Minto Apartments sought a sales training solution for their field leasing and call center agents to enable them sell more effectively in a multi-residential housing market disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Minto Group
Established in 1955, the Minto Group is a fully integrated real estate company offering new homes and condos, rentals, furnished suites, property and investment management.
With expertise in home building, construction, property and investment management, Minto Group has built over 95,000 homes, manages 14,600 rental units, and carries 2.4 million square feet of commercial space.
Minto Group has more than 1,300 employees and operates multiple offices across Canada and the United States.
The Challenge
After vetting other sales training organizations, the Minto Apartments Team division selected Janek because their holistic and integrated training approach, with reinforcement solutions, resonated with their leadership.
The Apartments Team sought a training solution for two teams within their division: their onsite leasing consultants, who meet with prospects to tour rental apartments, and their call center representatives, who get to know the customers and their needs, provide information, answer questions, and schedule tours of the apartments with the leasing consultants.
The main driver of the training was how the pandemic changed they ways customers seek new places to live and work. As a result, Minto needed to adapt and ensure sales staff was enabled with the necessary consultative sales skills. Further, to provide the best possible experience for customers, Minto also wanted to establish a benchmark for their existing and new sales staff on how to best serve their customers.
The Solution
After a thorough review of Minto’s needs, Janek suggested Critical Selling® Skills for the field leasing agents and Critical TeleSelling® Skills for the call center agents. Both were to be delivered virtually through a live facilitator.
To ensure the training would stick and drive long-term behavior change that was integrated in their culture, Janek implemented Janek Xpert™, a self-guided digital learning tool. Minto employees could utilize this reinforcement every other day, without interrupting their busy schedules, to answer questions related to the content learned during the training. In addition, they added regular Virtual Sales Coaching calls with Janek coaches to examine and discuss real-world sales challenges and TOPS®, a coaching playbook that Minto’s sales managers can leverage to provide continued guidance, leadership, and coaching to their staff.
The Results
The training was well received by Minto’s leadership and staff. Highlights included how the virtual delivery kept everyone engaged by applying the right mix of use cases, peer-to-peer breakout sessions, and whiteboarding.
In addition, participants cited how the discussion-based training was adapted to Minto’s unique industry. Furthermore, the training effectively supported Minto’s team through the discovery phase of client interaction, helping them uncover customer needs.
As an additional benefit, the training fostered team building through active discussion and participation. With Minto’s dispersed sales team, this provided an opportunity to interact and learn from each other. Now, the organization regularly uses TOPS tools to ensure relevant, consistent, and effective coaching from front-line managers.
90-Day Post-Training Results Field Leasing Agents
1044
%
100
%
90-Day Post-Training Results Field Leasing Agents
1477
%
100
%
