Follow Up Workshop Owner’s Guide

Intro

I want you to have the best experience possible with the Follow Up Workshop, so I’ve created this guide to share some of my thoughts and experiences rolling out the follow up workshop to my locations. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll notice that the comments are open. This means that you can add and share your own insights also. Also, feel free to ask (and answer) questions. I’ll pop in and give my perspective as well.

3 Easy Ways To Ensure Your Property Manager Is Consuming The Training

Set a schedule for completion. In my experience one session per week is an easy pace for any self storage manager to keep. This will put them through the entire workshop in 5 weeks and it will give them some time to experiment with one set of concepts before moving on to the next set of concepts.

A 3 minute review of the completed workbook for each session is an easy way to enforce accountability. Each session has a workbook that helps property managers review the concepts and apply them to their specific circumstances. I was careful to design the workbooks so that they build on the concepts in each session and are not just busywork.

Ask your property managers to submit a copy of their fully-annotated written version. Included in the workshop is an audio and a written version for each session. I designed the written version with a wide margin for taking notes and jotting down ideas. If you want something more than the completed workbook, ask your property manager to make margin notes and to annotate the text with underlines and circles around concepts they found useful and to share the annotated version with you.

How To Help Your Managers Understand What They Are Learning

You want your store managers to consume the content AND understand it. Here are some ways you can ensure comprehension.

I recommend all of the direct supervisors go through the Follow Up Workshop along with their direct reports. There is no need to buy additional copies for your supervisors. Simply use the login credentials from one of your store locations. If you have trouble logging in with the credentials from one of your locations, email me (kenny@sellingstorage.com) and I’ll send you a personal login.

Review the completed workbooks but take a closer look. If you had your managers submit their completed workbooks as a way to ensure they consume the material, but you didn’t really take a close look, you might want to spend a few extra minutes actually reading through the questions and their responses. It will make more sense to you if you have consumed the workshop as well, but even if you haven’t, you will often be able to tell if your manager is off track.

Have your property managers ask me questions in the comments. One benefit to owning a version of the follow up workshop for each of your stores is that I’m available to give detailed answers to your manager’s specific questions in the comments section at the bottom of the page for each session of the workshop. For example, below is a question asked by a participant about session 5 of the workshop and my answer.

Question: Kenny, I am curious as to how often to keep calling when I keep getting the prospective customer’s mother. The prospect had an appointment 5 days ago that she didn’t come in for. In follow up, I have yet, in 4 days, to call when the prospect is home. I have talked to the mom every time, and she says she will tell her daughter to call, but I have not heard from her yet. Do I continue to call at different times every day, or do I wait a few days now, so I don’t annoy mom to the point that the daughter goes somewhere else? As of yet, she has not signed a contract anywhere. Thank you, Paula

Answer: Paula, Well done following up after the missed appointment. That is the right thing to do. I’m understanding that the trouble you are having is that you are not connecting with the person you are trying to reach by calling the number you have for the prospect. One of the principles of effective follow up is to use multiple channels of communication. The real key here is to transform your conversations with the mother (or whoever answers the phone) from unproductive to productive by obtaining other ways of contacting the prospective customer. Each time you are unsuccessful at reaching the prospect you should use that as an opportunity to ask for a mobile number, a work number, and an email address. If you want to build in some urgency to your request you could do that by saying something like, “I offered your daughter a special rate and I would like to make sure she doesn’t miss out. Do you have her cell phone number?” Then you pause and wait for the mom to answer. There might be a moment of awkward silence, but that is good because it tells the mom that it is her turn to talk and puts subtle pressure on her to give you the number. If she refuses to give you the cell phone number or makes an excuse like, “I don’t have her number,” or “She doesn’t have a cell phone,” then I would follow up with a request for an email address.

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In this case, since you have made several attempts and keep getting the mom, she may begin to wish you would go away. I would recommend you ask again, but maybe phrase it differently. Something like, “I’m sorry to keep bothering you. What is a better way to reach ?”

