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RTO Change Management Strategies from LEAP Session 10

Change is never theoretical in rent-to-own (RTO) – it shows up in daily sales numbers, customer interactions, and store traffic that looks nothing like it did just a few years ago. During LEAP Session 10: How to Change What is Not Working, APRO member Countryside Rentals Inc. dba Rent-2-Own Owner Mike Tissot unpacked how to recognize what is stuck in your business and reset it for real growth, drawing heavily from Dan Heath’s book Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working.

Instead of treating change as a slogan, the session grounded it in one urgent goal: renting more TVs, sofas, washers, and dryers in 2025’s reality. That meant getting honest about outdated habits, rethinking the sales process, and focusing leadership energy where it will actually move the needle.

RTO Change Management Strategies in the Sales Process

A core theme of the webinar was that you cannot have growth without change – and you cannot have change without clarity. Tissot highlighted leadership expert John Maxwell’s “Five Cs of Change”: communication, commitment, culture, capability, and clarity. In many RTO stores, capability and clarity are the weak links. Team members are told to “get more sales” without really understanding how, or what “good” looks like in today’s market.

That is where one of the most practical RTO change management strategies comes in: finding the leverage point. Tissot shared a 12-part list of sales activities – from outbound calls and Facebook marketing to CRM activity, lost customer visits, delivery leads, and overall salesmanship. The challenge for leaders is to identify which one or two of those activities, if improved, would create the biggest impact right now. Change is not about doing everything – it is about pushing the right part of the system hard enough to get the boulder rolling.

Identifying the Real Constraints Inside Today’s RTO Stores

To find that leverage point, leaders have to “get low to know.” That means riding along on deliveries, making lost customer visits, and personally working CRM lists, not just directing from a distance. When managers took back 100 lost customers themselves, the results ranged from just a few returns to remarkable wins – revealing who really understood today’s sales work and what tactics actually converted.

Another key idea was “studying the bright spots.” Instead of relying on monthly averages, Tissot urged attendees to dissect the outliers – the 18-rental Thursday, the huge Black Friday, the unexpected surge from a single product promotion. One standout example: a manager who put a 75″ TV on a special weekly rate and called customers about that one product. The day turned into an 18-rental outlier, not because of the discount alone, but because leading with product sparked interest and conversation.

Restacking Resources to Drive Meaningful Change

After mapping the system and finding constraints – from approval bottlenecks to inconsistent rules between account managers and salespeople – the next step is to “restack the resources.” Tissot emphasized starting change with a burst: concentrated hours of focused effort, not just checking the box on a daily call quota or a single Facebook post. When his team launched Home Shopping Live on Facebook, they did it with multiple live product segments throughout the day, establishing new habits and proving the channel could produce meaningful sales.

Restacking also means recycling wasted time. One major opportunity: pairing deliveries or collection trips with lost customer visits and lead generation. Tissot shared how a delivery team member now regularly returns from the field with specific leads – a future matching refrigerator, tire sizes for an upcoming rental, and more – captured in the moment and fed straight into the CRM for follow-up.

Finally, effective RTO change management strategies hinge on motivation and ownership. Tissot encouraged leaders to celebrate activities and trajectory – not just end results – and to give teams “guarded autonomy.” Within clear guardrails, sales and store staff should have the freedom to make offers, price within limits, and test ideas. When people help design the change, they are far more likely to sustain it.

LEAP Session 10 ultimately framed change not as a one-time initiative, but as an ongoing reset: find the leverage point, restack resources around it, and keep refining as the business and customer behavior evolve. For RTO leaders ready to move beyond talk and into action, this session offers a playbook worth revisiting – and rewatching with your entire team.

Watch the Full LEAP Session

Watch the full LEAP session replay – brought to you by the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations (APRO) and TRIB Group.

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Mike Lewis

Central Properties dba Premier Rental-Purchase

Mike Lewis is a Premier Rental Purchase franchisee with multiple stores and currently serves as Vice President of Operations. With 33 years of experience in the rent-to-own industry, he has spent the past 20 years working closely with franchisee owners and previously spent 12 years in Corporate RTO, gaining a strong foundation in the business.

For the past five years, Mike has been sharing his knowledge by teaching managers and franchisees at the company’s Training Center.

Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family, kids, and grandkids, and appreciates the simple things in life – especially riding his Harley Davidson with the sun on his face. If you know, you know!

Lauren Talicska

Arona Corporation dba Arona Home Essentials

Lauren Talicska is an experienced multi-channel marketing specialist and the Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Arona Home Essentials. She has found her home in the RTO community, supporting stores in branding, growth, and increasing traffic.

You may recognize Lauren as a former RTO vendor, including her time as a partner for Nationwide RentDirect, or her previous participation in the APRO Vendor Advisory Committee. Lauren calls Columbus, Ohio, home and spends her workday crafting and executing marketing promotions from inception to realization, all while supporting the branding and social media needs of all the Arona stores in 12 states (plus Puerto Rico!).

Charles Smitherman

APRO

Charles Smitherman, JD, PhD, CAE, became CEO of APRO in 2023, bringing years of legal and executive experience in the rent-to-own industry. 

Prior to joining the association, Charles served as COO, General Counsel, and Vice President of PTS Financial Services, where he played an active role in the rent-to-own industry by representing his company through PTS’s club program offering with APRO member dealers. Charles is an attorney with two decades of experience across a wide variety of areas, including RTO, consumer financial services, antitrust, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, franchise law, and privacy law. Following law school at the University of Georgia, Charles earned a Master of Legal Studies and PhD in Law from the University of Oxford in England.

Charles is credentialed as a Certified Association Executive (CAE) with the American Society of Association Executives, a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) with the International Franchise Association, and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals. As APRO’s sixth CEO in its 45-year history, he brings a collaborative, member-focused approach to association leadership, emphasizing transparency, advocacy, and value creation. Outside of work, Charles is an active ultra runner and open water swimmer.

Mike Kays

Ashley Furniture Industries

As VP of Rental Sales for Ashley Furniture Industries, Mike thrives on building relationships with our RTO industry veterans, and helping businesses grow through new product, new marketing, and new supply chain options.

Mike works to leverage a wide breadth of relationships and influence, intimate knowledge of market trends, and unique knowledge of what RTO dealers need from a supplier to be successful.

The saying goes that a high tide raises all boats, and our goal is to leverage the world’s largest furniture manufacturer to drive the continued growth of the RTO industry and all the suppliers.

Mike Tissot

Countryside Rentals Inc., dba Rent-2-Own

Mike grew up in the rent-to-own industry under the guidance of his father, former APRO President and RTO legend Darrell Tissot. For nearly 25 years, Mike’s innovative leadership has helped expand the family business to more than 40 stores across Ohio and Kentucky while also shaping the industry as a whole.

He has served as President of the Ohio Rental Dealers Association, an APRO board member and Treasurer, and President and Treasurer of the TRIB Group. His contributions have earned him the APRO President’s Award of Excellence and the title of APRO Rental Dealer of the Year.

Outside of RTO, Mike enjoys time at the lake house or in Orange Beach, Alabama, with his girlfriend, Angela Strong McCool. A passionate Cincinnati Reds fan, he rarely misses a game, whether watching or listening alongside his parents. He also takes every opportunity to visit Arizona, where his daughter is currently attending Arizona State University.