What Goes Into A Price?

How many times have you heard, “I am just calling to get prices”? Many of our callers are just trying to get an idea of how storage units are priced and what might work for them. Sometimes they are starting to plan many weeks in advance and sometimes they are just curious.

What do you do when you hear that question? Should you just go ahead and give the price because they are asking outside our “hold” time frame or do you stress urgency and try to get that person to see that they could use the unit sooner. You have nothing to lose by asking if they could use it sooner and “start moving in a few things at a time rather than do it all in one weekend.”

There are a lot of things that go into the price of a storage unit. People who are calling about storage generally do not know about the security or any of the other amenities the facility might have. So when they say “I’m just calling for pricing it is up to me to rise to occasion and let them know what their storage dollar will buy. Sometimes if you do not coax them with the amenities, the features and benefits, the price is a shock. Sometimes they have stored with a particular facility ten years ago they expect the price to still be the same. It is amazing to me that in this time of rapidly rising prices and real estate values that they assume storage is immune from price increases! It is up to me to build value to the customer with our amenities.

Security is one of the best amenities to promote because if a customer is calling about storage they obviously need to know that their belongings will be safe. So it only makes sense to let the customer know exactly what they are paying for when they call. If you do not give them this information they will make a decision based on price alone.