Sorry, I don’t handle that

• Have you every tried to buy something at a store and the person behind the counter told you to see the salesperson? Have you ever had someone in a retail shop tell you, “I don’t handle that, I’m not the sales person”. How does that make you feel? It doesn’t make you want to reach for your wallet and start buying. How many of you have store management teams where one person is the sales person and the other person is certainly not? Is this really a good situation? Customers and prospects like to think that everyone working for you is capable of answering their questions, qualifying their needs and taking care of them. If we were selling a complicated technical product, it would make sense if some people knew more about the technical aspects than others. But most users of self-storage don’t think it is a terribly complicated service, which is one reason why lots of people like to use self-storage. They have certain expectations of your staff. The expectations seem reasonable. So the next question is, “How do you get people who don’t see themselves as sales people to sell like they are?” Usually people who don’t want to be seen as sales people don’t like sales people because they have dealt with high pressure or poorly trained sales people and did not like the experience. So try a different approach. Consider yourself a customer service pro. You do what is best for the customer. You have seen how hectic people can be on moving day. You know what a great service self-storage is. If someone on your staff doesn’t believe self-storage is a great service, they need to be let go immediately. If you have a tenant, the best thing for that person’s peace of mind is to keep the storage unit so they can stay organized and manage their seasonal items without stressing out and without cluttering up the house. Once you get a tenant, that tenant should enjoy the experience enough to find it is better to keep the unit and pay the rent than to move out. So if you don’t like to be a sales person, be a good customer service person and help tenants have a great experience, so they stay. If you are talking to a prospective renter, you should believe that your store is one of the best values for the money in your area. This gives you the power to do the people a favor and rent them a unit. Don’t let people walk out without renting. Don’t let people hang up the phone without reserving a unit or making an appointment to come in. If you are concerned with the person, you know they are interested in storage or they would not have contacted you. You know everyone is busy running around trying to get caught up. So do the person a favor and rent him a unit. All you have to do is master a few qualifying questions and a good closing question or two. “Would you like to do the paper work now, it will only take a minute? Do you think the 1010 would fit you or is the 1015 better? I can get you moved in this afternoon or tomorrow, whichever is better for you.” The only other thing that is required to turn an anti-sales person into a great customer service rep that moves a lot of people into your facility is a great smile and a can-do attitude. Couple that with a few good closing questions and your occupancy will climb. One big advantage we have in self-storage is that people have fairly low expectations of sales skills and service skills when they walk in the door. When we greet them with a smile and good sales skills, the prospects will decide that we want their business and have a good offering: a dynamite combination. Let your non-selling people know how important it is to give the great customer service. Let them know what a difference it will make in your numbers. After-all your staff should care that your numbers look good. It should be a matter of pride to know they are doing a good job. Asking good closing questions with a smile and a can-do attitude improves the numbers. If you showed your staff another way you improve the numbers, wouldn’t they adopt it? Isn’t that why you have a coat of fresh paint and a flower bed in front of your store? Good sales skills are no different than any other operational procedure. It is not good operational procedure to tell a customer or a potential customer that you cannot help them, or are unwilling to help them. Everyone in your operation should be able to sell a space, resolve a customer complaint, move someone in and take a payment…with a smile. “Sure I can help you with that”, should be the standard response to all the inquiries you get. I know it takes some training and some adjustment to get everyone in the organization selling. But you can make it fun and you can make it easy. Have a little competition to see how many times a day your staff uses a good alternate choice close. Do a smile check. If you catch someone smiling, give them a little prize. If you catch someone frowning, tell them a silly joke to get them to smile. You will see your numbers improve. Are all your property people selling all the time? Good luck and good selling.

Related Posts:

Customer and culture- People do their own buying- get the number- Let the prospect do the selling- Brainstorm resource- The Rule of Thirds- Hiring a sales savvy staff- Self Storage Call Centers- Sales Skills- Go for daylight…

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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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