By Jay Roberts (bio)
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Why is it that some rent to own stores grow deliveries, BOR, APU and Revenue month in and month out while others eventually flat-line? Why do some stores peak then begin a downward spiral? Why do some rental professionals become successful through consistent growth while others 'hit a wall' or begin losing customers? 

The answer, profound in it's simplicity, appeared to me recently while reviewing Sales Training.

A store that continues to grow month in and month out has a system in place whereby something is being done everyday to manufacture new business. A store that flat-lines or is in a downward spiral has simply stopped creating new business.

Successful Rental Professionals understand that growth is achieved by actively looking for new business; By never getting too comfortable; By never being satisfied or content. They understand that communicating with a potential customer is a sales process and sales requires skills that must be constantly improved.

"Repetition is the mother of Skill and Discipline is the Father."
Rental Professionals that flat-line or operate on the downward spiral have one thing in common. At some point in their past they de-emphasized the importance of continually doing something to manufacture customers. They reached a "Comfort Zone". A point at which they were "satisfied" with the level of productivity in their store.

What causes some Rental Professionals stop looking for new business?
The answer is a loss of focus on what truly drives our business. They get wrapped up in the little things and forget to do the big things. They spend 90% of their day working on tasks that have very little impact on the growth and success of their store. This leaves precious little time to for generating new business.

We must insure that something is being done on a daily basis at the store level to generate new customers. Call the Pick-Ups and the Pay-Outs, knock on some doors, send out some thank you letters to existing customers or call some existing customers to confirm that they are satisfied with the product and service that you provide. If they are satisfied then ask them to recommend us to a friend or relative and if they are not we want them to tell us so we can fix it.

While we have some influence over pickups through effective account management, we do not have total control over them. We do however have absolute control of the number of Deliveries that go out the door. Yesterday doesn't matter, tomorrow is tomorrow, we must focus our efforts on what we can do today to generate some D’s.

The Tale of the Tape at the end of the day

Separate the copies of the Rental Agreements that went out today in two stacks.

Stack # 1 will be the number of Deliveries that went out the door by themselves by a walk-in or phone call resulting in a Delivery.

Stack # 2 will be the number of Deliveries that went out the door because of something we did. These units would not have went out the door had it not been for your direct efforts.

This simple but brutal analysis will tell you if your system of generating new business is working or not. If it's not, do something. Albert Einstein  said "The height of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Make a plan. 

Why do some Rental Professionals stop improving their skills?
Some people reach a level of comfort in their own abilities. As the old saying goes "if you don’t use it, you loose it." There is also a misconceived notion attained through cultural conditioning about our education. Some people think that education is something that is done to them. In reality, education is a gift you give to yourself. So, do something everyday to improve your skills because skill is what Rental Companies pay for. Over time, your compensation will be adjusted in direct proportion to your skill level.

When you look at it that way and do something everyday to improve your skills there is nothing you cannot accomplish.