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In our current state as a nation, it is becoming harder than ever to find job employment. This is a growing trend, and has been, over the past several years. The lack of people finding job employment who are looking for it is not limited to any age or income demographic. It seems that anyone who is looking for a decent job is really struggling to land one.

The questions America should be asking are Why is this happening? And what can be done about it? Both of these are hard questions to tackle. And, to make things worse, the answers may be even harder to swallow. For many, the easy answer is to lay the blame on the current presidential administration. Sure, why not? There is plenty of evidence to show the economy and job employment figures have taken a not-so-graceful nosedive over the past couple of years.

But if you dig more deeply, and do a little bit of research, you can see that job employment is not tied entirely to the economy or the presidents policies. So, one might query, what else has changed? The first thing that has is a certain group of people who are now flooding the job market on all income brackets. Since women have been gaining equality in the job market, the availability of jobs and career paths that once could be easily had by men are no longer certain. In the not-too-distant past, discrimination against women prevented them from holding any high positions within companies or corporations. But things are more equitable now, and with that shift in social views came a natural shift in the functioning of society.

Another reason people are having a harder time finding job employment is the saturation of new higher-education graduates. Again, our society is changing, and while in the past very few people could hold college degrees, they are becoming more commonplace everyday. Some researches have said that a college diploma is the new high school diploma. It seems that to have a chance with even the lowest level job, one must have a bachelor of something, regardless of what it is.

The problem with that approach by business owners and managers is they are cutting off a potentially valuable group of people. Having a degree is invaluable, for many reasons, but just because a person does not hold one should not immediately cut them out of the running for low-level positions.

While the aforementioned changes do present some challenges for the job-seeker, they also serve to benefit the U.S. in a few ways as well. The upsurge in women in the marketplace can undoubtedly be seen as a positive thing. To discriminate based on gender is an outdated and oppressive way of thinking. Disposing of harmful policies and social views is a great way to move culture forward. In addition to that, bringing women into the job market creates more healthy competition for job employment, and thereby should increase the overall quality of people holding top corporate and managerial positions.

The saturation of job seekers with degrees under their belts can also be seen as a very positive thing in its own right. The simple reason for that is, it means our society is becoming smarter and better educated as a whole. Ideally, this would mean we are on the track to becoming a more peaceful and productive nation, but only time will tell if that becomes true.

While the job market may be slim pickings at the moment, job seekers should not give up hope. Some of the causes of the scarce amount of jobs hold their own positive attributes, and could definitely help you in the long run.

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Our partners at Self Storage Owner have added five new articles to Self Storage Article Directory under the category: Self Storage Locations by State

• Illinois Storage Unit
• Kansas Storage Units
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• Colorado Self Storage

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Artists Appreciate Elgin, IL Self Storage

What do Jane Peterson, William LeBaron, and Josh Caterer all have in common? They are all artists who hail from Elgin, IL. One may be a TV artist while the other is a successful painter and visual artist, while still another relies on the musical notes to make his artistic prowess known. Interestingly, in many cities around the country, Elgin, IL has become known as the place to be for aspiring artists of all disciplines, and thus it is not at all surprising to find recent college grads with degrees in fine arts waitressing right next to those with a degree in music.

Home to a symphony orchestra, an opera, a theatre, and a vibrant arts center, music and also visual arts are celebrated in this city. Perhaps not surprisingly, artists appreciate Elgin, IL self storage solutions to house some of the paraphernalia, and there are actually those who have been able to secure self storage units containing skylights which they have converted into impromptu studios.

Is this a commonly accepted mode of utilizing Elgin’s self storage unit? No, it is decidedly not part and parcel of any rental agreement, but in some cases benevolent storage facility owners will turn a blind eye to the visual artist creating his merchandise, or the musician practicing with the band for half an hour out of the storage unit. While artists appreciate Elgin, IL self storage, those who are part and parcel of the continuing influx of residents that come to live in this beautiful area also like the idea of renting a small space where at least temporarily their goods may be stored until they find permanent housing.

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Customers don’t care why your attitude is off. Or you’ll accidentally chase someone off. Here’s what’ll happen: you’re talking to a current customer at the desk. Someone else walks in. It took you four seconds to make eye contact with them instead of two. That’s over their tolerance limit; they’re out of there and one to the next storage palce. They think you had a bad attitude even though you were trying to be helpful. People are very quick to judge attitude, so you have to be very aware of that and be prepared to meet or exceed their desire for a good experience.

Here’s what happens when you’ve done well with your customers. Their internal dialog goes, “Hmm, well, I don’t really want to spend $100; but I guess if that’s what it costs, that’s okay. She’s pretty nice. It looks like a pretty clean place. I’ve got other things to do; I can’t spend all day on this. I might as well just get this done. Okay, fine.” That’s what their internal dialogue does, and this is what you’re after,.

