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Liz Langesteiner, a bilingual customer care specialist speaks out about looking for a “special” special.

Welcome to the PhoneSmart property management blog, the ins and outs of property management and commercial management.

When is a special price really a special price?

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution
Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry
Self Storage Search Engine Self Storage in North Dakota

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Could this happen to you?

1) How in the world did Lennon’s diary end up in my facility?

2) Will my insurance cover this?

3) No, really, how in the world did Lennon’s diary end up in my facility?

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution

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Sarah Little reminds us of the importance of cleanliness

Self Storage Search Engine Storage in: Alabama

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution

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Angela Lechtenberg guest blogger explores the reason she saves things

Welcome to the Phone Smart property management blog, an insider look at the self-storage industry

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution

PhoneSmart Your Source for Lead Generation

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

Self Storage Search Engine Storage in: Texas

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Self Storage Education Learn about the Self Storage Industry

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

Secret Shopping Blog Your inside peek

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Authored by: Sarah E. Little

Self Storage Education Learn about the Self Storage Industry

Secret Shopping Blog Your inside peek

Total Quality Assurance Services

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Sarah

Self Storage Insurance MiniCo: where the pros go

Self Storage Education Learn about the Self Storage Industry

StorageMart: Maryland Brand new facility

Secret Shopping Blog Your inside peek

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PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution

Secret Shopping Your Inside Peak

Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

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Most of us would agree that it is better to have a sales savvy staff than not. Our business requires some intense customer interaction. The person at the front desk wearing your logo shirt is the reason people choose to store with you or with your competitor. When a tenant has a problem, it is your staff person’s ability to handle the problem that makes the difference.

So how do you attract sales savvy people? You have to build the culture first. A lot of lip service is paid to the whole idea of a company culture. The fact is though that every workplace has its own feel and its own unwritten rules. This is your culture. A culture revolves around language, shared stories and myths, legends of heroes, rituals and all those unwritten rules. When your culture encourages selling and the development of selling skills you have created a workplace where sales savvy people are comfortable and can excel.

Start talking the language of sales. Speak of qualifying questions, alternate choice closes, concerns and assurances, assumptive statements, closing percentages and missed opportunities. Learn the keywords and code words that help your staff keep “Sales” at the front of their minds.

Share stories and myths about selling. There is a great story about a young kid straight out of high school who went to work for a department store that sold everything you could imagine in one location. At the end of the day, the owner of the store went to check on the “new kid” and asked how many customers the new hire had helped in his first day. The owner was shocked and dismayed to hear that the kid had only helped one customer that day. The owner asked the kid to explain. He told how he had offered a man a fishing hook, only to find that the man had no rod, no reel and no tackle. After getting all the fishing gear picked out, the kid found that the man had no fishing boots or outdoor clothes. After helping the man find the right boots, pants, jacket and hat, the man realized he had no boat. So the kid took his customer to the boat department and helped him select a boat and an appropriate trailer. When the man mentioned he would have trouble hauling the boat with his Volkswagen, the young sales clerk took the customer to the truck department and helped him pick out a new pickup truck with not only a towing package , but also with a CD and DVD player. Finally at 4:45 in the afternoon, the customer who had been with the young salesman since 10:30 am had everything he could possibly need for a weekend of fishing. The owner of the store was amazed. He asked, “You sold all this merchandise to a man who came in to buy a fishing hook?” The kid replied, “Well actually I started the day in the pharmacy and the customer asked me where the tampons were. I took him to them and happened to say, ‘Looks like it a good weekend to go fishing’”

There are all kinds of fun stories about sales people. There are some great cartoons, too. Have you ever seen the Far Side cartoon featuring the King of Salesmen? He is waving good-bye from a boat as he pulls away from a shore-side Eskimo village. The Eskimos are standing proudly by their new refrigerators waving back. You can tell their fondness for the salesman in the sad expression on their faces.

There are sales stories like the Rule of Thirds that says one group of potential renters will rent from you anyway, as long as you don’t chase them off, because they already like your location or they know someone who has rented from you. Your job is to not talk yourself out of this sale. Another group isn’t going to rent no matter what because their needs will change or their needs are too far in the future. If you are nice to these folks, they will remember you when it is time to rent. Then there is a large group, the third group, which could go either way. These are the people you need to use your best sales and listening skills with.

