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You hear people talk about objections and rebuttals in the sales world. Those are really poor terms for what really happens. People don’t object to what you’re offering them. You don’t have someone jump up and say, I object to buying salsa with my chips! That’s not what they do. Buying is not a scene of two lawyers slugging it out in the courtroom, objecting to each other’s lines of questioning. People have concerns. They are concerned that if they buy something, it’s not going to work for them. They’re concerned that they’re spending money on something that’s not going to work out, like self storage. They’re concerned that their friends might think they’re an idiot for spending the money on something goofy. They are concerned they will make a poor decision, or that you will give them a bad experience. People have concerns. So you have to figure out what concerns people have about your offering and how you can assure them that accepting your offering is a good move for them.

How you help people accept your offering is by understanding before you counter. If someone is raising a concern, allow them to tell you what their concern is. You may have heard this concern 57 times today, buy if you cut that person off thinking you know what they’re saying; they’re not going to like it. So let people finish what they have to say. Understand what they said. Try to look between the lines to understand their emotional position. Use paraphrasing to help them to explain it some more, and then assure the person that what you are offering is a good thing. That’s how it works. Understand before you counter, assure that person that their concern is not a new concern. Show them how your offering takes these concerns into account and makes everything better.

Written by Tron Jordheim, Director of the PhoneSmart Call Center

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What is the structure of the sales process in selling self-storage? Hopefully your store gets a lot of telephone inquiries, and so much of your selling is done on the phone. But the same process holds true when someone walks in the door and says, How much is one of those storage things?

We’re not going to talk about dealing with current tenants now, so we’re going to get them right off of the table. I am hoping that you and your staff already know how to be friendly and helpful to your current tenants. If you learn to sell with better effectiveness, it will automatically improve your interactions with current customers. But for the sake of keeping it simple, let’s just talk about new potential renters. 

The conversation will usually start one of two ways. It’ll either be How much is. . . and they’ll name off a unit that they think they’re supposed to get, or they’ll say something like, I need to store my stuff. Help me. One of these two things are going to happen. They’re either going to ask you for a price or they’re going to ask you for help.

The people who start off asking for help are great to deal with. All you have to do is act the part of the storage expert, take them by the hand and lead them through the process. The people who start out the conversation asking about price can sometimes be handled in exactly the same way, but sometimes they require more thorough and more careful handling.

exerpt from Selling Self Storage, by Tron Jordheim

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One thing I’d like to cover with you is the challenge of operational changes. If you’re a store manager or a storage consultant and you’re reading this, you’ve probably gotten it from a regional manager, from your operations director or from your owners, and you’re thinking, Oh, geez, not another training program. Oh, no, not another operational directive. I feel for you.  You have probably been given many operational changes to implement and given many new sales directions to take. The follow up from your superiors has not always been very thorough. The strategies and initiatives have not always been very well thought out, either. I think you may feel that someone’s giving you grief by giving you this information which represents yet another operational shift, and you’re probably right. There is a certain amount of grief involved in adopting new ideas and implementing new programs.

If you are the owner, operations manager or regional director I was writing about in the last paragraph, I apologize for suggesting that you hatch some half baked schemes and then don’t follow through on them very well. But you often have too many irons in the fires and even some of your sensible initiatives have died for lack of resources, attention and follow through. Isn’t that correct?

Contact PhoneSmart for your secret shopping, mystery shopping and self storage training needs.

Excerpt from the writings of Tron Jordheim, Director of PhoneSmart.

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When learning a new self storage, or property management training program or a new job that you haven’t before tried, don’t get frustrated if at first you stumble through the learning process.  Everyone has their own learning style as well as their own pace in which they learn.
 
At our Call Center, we do not have a set amount of time that someone has to be in our initial training program.  Instead we tell our new hires or transfers from other departments that we typically train for approximately 2 weeks.

Depending upon the learning curve that the individual has, depends on how long they need to be in the initial training.  Most employees need the full 2 weeks, while a select few have trained in as little as 3 days.  Then there are others that we’ve put that extra time and effort into who have taken longer than the 2 week period to learn the self storage rates. If we think they have the drive to stick with it, the ambition to want to learn our self storage sales techniques, the self motivation to study on their own, the enthusiasm for the position and a positive attitude, then we would certainly give the extra time and effort to try to make it work for the long haul.

