The Cost of Misaligned Sales and Marketing

In multifamily marketing, your message is everything. With so much competition, cutting through the noise requires more than flashy fonts and overused buzzwords.

"Modern Luxury. State-of-the-Art. Thoughtful Living. Now Leasing!" 

Sound familiar? 

Of course it does. The problem is, generic slogans like these fail to create a lasting impression because everyone is saying the same thing in a slightly different style. Marketing should inspire prospects to invest in your property—often at a price tag of $30,000 or more annually. But what happens when your marketing promises a lifestyle you can’t actually deliver? Or when the leasing agent's answer to "Why should I live here?" is entirely off-brand? The fallout is disappointment, mistrust, and a fragmented experience.

The handoff between marketing and sales is notoriously clunky, but getting it right is critical. Here’s how to ensure your marketing matches your product and resonates with your audience.

A Case Study in Misalignment

Recently, I encountered a property branding itself as offering “resort-style living.” As a self-proclaimed enthusiast of all things high-end, I couldn’t resist checking it out.

When I hear “resort-style,” I imagine:

• Spa-inspired spaces with saunas, cold plunge pools, salt rooms, and sound baths.
• High-end fitness classes like spin, pilates, and yoga.
• Room service, with drinks that have those tiny little umbrellas.
• A luxurious outdoor space perfectly landscaped with hammocks, daybeds, and hot tubs.

What did I find? A 70-year-old property-turned-student housing... with a pool. Just a pool.

Don’t get me wrong—a pool is great for cannonballs and college kids. But when you brand your property as offering “resort-style living” and charge market rents, the bar is set somewhere between Bali and Beverly Hills. What I found was more 1970s dorm chic in suburban Ohio. With subway tile!

Bridging the First Gap: Marketing and Reality

To its credit, it was decently renovated and appeared well-maintained. The problem was the glaring disconnect between the marketing message and the actual digital footprint. Calling it “resort-style living” set expectations far beyond what the property could realistically ever deliver.

And here’s where the real trouble lies: once you set the bar that high, anything less feels like a failure. Cue leasing blaming marketing, marketing blaming leasing, and owners losing money. When marketing isn't aligned, disappointment is inevitable. And once a prospect feels let down, the ripple effects can devastate your property.

Disappointed renters lose trust, leading to retention problems and a tarnished reputation. In today’s review-driven world, frustrated tenants can easily broadcast their dissatisfaction, damaging your property’s online presence. Take this as a cautionary tale: targeting luxury-minded renters while presenting as student housing alienates both groups, undermining your marketing efforts. 

Hiring a marketing partner who specializes in property brands and knows how to research and connect with the ideal audience is crucial. They can align your property's messaging with its reality, ensuring expectations match the experience. This alignment builds trust, enhances retention, and protects your reputation, ultimately driving long-term success. And while you're at it, ask them for case studies with real KPIs! Leads, website visits, absorption rates, etc.

If marketing costs give you sticker shock, consider the reality of investing millions in renovations only to face a half-filled property. Each empty unit means months of mounting interest payments, eroding your returns. The reality is that cutting corners on marketing can cost far more in the long run. A strategic marketing investment upfront fills vacancies faster and ensures steady cash flow, helping you recoup your costs and maximize your ROI.

Bridging the next Gap: Sales and Marketing

The key to avoiding these missteps is alignment. Your marketing needs to reflect your product, neighborhood, competition, and audience. And then all of that needs to align with your sales team’s efforts. How they answer the phone, how they describe their community, what they wear to a showing, down to the studs sales needs to align with the marketing. When every element works together, you build trust, add value, and set the foundation for long-term success.

Here’s how to make it happen:

1. Train The Sales Team To Understand Your Marketing Research

Not every property is for everyone—and that’s okay. Your goal should be to create a product that a specific niche will love, rather than something that appeals to everyone in a lukewarm way. Train your sales team to understand the lifestyle motivations and psychographics of your renter research so they can close the deals in a way that feels cohesive across the entire renter journey. For fair housing purposes, all of the leasing language should be as consistent as possible no matter who walks in the door, but if marketing was done right, it would be on-target with your renter personas.

2. Consistency is Key

Every touchpoint—from your website and branding to your on-site experience—should tell the same story. If your marketing showcases high-end architecture and upscale amenities, your leasing agents, collateral, and resident experience need to align with that value proposition. A beautifully designed email followed by a lackluster phone call from your agent who's energy doesn't match the property will only confuse your building with the countless others using boring generic copy and buzzwords.

3. Focus on Retention, Not Just Acquisition

Marketing might bring renters through the door, but it’s the resident experience that keeps them coming back. Train your leasing and operating teams to understand the brand story and apply it meaningfully throughout the entire resident lifecycle. Every interaction, from the initial tour to renewal discussions, should reinforce your property’s unique value. I once led a lease-up where the Developer directly instructed us that not a single communication, text, email, social, or phone call should go out unless it matches the voice and tone of our property. 

What was the voice and tone? Architectural Digest meets indie camp. It worked then, and it's still working now.

If possible, consolidate your marketing and sales efforts under one trusted team or agency for the ultimate united approach. 

4. Opening The Feedback Floodgates

For a property lease-up to maximize lead gen, marketing and sales must work hand in hand, sharing insights and adjusting strategies in real time. Sales teams have a front-row seat to what’s working—and what isn’t—when it comes to converting prospects. If marketing doesn’t regularly communicate with sales to understand which messages are resonating or which objections prospects are raising during tours, campaigns risk becoming disconnected from reality. 

At the same time, marketing needs visibility into on-site performance and resident feedback to fine-tune campaigns, adjust messaging, and ensure the lead pipeline remains strong. Regular collaboration between these teams not only keeps lead generation flowing but ensures that every dollar spent on marketing supports tangible, measurable results for the leasing team. 

Delivering on the Promise

The gap between marketing, sales, and reality is a missed opportunity to add long-term value to your property. Properties that synchronize marketing and sales efforts early—whether in-house or outsourced—will have the upper hand in this competitive market.

The key here, is authenticity. Today’s renters value honesty, style, and responsiveness over hype and generic buzzwords. They’re looking for an experience that feels tailored to their needs and consistent from start to finish.

At the end of the day, a pool is just a pool. But a property that aligns its marketing with its offerings and delivers on its promises? That’s what modern renters will pay a premium for.