Professional Self Storage Management Company
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• 30+ years of self-storage management
experience
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How to Run Your Self Storage Facility More Efficiently
Building a Sales Team • Building Blocks for Success • Chamber of Commerce Mailer • Competitor Template • General Practices
Get the Rental • Get the Sale • Image & Impression • Marketing 101 • Marketing the Easy Way • Selling Ideas Version 1
Marketing the Easy Way
Marketing has become an important aspect of our jobs and the ticket to our success. With that said, how effective is your marketing technique?
Just for a moment, think about the last time a sales rep came into your facility. How was he greeted and what impact did he have on you? What did you do with his business card or his marketing info? More likely than not, he was merely an interruption to your busy day and his brochures ended up in the circular file cabinet (trash can). Now what makes you think you are not perceived the same way when you visit a prospective client? Obviously, this is not very effective.
A technique we have been using as an icebreaker in our group is what we call a “food drive”.
The manager determines who he/she is going to market to and purchases several dozen donuts. The first visit is very brief and goes something like this, “ Hi, my name is Harry from Storage facility, I just wanted to drop off these donuts and to let you know that if you or a client ever have a need for storage, feel free to give us a call.”
A couple of weeks go by and the manager does a follow up visit, again with a dozen donuts. This visit is a little more thorough and informative, but again we are not pressing for the sale or the referral. At this point we are still soft selling and just letting the contact know about storage and that we have similar customers.
Again, we wait a couple of weeks and follow up with another visit and another dozen donuts, but this time the visit is much different. When the contact sees the manager come in with the donuts this time, we get the same reaction as Pavlov’s dogs; the contact is salivating for the donuts. Now we have started to build a report with the contact and can actually sell Storage facility and self-storage and get 100% of the contact’s attention instead of being just an interruption to their day. Suddenly we are “part of the gang’ instead of some guy or gal dropping off brochures that no one cares about and our ideas and services are well received.
It does not end here. We let the contact know that we are a service that they can offer their customers, both internal and external, and that we will take good care of their customers and offer a referral fee to them for every customer they give us. When that contact sends you a rental, you need to go above and beyond to let them know you appreciate their business and if possible personally thank them. Continue to nurture the relationship with occasional donut or pizza drops to keep you in their thoughts, but now you can focus your energy on the next contact and food drive.