Written by Robin Turner, Call Center Manager for PhoneSmart.

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I was speaking one of the managers we secret shop. She was telling me about some of her sales strategies and told me her goal is to provide the most important information to the customer without overwhelming them with too many details.

I thought that was a very wise strategy. Have you ever been to an electronic specialty store? My husband works for a Big Box electronic retail store. Occasionally, I go there to shop with him. From the moment we walk in the door he tells me the details about which speaker has this, what TV has that. I usually follow along pretty well, but when we walk by the appliances he lights up and makes me look at all the new TV/Refrigerator combos and washers and dryers with smart technologies. He tries his sales techniques on me and I always tell him, when the frig cooks the meal and the dryer folds the clothes, I’ll buy it.

I’ve come to expect it. However, your customers usually expect to ask you how much a 5×10 is and hang up to make the next call. They are thankful when a self storage manager takes the time to help them with all their needs and will probably reserve the space on the phone or make an appointment. However, if the manager goes overboard and begins spewing too much information, the caller is turned off.

The manager I was speaking with said she likes to talk about three or four amenities of her location and drive the benefits of them, rather than list too many without personalizing them. Personalizing your store to meet the customer’s needs is an excellent strategy that builds value in the facility.

Written by Sarah Little, TQA Account Executive

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The title speaks for itself. As a property manager or self storage owner, what do you expect to see or hear when you visit your properties? Do you have consistency across your stores? Are all of your employees on the same pages and providing great customer service? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to do some self reflection of your own.

As I am walking around my box, I think to myself, what do I expect out of my business? After I determine that, I ask my associates what they think I expect out of them and what they expect out of me. We sometimes are so caught up in our daily routines that we do not do a check up once in a while to see where our business is at in terms of expectations. 

I made a mystery shop of a self storage manager the other day and I was pleased when they said their regional storage manager was just in and that they are in frequently checking on the facility. You have to know what is going on inside your stores to get a good grasp on what is going on with that particular business. 

As property managers, we have to lay out expectations, follow up to ensure that those expectations are understood, and being met. If we do not do that, how profitable do we expect our business to be?  Whether it is weekly, monthly or quarterly, make an effort to get to all of your people and ensure they are being trained and are executing what they’ve learned when giving a self storage quote.  Here’s a question for you. If you are not training and coaching your people and holding them accountable to their performance, who is?

Written by Joel Little, Experienced Sales Manager

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Here’s what some of our clients think of the Role Play Helpline.

I just did a role play with Jeannette. She was very helpful to me in presenting the move in special. Her approach is really great and I will use it on my next phone call. It is nice to try different approaches and see what works best. 
Jan
 

I just did the role play with Carmen and we both seem to have enjoyed it. She and I both made it relaxing and not intense. We were role playing not able to have a come back response for the customer when they ask us certain question like, is this 99.00 for the whole year for rental of the space? She helped me with selling points as well as telling me the good things I did.  Helping our customers should not be intense but should be enjoyable knowing that we are there when they need us and we have what they need.
Deborah #122 Kansas City Self Storage

I am sending this to let you know that the role playing line has helped me a lot.  I was having problems getting people to give me phone numbers and they helped me by telling me to say, it helps to have a number just in case the unit you need becomes available sooner or so we can call you with any information that might apply to you as a new prospective customer.
They have also helped me to get credit card reservations-by telling self storage customers, you know we are very limited on number of units available-so to assure you have a unit you might want to go ahead and reserve with $10 credit card payment today.  Believe me this has really helped you should see my bonus envelope this month. I was also having problems with keeping customer on line long enough to give them information before the price and they helped me in this area.  They told me to let customer know that I had to wait for the price to come up on the computer and until it does let me tell you about our property and the specials we have to offer. This really works too, as we are getting many more hot leads, etc.
Today I called and spoke to Julio and asked him since we are 95% full and unsure if we would have a certain size available when they needed unit in future-how to handle this.  He helped me by saying we could always let them know don’t have that size at this moment- we do have 2 units that are side by side and we could rent them for the price of the one you want, but would need to hold with credit card.  He also said that if the size they want should become available then we would call them.
So you see the Role Playing hot line helps as well as all the help we get from our upper management. Thanks for being there when we need you and keep up the good work.
Jean Hawkins #1610

If you would like information on how the Role Play Helpline can help your managers contact us at 1-866-639-1715 and ask for the secret shopping department.

