Imagineone of your managers or fellow employees pouring buckets of your facilitys money into a sewer drain. Its not a pretty sight, is it? Yet every day, well-meaning but poorly trained self-storage salespeople (or consultants, as we like to call them) do just that because they do not use an effective sales presentation to turn more prospects into tenants.

Most of us spend a great deal of money on Yellow Pages advertising and other marketing with the intention of getting the phone to ring and luring prospects through the door. But how much do we spend to make sure employees consult and not just take orders when those phones ring or customers visit? Are your employees selling your sites services and products or merely quoting prices?

Unless your facility is the only one in town and you have to turn customers away, you owe it to yourself and the value of your property to invest in an effective sales program. Why?

Building an Effective Presentation

Be prepared. Many storage operators think their sales program starts with their initial greetingwrong! You cant afford to have prospects be guinea pigs. You have to know what you are doing before the phone rings or a customer walks in your door. Preparation means developing effective sales skills, knowing the benefits and features of your site, and knowing what the competition is up to. You and your employees should be experts in the market. Dont let customers tell you what the competitors are doingbeat them to the punch.

Establish a greeting. Its cliché but its true: You dont get a second chance to make a first impression. How you greet a prospective customer sets the tone for the new relationship. There are eight simple steps to a perfect greeting:

Discover their needs. You cant know what a prospect needs without asking pertinent, professional questions. For example, never just ask what size unit he needs. You are the experthelp him determine the correct size by asking questions. Personalize the experience by being customer-specific. When possible, use open-ended questions. Listen to how the customer responds, and build agreement on the features he wants using soft closes: So you feel the climate-controlled space would be best for your needs?

Add value. Most prospective tenants believe all self-storage is the same. This is your chance to convince them otherwise. You add value to your product by citing six to 10 of the most important features of your facility and including a benefit for each. Features refer to the sites attributes and amenities. They are particularly valuable if they are things the competition does not offer.

The why behind the feature is the benefit. When you explain why a prospect should care about or want particular features, it answers his question, Whats in it for me? You must add a benefit to the features you mention, or you end up using technical jargon your new customer will not understand. He may not feel comfortable asking you to clarify.

Overcome objections. The most important thing to know about objections is you must be prepared and expect them. They are a natural part of the sales process. An objection can indicate you have not given your prospect enough information or clearly understood his needs. When faced with a prospects doubt:

Close the sale. If you have done everything else correctly, closing the sale will be easy. Remember, the prospect has come to you to solve his problem. But if you dont ask for the rental, everything else you have done was a waste of time. Following are some closing options. The closing technique you use is not critical; what is important is to close the sale.

There is no better investment you can make in your self-storage facility than an effective sales-training program. A great presentation relieves the pressure on rates and gives you the advantage you need to increase occupancy, revenues and site value.

Bob Copper is the founder of Self-Storage 101, a provider of do-it-yourself management tools. The company empowers managers and owners to take control of their assets and compete with institutional players at a fraction of the cost. For more information, call 866.269.1311; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.selfstorage101.com.

RK Kliebenstein is the president of Coast-To-Coast Storage. He can be reached at 561.638.1851 or via e-mail at [email protected].