October 1, 2001

6 Min Read
Inside Self-Storage Magazine 10/2001: Prospect in a Pickle?

Prospect in a Pickle?

By Harley Rolfe

Yourprospect is in a pickle. He believes you can get him out of it, but you're notsure you need to know much about his particular problem. That's just wrong. Hispredicament is your ticket to offering him a meaningful sales proposal. The moreyou know about his situation, the better your proposition can be.

Your mission as a marketer is to deliver appeals that sing for every kind ofuser. But there's a catch. While your product is the same for everyone, eachdifferent class or kind of user wants storage for a distinctive purpose. That'san anomaly: identical product for all, yet dissimilar benefits. It is unlikelythere is one "song" that will work for all prospects. What issignificant to one is irrelevant to the others. That's our challenge andopportunity, and is at the core of thinking like a marketer.

You're Not Serious?!

I can hear it now: "Are you kidding? You mean I need a different appealfor each kind of user? That may mean 20 different messages!" Let's hope so.I hope you do have a large number of potential prospect "pickles" towhich you can respond. It's a fact: You cannot entice a lawyer with the sameangle you use with a new family moving into town, so don't try. It won't work.Why should it? They are totally separate market segments.

Keep in mind, people generally volunteer themselves into their particularsegment. Whether they're moving to a new home or leaving the area, people arevitally interested in the success of whatever task they have at hand. It makesthem quite responsive to appeals based on their specific group. You get theirattention when you focus your sales approach directly on their current problemsor projects.

You will appeal to a given segment by claiming you understand its specificproblem and have a solution to it. Be sure you live up to that promise. You haveraised your prospect's expectations for a reason--you want him to stop regardingyou as a commodity. If he does, he knows instinctively he will pay a premium. Toabandon his tendency to choose the cheapest option, he requires you knowsomething specific about his situation and help him in ways the facility downthe street cannot. Accomplish this, and you will have made yourself a choice ofone for that segment. This is one of the classic marketing ploys for subduingthe effects of commodity price competition.

All Segments Are Not Created Equal

The marketer hopes for several characteristics among the various marketsegments. The characteristics of a useful segment include:

  • The segment should be sizeable and significant enough to justify spending time and, perhaps, money to reach it.

  • There should be some form of media available to reach the segment. (It is frustrating to develop an appropriate message for a particular group and have no practical way to deliver it.)

  • There should be some method available to track the overall growth of the segment and determine what percentage of your market it represents.

  • There should be structured distribution of individual members. Why? Read on.

Not all important segments feature all of these characteristics. It's justeasier for you if they do. What is key is to identify your good segments, thenfigure out how to solve for the other supporting elements. That's why I suggestyou start with your current tenants to determine which uses/problems havealready gravitated in your direction. Your tenants--current and past--haveindividually evaluated their own situation and found in your favor. It's bestyou find out why.

Unstructured vs. Structured Segments

Generally speaking, economics limit the use of general media in self-storage(TV, newspapers, radio, etc.). The larger the city, the truer this becomes. Thething we hope for as we develop an organized approach to marketing is todiscover structured segments. Here's why:

Unstructured segments are those that appear at random. There is no way toidentify the next guy who will decide his garage is too stuffed and it's time tomove the "big toys" to storage. You don't know who or where these guysare, but you know they're out there. If you want to reach that segment, you'restuck with general media. Much of the formation of your marketing program willbe determining how or whether to tolerate general media costs when you have asalient message to deliver.

Now check out this little vignette as an example of structured segments:There are a number of small retailers in a nearby shopping mall. At present,many use some of their high-priced space for storage rather than sales. Theycould increase their income per square foot if they could just free up thatstorage space. Boy, do you have a deal for them! Trot right down to one of thosestores and give it your proposition. Once you get one store on board, you'llhave a testimonial you can use in some direct-mail pieces to the others.

For example, first determine how much space each store in the mall is usingfor storage. Then compose an individualized direct-mail piece showing yourinterest and knowledge about each of them. That's not junk mail--that's usefuldata, particular to those prospects. After you have softened them up, you canmove in for the close. When you discover a segment that is structured, you havea distinct marketing advantage.

The finer you can break down your facility's segments, the more likely youare to uncover the structured ones. And they're worth looking for. Usingdirected media requires more knowledge, but allows you to deliver a deadliermessage and avoid the general media rat race.

Classes of Characteristics

Segments have two general classes of characteristics: those relating to theirdesirability to the self-storage operator and application characteristics.Preferred unit size would be one of the former, as well as payment habits andlength of stay. In examining existing tenants, you already have thisinformation. These help you to sift through the segments you have discovered inyour facility and decide which to pursue in the public.

The other set of characteristics is applications-oriented. Here you need toknow what kind of activity or business you are dealing with plus its specificapplication for self-storage. It is not enough to know lawyers are usingself-storage without also knowing how and why they use it. Identify the use orproblem being solved for each segment. The self-storage industry is blessed withhaving appealed to so many categories of users over the years. Your job is tocapitalize on what your tenants can tell you about why they're spending moneywith you each month.

Most self-storage operators become interested in marketing because of concernabout destructive price competition. That can only only occur when severalsuppliers are seen as "the same" by prospects. Your goal is to seemdifferent from the others. You can attack price competition by making yourself asingle source for each segment. If you can't have one big monopoly, how about 20smaller ones? This will be accomplished when you understand the pickle yourprospect is in--then help him to get out of it.

Harley Rolfe is a semi-retired marketing specialist whose career includesexecutive-level marketing positions with General Electric and AT&T. He alsoowned lodging and office facilities for more than 20 years. Mr. Rolfe holds abachelor's degree in economics from Wabash College and a master's degree inbusiness administration from the University of Indiana. He can be reached at hishome in Nampa, Idaho, at 208.463.9039. Further information can also be found inMr. Rolfe's book, Hard-Nosed Marketing for Self-Storage.

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