” or the “Kate Upton Response” (and no, I’m not putting in a picture of Kate Upton…nice try, folks!)

The basic gist of this response is to turn the negative (“Why don’t you have specials like those guys??”) into a positive.

As Inigo Montoya said, “Let me ‘splain….”

Somehow I imagine that if Chuck Norris were asked why he chose to double park his car outside, he would say, “Because I’m Chuck Norris, that’s why!”

If you asked Kate Upton, “How in the world did YOU end up in a commercial for an Internet game set in the Middle Ages??” she could answer, “Because I’m Kate Upton!”

You get the idea? In a way when someone asks you why you don’t have any specials and the other guys do, the impression you want to give is, “Because we’re Cottonwood Creek!” or “Because this is Elm Grove Apartments!”

Here’s how you can give that impression, and turn the negative into a positive, without sounding arrogant…

“Karen, in my experience communities will offer specials like that when they need to rent more apartments. The reason we’re not offering specials like that right now, honestly, is because we don’t need to. We have lots of long-term residents, people love living here, and there is a high demand for our apartments…”

While the higher rent may still be an issue, now that you’ve explained why you don’t offer those specials it can actually make your community look better. The negative has been turned around and it is now a positive.

Try it! And see what happens!

Happy Leasing!

RA picture 1A Rommel Anacan | Company Website | LinkedIn Connect |

Rommel is the president of The Relationship Difference; a corporate training, motivational speaking and consulting firm. He is a multi-family housing veteran, having worked at all levels of the industry from onsite to corporate, where he developed a reputation for solving common industry challenges in an uncommon way.