If you are like most self storage managers you don’t really think you can read minds, you just act like you do.
Before I started training our store managers to win business through effective self storage sales, they would just tell people what they thought they wanted to hear.
I remember one store manager telling a prospective customer about nine or ten features: everything from our gate hours, to our security cameras, to the height of the ceilings, to the fact that she lived on-site. The problem was she never asked the customer what was important to him, so she just dumped it all out there.
Sales is all about building a bridge between what the prospect wants and what you have to offer. Was she building that bridge? Who knows. Are you surprised that the prospect wanted to keep shopping around?
You know more about self storage than 99% of the population. But no matter how much you know about storage, you can’t read minds. All of your efforts to counsel and help should begin with what your customer wants and needs. If you are guessing at what to talk about, then you are talking about things that are undoubtedly irrelevant or unimportant to your prospective customer. When what you are talking about isn’t relevant to the prospect, you would be better off not talking. You are wasting their time, and they aren’t listening anyway.
Stop reading minds and start asking a few questions.
If you feel so inclined, leave your suggestions for good questions in the comments.
Photo Credit: Gurumustuk Singh