Small Town

Welcom to the self storage blog, a window on the self storage industry.

I was talking to a self storage insider this morning who I’ve known for a few years. Industry vendors tend to have a circle of acquaintances they enjoy visiting with at the trade shows. Chuck Slagle from Bader Insurance is a person I always enjoy seeing. I was visiting with him about a client today and he mentioned the self storage blog from the other day where I broke the ownership group into those who are just taking cash out of their property and those who are trying to run a business.

Chuck has been promoting tenant insurance for years to the self storage industry and has seen a long sales cycle. I agreed with him that I also see a long sales cycle in our business.

Chuck thinks it is because the storage business is a little like a small town. He didn’t mean it in anyway to be disrespectful. But I think he has a point. People in a small town like to do business with people who have been around for a while. They aren’t so comfortable with new-comers. Small town folks like to wait and see how you do for their neighbors and see if there is any “bad talk” about you.

They also like to see people compete for their business and like to wait to see who is left standing. Small town folks love new gadgets and new business models. Only they don’t like them for themselves. They like to follow the trends and watch them to see what happens. Then when they feel comfortable that you are no longer a new-comer and that you have “paid your dues”, they will walk up to you and say, “OK. Show me what you’ve got to offer. I think I’m interested.”

Offering tenant insurance seems like a “no-brainer”. But there are still lots of operators who aren’t offering it. It will be interesting to see how the self storage market continues to develop.

bye for now, Tron

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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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