RTO World wisdom gleaned in steamy, summertime San Antonio, Texas
1. If you don’t have someone dedicated to communications at your company, communications begins to slide as a priority – and good communication is essential to good performance.
2. The food served at a big event in San Antonio is equal to about a year’s worth of Taco Tuesdays.
3. Jim Brown spent four decades fighting negative legislation and helping transform RTO from an unstable business into the multi-billion-dollar industry it is today. He also held a national speed-rollerskating record as a teenager.
4. The younger your customers, the more their overall experience with your business matters.
5. Alamo hero James Bowie’s surname is not pronounced BOH-ee, like the rockstar – it’s BOO-ee, like the knife.
6. It’s clear store traffic is moving from in-person to online. So it may be time to embrace that trend and work to drive up your online traffic.
7. Papel picado is not a spicy Tex-Mex appetizer.
8. Larry and Sharon Carricos’ new memoir is not the first to be written by a rental dealer; 20 years ago, RTO legend Tom Devlin wrote Playing Through: An Entrepreneurial Success Story.
9. In Texas, loudly yelling expletives is perfectly appropriate as long as you’re line-dancing at the time.
10. When you’re calling to follow up on web leads, have a plan. Make it your own, put your own language around it; you don’t want to be a robot. But pros use scripts.
11. For next year’s Executive Challenge, TRIB Group Executive Director Dennis Shields needs to practice his chopsticks skills, while APRO CEO Charles Smitherman should work to hone his Matchbox car aptitude.
12. APRO General Counsel Ed Winn III does NOT want any more awards. Period.
