RTOHQ: The Magazine, Summer 2018

in the rental industry people sales collections marketing and business model Twenty to twenty fi ve questions were developed for each core issue answer them and we will fi nd something In the world of people we lack patience to train properly and we expect new employees to be all in on day one Sometimes we even hire RTO industry familiar employees so we dont have to train them We are also nervous when we hire up and in those cases employees rarely make it because Summer 2018 41 THE SECRET WEAPON KEEPING RTO ALIVE By Mike Tissot Times like these must force us to take a step back and do some refl ection of our businesses and ourselves and that is where the triage concept was born tenured staff dont want to lose them Oft entimes we are also guilty of settling on interview days because the pickins are slim and the truth is training is a big opportunity in all of our stores It needs to be more systematic and guess what New hires are not all in on day one It is possible they might leave when encountering the fi rst bump in the road We need to look at it this way every employee is much like a customer Th ey might start a job unwilling and unable Th ey may not be competent to do the job well and might not be willing to work their butts off but we as employers have to move them there We have to help them get success and we must make them love this business and our company and that is paramount for the people part of a successful store In sales the triage has identifi ed that we are standing around waiting for people to walk in our door Th ere is just too much wandering We wander around tidying up the fl oor But really what good is a great prom dress without a date We are not doing the things necessary to drive traffi c into our stores We are not even taking advantage of all the traffi c we get We are not trying to sell on the phone We dont see the urgency in a web lead Oh and listen to the taking a payment over the phone once and tell me that whole process doesnt need some real form of triage Th e sales process has changed in many ways and we have to re invent our process with it hold that thought for RTO World in August We have lost lots of rentals in technology evolution Th e days of standing at the counter and giving free time to get rentals T he last two years I have heard more grumbling about how hard the Rent To Own business has become at tradeshows in my inbox on the phone the stories are gloomy I would even suggest that some are in a state of despair and paralyzed on what to even do next Similarly things at Countryside have been harder Th ings have been diff erent It is not the same game as it was in 1985 when my dad Darrell Tissot opened in Hillsboro Ohio renting VCRs and laundry and paying Borg Warner a fortune nor is it the same game as when I opened my fi rst store in 1997 in Circleville Ohio But it is still a fun game and one that can be worth playing Times like these must force us to take a step back and do some refl ection of our businesses and ourselves and that is where the triage concept was born We had a store that could not break 35 deliveries a week Th ey thought they were doing all they could that it was just The question is is the right person trying to persuade customers and are they persuasive enough Do you have an intern doing heart the new normal but we have a longstanding culture that is high performance and that was not to be accepted So we came up with some questions to get to the root of the problem and when we were honest and candid in answers to those questions we learn many things Just in the sales process alone we found merchandising opportunities marketing opportunities and real salesmanship opportunities We had a clear plan of action that could get us to 50 deliveries and it worked in that store Trust me it was not that simple but with eff ort and great follow up and constant tweaking it worked We took that idea and expanded it to the core issues