Riverstone Residential President Terry Danner Tells Suppliers How It Is
If you’re a supplier or vendor trying to sell into the multifamily ownership and management space, Terry Danner feels your pain. “This is going to be like a self-help session on how to deal with abuse,” joked the president of Dallas, Tex.-based Riverstone Residential in his keynote address at the AIM 2.0 Internet Marketing for Apartment Suppliers Conference held Dec. 7-9 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, Calif.
Danner detailed to attendees the bandwidth and resources his firm dedicates to owners in the fee management arena as an analogy to the multifamily vendor space, and reaffirmed relationship-driven business and fortified partnerships still carry the day when it comes to creating value with the products and services that make apartment communities and portfolios perform.
“All of our time is spent with our clients on managing their assets,” Danner said, adding that Riverstone deals with approximately 25,000 different suppliers to support a team of 102 regional managers and 700 maintenance professionals serving some 231 apartment owners. “So I know where you are coming from because I am on the same side when we try to sell our clients. We’re not trying to ignore you, because we need to partner with you. We are trying to grow our company, but I’m not going to say it is easy to get in front of me and my counterparts. There are times we dedicate to it, but the days are busy.”
Those bandwidth constraints mean Riverstone does not have the time or resources to entertain ten, twenty, or fifty different vendors in any specific supply vertical, Danner said. Instead, the company looks to have one primary and one secondary partner per product and service channel. Successful vendor partners view the contract as only the entry point to that partnership, and help Riverstone to carry the load with program implementation and stakeholder buy-in.
“It’s never easy getting from A to Z with any particular supplier,” Danner said. “We are a conduit of business to the properties, and we cannot do business without you, but we do recognize it is our job to figure out who is the best supplier, match them up and get them working on the property, and then optimize that relationship to the fullest.”
Reaffirming the effectiveness of Sales 101 strategies, Danner advised apartment suppliers to do as much homework upfront as possible, and impress prospects not just with capabilities, but with an inherent knowledge of what makes that prospect’s business tick.
“Selling to one company is not the same as selling to another. Property managers, REITs and mom-and-pops all have different resources and nuances on how they are conducting business,” Danner said. “Know my company, know who I am, know what I’ve got. There are plenty of people who try to sell me things that have no rational fit with what we do, and you’d be surprised how many salespeople don’t know our business.”
Want more AIM 2.0 exclusive news and strategies? Check back here next week for a Q&A between Danner and Steve Lefkovits and coverage of all of the AIM 2.0 educational programming and breakout sessions.