Talk about the legends of great sales feats that have happened in your business. You can talk about the time one of your staff had a record rental day. Talk bout the funny and different ways your staff has asked for the rental and gotten it. At PhoneSmart, we still talk about the day that one of our reps, Dana, reserved 7 10x 20s for one caller. We still try to beat Paula’s eight hour record of 23 credit card reservations.

You can establish rituals, like the manner in which you make notes on your call logs, the way you stand up to greet a customer walking through your front door, the way you turn the lease toward new tenants, so they can see where to initial and sign. Look at the things you do in your selling routine and allow some of these to become your rituals.

Then there are the unwritten rules. The rule that you end no rental inquiry without asking which day the person would like to move in; the rule that says, no eating at the front counter; the rule that says look everyone in the eye when you greet them. You probably have many rules that work in selling your facility to new tenants and re-selling your facility to current tenants. Let everyone know what the rules are so they can use them.

Now that you have created a selling culture, go about attracting people who are sales savvy. Start with some qualifying hoops. We hire telesales reps at PhoneSmart. The first hoop a potential new hire jumps through is the recorded audition. When someone calls the “Employment hotline” they are invited to talk about themselves and their experience on a voicemail message. We listen to the messages and only call back the people who sound great on the phone, use visuals in their story and sell themselves well. You can do the same thing. Many people call your stores before they come to see it. Your telephone impression is essential to getting the rental. Why not hire only people who sound great on the phone?

How do you get people to inquire about your positions? What do you call your positions? Do you look for managers, sales assistants, marketing reps, retail sale people? Think this issue before advertising or promoting an opening. You will generally get what you ask for in an ad.

Why not secret shop any potential new hires? Do a telephone interview with them if they pass your recorded audition. If you like how the person deals with you on the phone and sells himself on the phone, find out where he is currently employed. Wait a day and call his place of work and secret shop the person. Pretend to be a prospective or current customer of that business and see how you are treated. This will tell you a lot. Did your potential hire ask for your business, try to fix your problem, attempt to cross-sell or up-sell?

When you call your potential hire in for a personal interview, create a test that will weed out the “wrong” people for the job. It can be frustrating when a person interviews very well and then turns out to be totally wrong for the position. I hired someone for a PhoneSmart position with a good resume and appropriate work history who interviewed very well. As soon as the other team members found out I hired this person, I had several of them ask me if I was nuts. Apparently this person had been rude and even somewhat hostile to three or four people while waiting in the break room for me to start the interview. So now we do “The break room test “. We intentionally leave a person waiting for the interview in the break room for five or ten minutes. We have a team member pass through and say “hello” on the way through to see the person’s reaction. Then another team member comes in and apologizes that the interviewer will be right there and says sorry about the wait. If the person does not have a natural, friendly reply for the person saying hello, and if the person is not cordial and patient when asked to wait a little longer, that is a short interview and a “No hire”. I honestly believe that this break room test has almost entirely eliminated unsuitable people and has cut our turnover in initial trainees dramatically. Create your own version of this “Break room test”. You will be very pleased with the result.

Another great test is the “sell me something” test. During your i

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This message comes from our friend Angela Lechtenberg:

That Time of Year Again!

According to the Soap and Detergent Association’s (SDA) Spring Cleaning survey, 60% of Americans still think that springtime is the best time to de-clutter and clean out all the junk accumulated throughout the year. It makes them feel good. 98% of those surveyed said that having clean surrounding make them feel better about themselves.

The survey, conducted by International Communications Research also showed that 97% of those surveyed believed that those around them appreciate having clean surroundings and that things last longer if they are cleaned properly.

What does this mean to you? Having a clean office and property shows respect to your tenants and potential clients. It also means that you take care of things well and are capable of taking care of their needs. It has other benefits as well. You will be happier and healthier if you keep your surroundings neat and clean (keeping things clean can reduce your changes of getting asthma, allergies and other illnesses).

So now that spring is almost here again – your chance to throw open the doors and windows and get everyone together for a good old-fashioned spring-cleaning. “Spring” for “pizza and soda for all” for lunch and make it a team building exercise as well. You could go a step further and offer small prizes for winners of categories i.e. shiniest windows, fastest organizer, etc. You’ll all have fun and take pride in what you’re doing at the same time.

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