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In your case i would call at least one more time to try to get the alternative contact info. In the future, if you know the prospect’s decision deadline (I.e the day she needs the unit – like the day she has to be out of her apartment, or the day her sister is moving in and she has to have the spare bedroom cleared out, etc.) then I would give the intense follow up a break after a few days of trying until a day or two before the decision deadline. Then I would use the imminent deadline as a reason to call/email/text again. I would say something like, “It’s been a while since we talked, but you mentioned that you were going to need a storage space by tomorrow. I just wanted to check in and see what your plans were and how I can help you store your things. Are you still in the market for a storage space?” If I was leaving a message I would say, “Hi this is Kenny at Super Lockdown Storage. You mentioned you were going to need storage by tomorrow. I have a great storage space set aside for you. Give me a call at 916-555-1212 so we can finalize the details. Again, that’s 916-555-1212. Talk to you soon!”

Make one of your managers the teacher. If you have more than one employee who is going through the workshop and one seems to understand the concepts particularly well, have that person act as a mentor for your other property managers.
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If you sense a member of your team doesn’t really understand part of the workshop, pair the person struggling to implement a specific concept with someone who is having success, so that the successful manager can help the person who is struggling. Generally the person asked to be the “teacher/mentor” is flattered that you have recognized their good understanding. The teacher/mentor also learns the concepts more deeply by teaching them. The person who needs help is able to get the support they need.

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A few more ideas that take some involvement from you or another trusted employee.
1. Ask your self storage property manager to teach the concept back to you. Or, even better, ask them to explain the ideas to a coworker while you listen in.
2. Ask them to practice the skill with you. There’s no better way to help them progress toward mastery.
3. Don’t have time to practice with your property manager? Or you think it would be too uncomfortable? Then let them practice on their own, but set a time to get together again so that your property manager can demonstrate his or her mastery.

Ideas to Boost Implementation After the Workshop

After your managers have been through all of the session of the workshop you might find that some of them are reluctant to embrace some of the concepts and actually change their behavior and to do things more effectively. My advice is to ignore the reluctant ones at first and instead find the managers who are quick to embrace the concepts in the workshop and begin to have positive results.

Once you have identified a success story, make sure it is told to your broader organization. Ideally the person who had the success will be able to share the details themselves. The best way to embrace a new idea is to try it for yourself and find personal success. But since some people are reluctant to try, hearing a first-hand account of someone who tried and then found success is the next best thing.

Pro Tip: Let the successful manager tell his or her story. Avoid the urge to skip to the end and just rattle off a result. Skipping to the end would sound something like “I used the follow up workshop and I got 2 rentals because of my follow up.” Skipping to the conclusion may be better than nothing, but not as engaging as a story that started at the beginning, worked its way through the challenges, gave details about how the follow up workshop was used, and included specifics about how the prospective customer reacted to the follow up. The story then concludes with how it resulted in the two rentals and how the store manager continues to use the follow up tactics.

Instead of badgering your reluctant managers into compliance, inspire them with the tales of your successful managers. The success stories re-write the mental maps of the people who listen. They see that a peer is having success. They see the cause and effect as illustrated by the success story. They conclude, on their own, that they can do the same.

One way I facilitate the storytelling when I’m rolling out a new initiative (whether the Follow Up Workshop or some marketing program) is to have a weekly conference call with my managers. This weekly conference call becomes the platform for those who have been having success to share their stories. I ask them to describe the challenges or reluctance they faced and how they overcame it.

One last observation

Motivation is not the same as skill.

There will be some of your managers who succeed with the follow up workshop more easily than others because they are better communicators. Some will find success more easily because they are more able to put themselves in the shoes of their prospects and because of their greater ability for empathy they will be able to be very persistent without crossing the line into annoyance.

So, if you sense that your store manager wants to do a good job, but still struggles, you might need to work with them a little more closely. You might need to have them do some practice role-playing with you or a co-worker. If you really get stuck, email me and I’ll give you a hand.