Are Self Storage Sites Ready To Sell?

We have been doing an informal survey every time our director travels to a different market. He picks up the local print edition of the phone book and calls through the major ads under the term Self Storage.  He will start with the big ads and keep calling until he has made 15 or 20 calls to self storage unit facilities. He asks a simple question of each person who answers the phone. He asks what the office hours are. This is a great invitation for the person on the other end of the phone to say, And will you need a self storage unit today?

What do you think the results were? In every market, only 2 or 3 out of ten people answering the phone bothered to ask if the caller needs a self storage unit. The rest simply said what the office hours were and ended the conversation. This is incredible? Self storage unit owners spend thousands of dollars a month on advertising of all sorts and yet when a phone call comes through to their storage facilities the odds are 70 percent that the person answering is NOT a sales person.

Our company thought that these informal surveys about the self storage unit were too informal and took the results from the 150 phone calls the director made last year and added another 350 calls made by our sales reps during slower phone traffic times in the last few weeks.

In the end there were over 500 phone calls made to self storage stores in over 15 markets. The first result that should be alarming to a self storage unit owner is this, only 68 percent of the calls were answered by a live person. The calls were made during business hours and yet 3 out of 10 calls went to voicemail or rang 10 times with no answer. This means that at least 30 percent of the money that self storage unit owners spend on making the phones ring is wasted. This also means that if a self storage property uses a call center for taking calls, it is getting plenty of business from competitors because those competitors do not answer the phones.

Of the 68 percent of the 500 storage businesses where someone actually answers the phone, only 31 percent of the staff people who heard the question about office hours asked about the self storage unit. This means 3 out 10 self storage unit places are staffed with people who are prepared to sell on the phone. Of the original 500 calls, only 340 were answered by a live person. Of the 340, only 105 were answered by a sales person. Only105 of the 500 calls were treated appropriately. That is a 21 percent rate of sales proficiency. The other calls were answered only by a live person.

Other surveys have indicated that many self storage unit consumers call several different storage facilities before choosing one to do business with. Our companies storage sales readiness survey may shed some light on that. Based on the survey results, it may take 3 or 4 phone calls to get through to someone who is an actual sale person and can help the caller rent a self storage unit.

New York Storage Units

Chelsea Mini Storage

South Nashville, 14985 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN 37211

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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