You Like The People Who Come To You

Its essential to be able to work well with your existing customers.  The problem is that there are lots of times when having the ability to initiate the relationship is important.  I’m thinking of networking functions like chamber mixers, business expos, tweet-ups, charity events, etc.

I give you a bunch of suggestions on how to initiate a conversation in this post: Self Storage Networking Events Part 2

Then They Ask… So, What Do You Do?

Once the conversation gets started its almost inevitable that you’ll be asked,  ”So what do you do?”  Here’s a formula for a reply that comfortably gets across not only what you do, but also how you might help the people you talk with.

“Well, you know how some people* have….[INSERT PAIN POINT/PROBLEM]?”
Pause and wait for acknowledgement.
“Well, what I do is…[INSERT ANSWER/SOLUTION].”

*People can be changed out to any target market/ideal client you’d like to substitute it with:  for example, apartment complex managers, housekeepers, etc.

For example, let’s say you approach a real estate agent at a chamber meeting hoping to make a connection that might lead to some referrals. Here’s how it might sound in real life.

“Hi Jane, I’m Kenny.  I’m new to these chamber mixers.”
Jane responds and inevitably asks some variation of… “And what do you do?”
You reply, “Well, Jane, you know how some people need to get stuff out of their homes so that it will look less cluttered, so the house will sell faster?”
“Some people! Sheesh, just about everyone.” replies Jane.
“Well, what I do is make it really easy for people to take care of all of that excess stuff by storing it in a secure and inexpensive self storage space.”

One more example, this time you are talking to a local bank manager (it seems there’s always one at every business mixer).

“Hi I’m Kenny.  I’m kinda new at getting out to these networking events. How about you?”
The banker replies and you start talking.  You ask him what he does and he replies, “I’m a banker with Mega Bank.”  To be polite, he asks you, “And what do you do?”

You see this as your opening to use the formula, and you say something like…
“You know how some of your mortgage customers get stressed out when they move?
“Yeah.”
“Well, what I do is provide clean and inexpensive storage space for people’s furniture and other household stuff while they are moving. My company is called Super-Deluxe Storage.”

Was that helpful?  What do you find works for you?

Thanks to Barbara Lopez

Thanks to Barbara Lopez for this idea.

I sent my team through her self-introduction workshop and it was great.  Each of my store managers came away with a lot more confidence and a dynamic self-introduction.  I highly recommend it.  If you want to set something up for your team, you can call her here: (916) 631-7119
Also, she has lots of good stuff on her blog, Brightfarm Introductions.

photo Credit: Shashi Bellamkonda

More Posts about Self Storage Networking

In a few weeks Inside Self Storage will be hosting their annual self storage conference in Las Vegas. If you are attending (ISS or any conference for that matter) here’s are 15 tips on how to make the most of your investment of money and time by Keith Ferrazzi – Author of Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back. (aff links).

I think you’ll get a lot out of this: Be A Conference Commando

From the intro: “A conference is a huge opportunity to build relationships with extraordinary people, people who might have significant impact on your professional or personal success. To make sure that you maximize the return on your (and your organization’s) investment of time and money to attend, you can’t afford to be a conference commoner. You have to be a Conference Commando.”

Here’s the PDF one more time: Be A Conference Commando

By the way, I’m one of the speakers at this year’s event. I’ll be speaking on Tuesday, March 15th at 9:00 am and sharing my contrarian ideas about motivating managers to sell.

If you are going to be in Las Vegas, I’d love to meet you in person. Shoot me an email and we’ll make sure to connect.

This is the third part of a three-part series. In Self Storage Networking Part 1 I give you some guidance on how to prepare before the event. In Self Storage Networking Part 2 I outline my recommendations for what to do while you are at the event.
Now that you are back from your networking event and you established a positive acquaintance with several people, now is the time for follow-up. Effective follow-up will triple or quadruple the benefit you get from your networking events.

Most likely, the people you talked to don’t currently use storage and aren’t currently shopping for storage.  That’s ok. Effective follow-up will help you become the go-to person for storage if the need ever arises in the future, and it sets you up as the person to whom they will refer friends and clients.

Here are my recommendations about effective follow-up.

When should you follow-up?

First, it is optimal to follow-up with the people you meet within 72 business hours.  That gives you a little wiggle room in your schedule, and is a short enough period of time that if they have forgotten you, they haven’t totally forgotten you.

When you follow-up you are going to make a phone call, send an email, or mail a note.

