Self Storage ABC’s

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Secret shopping is a great way to illuminate some of the training areas that can get overlooked such as: a professional telephone greeting, determining the customer’s needs, building value in the facility and building rapport with the customer. The truth is that all these things only spice up the cake but the batter has to be cooked before you can say it’s done. Closing the sale is like putting the cake in the oven.

The acronym A.B.C. is a great way to get your employees in a close-the-sale mind frame.

 Always
 Be
 Closing

 To Always Be Closing means that you set out and purpose the order and flow of your conversation, from the beginning, to lead up to the close. It’s like building a house; you can’t build the roof before laying the foundation and building the walls. Gaining the customers’ trust by determining what they need, showing them why your store is the best and building rapport with them will build a strong relationship that will open the opportunity to close the sale.

Unlike retail stores where the customer enters the store and intends to leave with a product, self storage customers may not be familiar enough with the industry to know they can reserve a unit over the phone. So how do you get customers to reserve? Simple, Ask them to reserve.

 Of course some selling techniques come into play when preparing and practicing your close. You should avoid just saying, Do you want to reserve that? This leaves the door wide open for the customer to simply say, No. Try using a phrase that leads them towards the yes. Something like, With only a few of these 10×10 climate controlled storage units left, the best way to check this off your to-do list is to reserve it. What day should I reserve this for? This phrase accomplishes three things:

1. It creates urgency which helps motivate the customer
2. You’re presenting the reservation as a convenience to them
3. The questions ends by asking for a date (not a yes or no)

Focusing on asking each customer for the sale and practicing a well thought-out closing phrase will guarantee an increase in your closing ratio. Take some time to sit down with your team and focus on the self storage A.B.C’s.

Let us never negotiate out of fear.
But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
35th president of the United States

Written by Sarah Little, TQA Account Executive

Thanks for reading our secret shopping blog. We offer sales training and mystery shopping to the self storage industry.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.