The demanding ones

Welcome to the self storage blog, our diary of our involvement in the self storage industry. Our blog entry today is from a new self storage insider, PhoneSmart sales rep, Jeanette.

“The Difficult Kind”

‘How much is it to store for a month?!” demands a lady caller curtly
“Do you know where were located at 1144 Clayton Ave?” I counter.
“Of course- how much is it?”
“Of course, first let me tell you a little about our facility…”
“ I don’t care! Just tell me how much it is!”
(Sigh) Here we go again…

When this type of call begins I almost immediately begin to feel irritation seeping in, beginning in my left ear. I am instinctively annoyed that as soon as I pick up the phone, I am barraged with a stream of loud, demanding questions. These callers can wreak havoc on our nerves. They call us and immediately try to control the flow of conversation. Handled incorrectly these calls can easily be a prospective sale lost. So I take a deep breath, get focused, and go to work on the particular approaches that please these callers.

Remember, these people are very straight to the point and have little patience for what they don’t want to hear. You really have to work for this genre. By feeling them out; mirroring the manner in which they speak, you can usually at least get on their wavelength. If they speak quickly, I speak quicker. By breaking into the conversation in the short gap of time allowed, or politely interrupting, I’ve found that one can regain control of the conversation and the implied power struggle also dissipates.

This genre often possesses great characteristics, like self-motivation and ambition. More often than not, these people meet their deadlines and conduct business in a very efficient time-is-money manner. So, understandably these characteristics transfer over to their personal business affairs. Although it is usually hard to get a word in edge-wise with these people, when presented with features and amenities that make our facilities a cut above the rest in a pragmatic, no-nonsense sort of manner, these people take notice. These people are a descriptive manifestation of the targeted 1/3rd of prospects you really have to work to get, and they are often the most demanding. However, they are also the most likely to intricately evaluate what we have to offer and figure that into the value of our storage and not just consider the price.

You might be tempted to let your instinctive annoyance cloud your selling skills, in which case you will not rent to these prospects. If instead, you help them realize that your offering fits nicely into their demanding and time-is-money approach, you will rent to them.

These prospects are just as quick to say , “OK, I’ll be in tomorrow. Here is my credit card number” after you have helped them as they are quick to say, “Just give me the price” early in the conversation.

Jeanette

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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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