What should you say?

First,  remind then how they know you.   For example, “We met at the chamber mixer on Wednesday and we talked about the new restaurant on 4th street.” The notes you wrote on the back of their business card are super-helpful for this.

Second, give them your thoughts about the future relationship. This is where you tell them how you might be able to help them or how you might be able to help each other.

• If they currently use storage with a competitor maybe you can offer them a special deep discount to woo them away?
• If, by some miracle, you catch them during the small window of time when they are shopping for a storage unit then you definitely need to follow up. Offer them an incentive to rent with you. The incentive need not be huge, but it will be best if it is at least as good as what they will see in your craigslist postings or on your website.  You don’t want them to feel like you are trying to take advantage of them and your new relationship.

Third, you should try and give them something of value.  This is especially true if they are not going to rent from you right away.

• You might connect them with someone else in your network. Perhaps they sell a certain type of product and could benefit by being introduced to one of your customers.
• You can send them a copy of your store-branded “Guide to Storage”.
• If you have nothing of value to give them right away, don’t worry about it. Don’t let that keep you from following up.   Just let them know you liked meeting them and that you would love to stay in touch.

Keeping the relationship alive

Now that you have the first follow-up contact taken care of you’ll need to maintain the relationship over time.  The nice thing about this is that much of it can be automated.

Email: You can automate your follow-up with a series of email messages. The tool you use for automating you email responses is called an auto-responder. If you sign up for my email newsletter, you’ll see an auto-responder in action.  The auto-responder is how I remember who to send my revenue-building tips to and how I remember when to send them… its all automatic.  Some good choices are Aweber or Constant Contact.

Your auto-response messages can be as simple as “Just Saying hi because I haven’t seen you for awhile.  Is there anything I can do to help you with your business?” .  Or they can be more elaborate information about your referal program or a list of tips on how storing whether at self storage or in their garage.  Lastly, you can send them discounts or offers, especially if they are “exclusive” and offered only to your friends.  I just caution you about overdoing this last one.

Cards: Try Send Out Cards.  Send out cards is like an email auto-responder, but with greeting cards instead.  While email will let you deliver more substative content, nothing beats the warm fuzzies of a greeting card.  Now that everything is done electronically, something sent “snail mail” stands out even more.  You can get started easily with a “retail” account.  Or if you are going to send out a fair amount of cards each month, then you can go for the wholesale account.

LinkedIn: If you followed my recommendations in Part 2 you will have already asked for their permission to connect on LinkedIn.   If they said yes, then this is a no-brainer.  If you never asked, that’s ok.  Look for them on LinkedIn anyway and invite them to connect.  If they accept your invitation, you will likely be the only purveyor of storage in their contact list.  LinkedIn allows you to send a personal message to accompany the invite.  I would recommend you invite them to connect on LinkedIn about the same time you do your initial follow-up.  You can use much of the same personal message you put into your email or note to them in your personal invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

There are many other benefits to connecting on LinkedIn but that is beyond the scope of this article.  Here’s a bunch of nicely organized reference material on smart ways to use LinkedIn if you are interested.

I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn.  Feel free to add me.

Twitter: If you are on Twitter you can follow your acquaintances there.  Twitter will make it very easy for you to learn more about them over time and to have simple, casual interactions with them.  If you are already on Twitter, I’d love to connect with you there too.  You can follow me @sellingstorage and I’ll follow you back for sure.

What if I’m way past 72 hours?

What if its been weeks or months since the encounter, should you just let it go? Negatory good buddy. You should still follow-up. Long overdue follow-up is better than no follow-up. The worst that can happen is that they are unresponsive. If you are nice and just reconnecting one human being to another without really trying to get something out of them,  you will probably be successful.

This is the second part of a three-part series. In this post I outline my recommendations for what to do while you are at the event.  In Self Storage Networking Part 1 I give you some guidance on how to prepare before the event.  In Self Storage Networking Part 3 I give you some strategies about how to follow-up after the event.

Many Self Storage Operators ask their on-site managers to participate in networking groups or events like the Chamber of Commerce. In the last post I discussed how to prepare for a networking event as a self storage professional. In this post I discuss what to do when you are actually at an event like a chamber mixer or ribbon cutting.

Here are 7 things you can do to make participation in these events more useful.

Show up physically
Relationships aren’t built on one interaction.  To be useful, people have to get familiar with you before they will think of you when they need storage.

