Rent-to-Own

Educational seminars highlight APRO convention

Where can you find the most education focused entirely on helping you grow your rent-to-own business in one place? At the APRO 2009 Convention & Buying Show in Las Vegas August 30-September 2.

The APRO educational program includes individual sessions on topics such as marketing to a diverse population, evaluating and improving your RTO operation, skip-tracing through cyberspace and more.

Here are just a few of the sessions offered:
 

Relating, Not Translating: How to Market to U.S. Hispanics
Kelly McDonald, McDonald Marketing
10-11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., September 1

The U.S. Census indicates that there are more than 47 million Hispanics living in the United States and that Latinos are now the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the country. By 2020, Hispanics will account for one in five U.S. residents. Virtually every major  provider of products and services is scrambling to learn how to tap into this large, lucrative and growing consumer base.

Attracting the Hispanic consumer can help you expand your business, but it requires more than just translating your promotional messages into Spanish; you’ll need to know which is the right Latino rent-to-own customer and how to connect with him or her emotionally, rationally and culturally. Attendees of this session will leave with specific strategies for developing effective marketing messages targeted specifically to the Hispanic market.

What does a blond-haired, blue-eyed Irish girl know about Hispanic marketing? Plenty! Kelly McDonald is a marketing and advertising expert with more than 20 years of global advertising agency experience in both the general market and Latino market.Her company, McDonald Marketing, works with clients such as Toyota, Harley-Davidson, Ace Hardware, Sherwin-Williams and Miller/Coors. McDonald has been named number-one on the list of "26 Hot Speakers" by Successful Meetings magazine.

Advertising Age has twice designated her company as one of the top Hispanic ad agencies in the U.S. and Inc. magazine named McDonald Marketing one of the fastest-growing privately owned companies in the country. McDonald has also been featured in BusinessWeek magazine and on CNNMoney.com and XM Radio.

Man in the Glass: Evaluating Your Company to Improve Your Operation

Mike Tissot, Countryside Rentals
10-11:15 a.m., September 1

In this thought-provoking session, Mike Tissot will guide you through your business practices from the customer’s point of view–offering candid observations on how a business performs vs. how it should perform. He’ll share the results of surveys that reveal how actual customers feel about rent-to-own and he’ll show you methods to encourage customers to become RTO advocates.

In addition to enhancing your revenues by attracting new customers, Tissot will offer tips on stopping the loss of the customers you have. You will learn ways to raise your store standards, attract new customers and fine-tune the business.

Mike Tissot is one of the rent-to-own industry’s most popular and knowledgeable speakers. He grew up in the rental business; his father is former APRO President Darrell Tissot. Mike Tissot brings invaluable marketing insight and cutting-edge ideas to his presentations. After receiving a BA in economics from Denison University, Tissot spent five years at one of the largest marketing agencies in the country. Currently, he owns and operates 24 Rent-2-Own stores in Ohio and Kentucky. Tissot is past president of the Ohio Rental Dealers Association and a current TRIB Group board member. He is the recipient of APRO’s 2008 Presidents Award, presented for his outstanding service to the rent-to-own industry.

Cybertracking: A Skip Tracer’s Tool
Ron L. Brown, CSI Group
10-11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., September 1

Using Internet-based skip trace technology–or cybertracking–is the rental dealer’s most efficient way to track delinquent accounts. In this session, you’ll learn how you can cut your skip-tracing costs by 75 percent using the latest online tools and techniques. Brown will demonstrate where data on 940 billion American citizens is stored and how you can access it. Discover the secrets of one of the most comprehensive and successful skip-and-recovery programs in the country, including systems, sources, techniques and psychological approaches.

Ron L. Brown is the president and general manager of CSI Group based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, one of the oldest and largest asset investigation and recovery agencies in the Central Plains. A state-licensed private investigator and member of the National Association of Fraud Investigators, he has more than 35 years experience in locating and recovering lost and missing people and assets.

Brown has assisted many law-enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Texas Department of Public Safety. He has written numerous articles and books on tracing, highlighting the use of neurolinguistics and the psychology of motivation in the collection process.

Complete convention details here.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under CONVENTION UPDATES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.