Compiled by Natalie Thomas, TQAS executive and business blog writer.

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I recently offered some sales training to a store manager. We were discussing asking for a reservation after building a self storage quote and she felt uncomfortable with closing the sale this way. She said her goal is to get them in the store because once they’re at the facility, they’ll rent. I reasoned with her, but when I explained the reservation like this, she finally understood its importance:

The ultimate goal is to gain a new tenant. A customer shopping on the phone is usually going down the list in the phone book or a short-list they’ve been given. Your goal on the phone should be to get them to crinkle up that list, or close the phone book. The only way to do that is to get strong commitment from them over the phone, until they come into your store. While setting up a site visit is an excellent way to gain commitment, it doesn’t guarantee that they won’t visit another facility or keep calling around. However, if you ask for their credit card to hold the unit, then they’ve put up some collateral, if you will, and they feel ownership towards your facility. Now they’ve forgotten all about the other guys.

If you find yourself a little hesitant when it comes to asking for a credit card, try a phrase like this, Because we have a limited number of units left, let me hold you a space so it’s here when you’re ready. I can hold it with a credit card and you can rent the unit when you come in. What credit card would you like to use today? And when is the best day/ time for you to come in?

Now you’ve created urgency, encouraged a credit card reservation and asked for an appointment all in one smooth close.

Written by: Sarah Little, TQA Account Executive

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Baseball fans are well aware of the Rule of Thirds.  Major league baseball teams are each scheduled 162 games every year.  It is taken for granted that each team will win 54 games, and each team will lose 54 games.  It is what teams do with the other 54 games that determine which ones will make the playoffs!  Tron, our director, has adapted this theory to the training and storage calls we take at the PhoneSmart Contact Center.
 
The first third of our calls are from customers that want to reserve a storage unit right now.  They are often previous tenants, or have been recommended by a friend or business colleague, or have called us before and have made their decision.  As long as the sales rep is friendly and somewhat knowledgeable this caller has every intention of reserving a unit immediately.
 
The second third of our callers have no intention of reserving a storage unit at this time.  Some of these callers do not need a unit for six months, or they are calling for someone else, or they are not even sure if they will need storage.  With these callers it is very important to make an awesome impression on them, so when they (or a loved one) need storage in the future they will come to us.

The last third is the group that needs our sales talent!  They know they need regular self storage or perhaps something more specialized like boat storage, but they have not yet made any decisions.  It is our job as PhoneSmart storage professionals to take this group by the hand and let them know that reserving a storage unit with our assistance is the easiest thing they will do all day!

It is important to keep the Rule of Thirds in mind when assisting storage customers.  Not every caller needs a unit today, but making a great impression is ALWAYS our first priority! Thanks to our great training that is available to help your business also.

Written by Ann Sheehan, PhoneSmart sales rep and business blog writer.

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I just came from St. Louis, MO (100 miles from Jefferson City, MO) where I had some additional management training. The training opened my eyes to many things that I was doing which did not have an impact on my business. The training actually showed me some things I could work on.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to go to AMU, assistant manager university, because it helped me establish a road map to my success. I realized that my business’ potential was astronomical. The only thing that was holding my business back was myself and not ensuring that I have a strong team around me. Through a series of group, self-reflection, and critical thinking activities, I was able to grow more as a leader. I was able to see my business from a distance, and see what areas I had some opportunities in. We were actually given materials that will help us develop on a more documented and tracked basis.

Luckily, for the self-storage and property management industry, there are training programs that PhoneSmart provides. There is secret shopping, which involves calling into a particular business and pretending as if they are a customer looking for assistance. That presentation is evaluated and then sent to site manager and the regional office. For on site training, the director of PhoneSmart will actually fly out to different parts of the country. Another form of training PhoneSmart provides is their training booklets. They have great training and tools that can really help you grow your self storage or boat storage business.

It is good to get a lot of training on a subject matter, but it what you do with that knowledge that makes a difference in the bottom line of your business.

Joel Little, Sales Manager

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