Showing up regularly means you will get to know some of the other regulars and you will be able to act as a proxy host when new or unfamiliar people are in attendance.  You can introduce the new people to others they might think are interesting and gain a new friend at the same time. All newcomers appreciate when others help them get acquainted with the group and help them feel welcome.

Show up emotionally
This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway.  Smile and be positive.  No one likes a grump.

Put yourself out there
Walk up to someone and offer your hand.  A simple conversation starter that is honest, fun, and positive is the self-disclosure opening.

In the most simple version you would simply walk up to someone, offer your hand, and say, “Hi, I’m _____ . I don’t know anyone here.”  This opening works well because it appeals to another human being’s inherent helpful nature.

Here are some variations:

1. I’m new here
2. today’s my first day
3. I just joined
4. I’m a first-timer
5. I’ve never been to one of these before
6. I know nothing about…
7. I’m kind of new to…
8. I’m brand new at this whole…
9. You know I always wanted to try this

If you need more ideas – check out these ideas for starting a conversation

Be interesting
Don’t just talk about your business. You want something they are going to remember when you follow up with them. Ask them questions.   Here is Scott’s list on how to be the most interesting person you know.

Be focused
Don’t dart your eyes around, wondering who else is in the room. When you are engaged with one person, treat them as the most important person in the world. Make them feel important and they will like you.  When the small talk winds down you can always ask…

Do they currently use storage?
It would be a bad idea to talk only about storage, but one good question that should be asked is if they are currently using storage.  If no, then they are a prospective customer who you are making a relationship with.  If they are currently a self storage user maybe you can lure them away from a competitor if your offer is good enough.

If your contact is a self storage user and If you have vacancy to fill,  you have nothing to lose by making a generous offer to entice them over to your location because any revenue generated by this new relationship is revenue you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Prepare for the follow-up
Here are three simple recommendations to help you prepare for the follow-up phase.

1. Ask for their business card and write down something you learned about them and what you talked about on the back of their business card.
2. Ask permission to connect online on LinkedIn.  If they have an account this is an easy one to say yes to. Although don’t be concerned if they are very closed with their network.  Some people only want to connect with the people they know very well.
3. Ask permission to send them some promotional stuff.  Asking permission is important because you want the stuff you send to be anticipated and welcome.

This is the first part of a three-part series. In this post I discuss what to do before you attend a networking event like a chamber mixer or ribbon cutting. In Self Storage Networking Part 2 I outline my recommendations for what to do while you are at the event.  In Self Storage Networking Part 3 I give you some strategies about how to follow-up after the event.

Many Self Storage Operators ask their on-site managers to participate in networking groups or events like the Chamber of Commerce. Here are 3 things you can do (or help your on-site manager do) before you go to a networking event that will make participation in these events more useful.

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1. Create an account on LinkedIn. Linkedin is like facebook for professionals. If you are reading my blog I trust you have heard of Linkedin. Having an account on Linkedin will allow you to connect online with the people you meet at the networking events.
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   • One secondary point here. If you are brand new to linkedin spend some time to connect with some people you already know. In this way, when you invite a relative stranger to connect with you they don’t look at your profile and see that you only have one other connection. That might not leave the right impression.
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2. Gather your networking gear.
   • Business Cards
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   • A name tag with your name on it in case they don’t have any at the event. A name tag instantly makes you more approachable. It bellows “I’m ready to talk with someone.” You might think this is overkill. I call it being prepared. A name tag makes your experience better. Period.
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   • I believe this so much that the last one-day conference I attended they didn’t provide name tags, so I found some packing tape and a piece of paper and made my own. Here’s my improvised name tag.
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   • A pen so you can write notes on people’s business cards after you talk to them. Simply write something that will help you remember the interaction and will help you personalize your follow-up.
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3. Be prepared with three topics to dialogue about. I chose the word dialogue because it implies that both parties will be talking. These are not topics for you to talk about. Most people are not interested in your specialty. In fact, when you are first meeting someone you should be prepared to start a conversation and keep it going with comments and questions, but let the other person do the majority of the talking. Here are some suggestions for topics to get your brain going.
   • The venue or the sponsoring organization. You may not know anything about the person you engage in conversation; however, your physical location and the organization that is sponsoring the meeting are two things you will have in common with whoever you are talking to.
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   • The other person’s work. “So, what do you do?”
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   • A current event. “So, what do you think about [fill in current event]?”
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   • Bonus: Just jump on whatever conversation starter the other person brings up and go with it.
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