The Self Storage Blind Spot

Where the Self Storage Industry Is Missing It

An article written by the president of a storage marketing firm recently appeared on a well known self storage media web page. The article gave self storage owners a healthy dose of the reality of how competitive the current self storage market has become. The article told the story of how self storage owners that once had effortless profits are now in a crowd of other local self storage facilities because supply has caught up with demand. Future tenants use Yellow Pages and more increasingly, the Internet to search for storage. Competition has created innovative marketing plans as self storage owners are all vying for higher occupancy in the same pool of tenants.

The article inspired self storage business owners to get their head in the game by aiming towards high profit and occupancy by understanding competition and implementing a strong marketing campaign. This could not be more right! The self storage industry has been found out by business owners and investors looking for profitable business. There are now more rentable square feet in the United States than ever before and the cost of renting that square foot is rising.

The article also offered some marketing insight by stating that more than 29.5 million consumers used the Internet to find self storage in 2007. It is also reported that 43 percent of consumers search online to find a local merchant. The text went on to advise that beginning guerilla warfare-like marketing strategies would bring out the top dog in the self storage industry by undermining his competition. It suggested innovation was the way to win the game.

Again, they could not be more right. Any self storage owner who plans to stay in business knows the importance of drawing consumers and advertising to their target market. The  article began with a bold statement.

Here is yet another bold statement. Self storage marketing campaigns are being undone and wasted by a huge oversight on the part of the owner or operator!

Spending thousands of dollars on just one year of Yellow Page ads is like a penny in the bucket for many self storage companies. Those one-inch ads are like a security blanket for us, and then we put a little play money into online ads or other marketing avenues.

Let us pretend for a moment that for every dollar you spend advertising your facility, one customer contacts your facility. (Yes, it is an unrealistic pretense, but that is the beauty of pretend. And it makes the math easier.) So now all your hard work has paid off and you have customers lining up outside your door for the chance to rent an empty 5×5 space.

The game is not over yet. You have not won. There is more work to be done. Who has that moment of truth with your customer? Who puts a face to the fancy web page or full-page phonebook ad? Your on-site managers do!

When it is all said and done, the most expensive marketing campaign is only as good as the manager behind the counter. What have you invested into their success? Have you trained them how to sell your storage facility? Do they know how to build agreement and gain commitment throughout their conversation in order to lead the customer to signing the dotted line? This is the blind spot in the self storage industry as a whole.

In order to make each advertising dollar worth the investment, your staff should be worth their weight in gold to your business. The only way to guarantee marketing success is to be ready to answer the phone and greet customers walking through the door. Sales training programs are the wisest investment a self storage owner could put into his business.

While that article suggests innovative marketing plans, may we suggest going completely outside the box and hitting your competitors where it really hurts, by training a fierce sales force.

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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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