4 Ways Leasing Agents Can Ace Virtual Apartment Tours

By Diana Mosher

Thank you to my guest blogger Rommel Anacan for sharing the following post! Rommel is an award-winning motivational speaker, entrepreneur, strategist and the president of The Relationship Difference. He speaks and writes frequently about apartment industry topics.

By Rommel Anacan

Isn’t it crazy how fast things change? A couple of months ago virtual tours weren’t on the radar for most apartment communities, and right now it’s the main way that most leasing professionals are meeting with prospective residents!

For those of you who have dived into virtual selling, I applaud you for taking the plunge! Now it’s time to up the industry’s collective game in this area. As more and more people get comfortable with virtual selling, simply offering virtual tours will not be enough. You need to be good at it too.

Here are four simple things you can do right now to be ready for your close-up while doing a virtual tour:

1 Look into the Lens
The next time you’re on a virtual meeting, pay attention to where people’s eyes are when they’re talking. My guess is most people will look like they’re looking away from you, because they’re most likely looking at the screen and not the lens.

Here’s the thing… the next time you watch the news where do the anchors/reporters look? Yep! Into the lens.

Why? Because that’s how they make the viewer feel like the anchor/reporter is speaking directly to them. If you’re looking into the lens, you’re looking into their eyes.

2 Smile More When Virtual
When you’re meeting in person with a prospect there is a lot of time where your prospect is not looking at you, even though you’re standing in close proximity with each other. Your customer’s attention may be on buildings, the grounds, the landscaping, or even the ground; but during a virtual tour, when you’re on the screen, what do you think your customer is looking at? Yep. You!

So, put on that smile my friend. Especially if you know your natural tendency is to look grumpy, angry, bored or disinterested when your face is at rest. Trust me, it helps.

3 Use a Headset
I highly recommend that you use a headset when on your virtual tours. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. The one that came with your cell phone would be great. A headset will filter a lot of the external ambient noise and make it easier for your prospect to hear and focus on you.

If you use your device’s microphone and speaker, the sound will just not be as good as it would be if you were using a headset. The microphone on your device is more than likely omnidirectional, so it’s picking up sound from all directions.

Someone screaming in the back? Landscapers in the distance? Dog barking? Wind howling through your community? Yep. Your prospect just heard all of that.

4 Practice and Review
I know that out of all these tips, this next one will feel the weirdest. But trust me on this one, all performers need to practice and review their performance, so that their next performance is even better. And on a virtual tour you’re a performer, my friend.

I have been in hundreds of videos during my speaking career and I have been on a ton of video webinars and one of the most powerful things I do is review the video footage; to see what I look and sound like on the screen—and then figure out what I need to do to be better next time.

So, record yourself doing a virtual tour and review it to see what you like and what you’d change. If there’s more stuff you’d change as you begin doing these— congratulations. You’re normal. The important thing is to learn from it and make the changes for next time.

My friends… my last bit of advice is to have fun. Be creative. Help your customers fall in love with your apartment community by standing out during your virtual tours.

Rommel Anacan is an award-winning motivational speaker, entrepreneur, strategist and the president of The Relationship Difference. He powerfully impacts people, companies and organizations by providing the clarity, motivation and education they need to break through their limits and achieve the success they desire. Learn more about him at www.RommelAnacan.com.