If you can help that person’s internal dialog go, “Seems like nice people. Seems like a nice enough place. Seems like the money’s not too bad. Okay, I’ll do this.” Then you’re in like Flynn, and the next thing they tell you will be, “How do you want me to pay you?”

How many times have you had it happen when you’re standing at the counter or showing someone a unit, that the person turns to you to say, “Well, do you take cash, check, or credit card?” This is a great moment in the sales process. You have helped them talk themselves into renting from you.

Now usually you do have to ask them to rent from you, or you have to say, “Well, here, all I need you to do is fill this out.”

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The problem is of course, is that a “lousy experience” is what people often expect from you and then come to you with a chip on their shoulder. If you understand this and have a good experience waiting for people, they become your customers.

But why do they really decide? If you’ve seen some of the studies done, you know that location is still the number one reason why people pick a place to store their stuff. So right away if somebody tells you they like your location, that means they have tolerance for features, they have tolerance for price. They have tolerance for all kinds of things if they really like your location. They like to have perceived security. You don’t have to have armed guards in the place; they just have to look at your place and say to themselves, “Yeah, it looks like the place is pretty secure.”

You don’t have to promise them security. In fact, if you promise them security, the attorneys who specialize in self storage will knock you over the head. You do not have to promise customers security. They just need to feel like you’ve taken enough security precautions so it’s likely going to be secure. The appearance of your place also has to be nice. Now you don’t have to have Renoir murals on the wall and have professional landscapers come in every other day, but the place has to be comparatively clean and neat. That’s what they expect. Even if they’re going to keep their own unit junky, they want at least the rest of the place to look clean and neat. And they want some amenities for their money. They want to get some value for their dollar.

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You see, people aren’t stupid. They take a look at your storage facility, and they do the math in their heads really quickly. They figure your building costs are way less than other kinds of construction. They figure you get killed by real estate taxes. They figure your payroll is next to nothing in comparison to revenue. They quickly count up how many units they think you have and multiply that by the rent you are asking them to pay and say to themselves, “Oh, my Gosh! This place breaks even at 43 percent occupancy. Oh, geez! It is a gold mine for the owner and I’m going to get screwed.” Do you think they’re stupid? They know what they’re looking at.

So when they talk to you and they’re concerned about price, they want to know if the person behind your desk thinks it’s a good price. If they think the person behind the desk thinks that you charge too much, you’re sunk. That’s why your people have to assume the close, they have to be comfortable with what you charge; they have to believe that your place is a good value for the money. If that’s the impression people get, then your customers accept the price for what it is. They accept that your people know what they’re talking about, are honest, and have confidence in their offering. What’s wrong with that?

However if your people expect that everyone they talk to will have sticker shock and so your staff people give the price hesitantly and then duck for cover so they aren’t hurt when the prospect says, “it costs how much?”, you are sunk. The prospect thinks the squirming that your staff people do is because your staff people think your units are too expensive and a lousy deal. This reinforces any initial impression in your prospect’s mind that price is a determining factor in choosing storage. It also makes your staff price-shy and causes them to tell you that the reasons rentals are off pace this month is because the units are priced too high.

If instead, your staff people are calm and confident about pricing and focus on the value your facility offers and the convenience of doing business with you, your prospects will accept the price for what it is and will see the issue as a matter of value and not a matter of price. Everybody wants to do business with somebody who can instill confidence in a purchase like that, don’t they?

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You have to be the one that overcomes these pre-conceived notions of you and your storage place. It is up to you and your frontline people, because the prospects are judging you the whole time that they’re talking to you and you’re talking to them. Don’t you do this when you’re in a restaurant? From the moment the server walks up to you and says, “Hi, I’m Jen. I’ll be taking care of you tonight,” aren’t you already keeping score to decide how quick they are, how responsive they are? Are they taking care of your water glass? How much are you going to tip them? Is this going to be a 10 percent? 20 percent? Aren’t you doing that the whole time you are being served?

I have a great example. I had lunch one time at a trade show with some folks that I see at a lot of the trade shows, and we had an enjoyable chat about all kinds of stuff, but we had one of those disaster-service lunches. Nothing went right. The kitchen didn’t get any of the order right. It took two tries for Peggy and Jack to get their food right. It took the staff four times to get the right plate out to me. And we weren’t the only table they were having trouble with. You could see other tables getting re-served. It was a small disaster. I mean, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I got my lunch and I got to have some good conversation; the food was actually good, so I was happy. But the interesting thing about the whole situation was how flustered our waitress was the whole time. She even sent somebody else to take care of our table because she couldn’t handle it anymore.

The folks I was sitting with, Peggy and Jack said they were at a restaurant a week earlier at home, and it was a disaster, too. It was not only a disaster in getting food on time and getting the order right, but the food was even terrible. But the waiter they had did everything he could to make it right, and they were so pleased with how the waiter handled things and the little efforts he made to try to make things right, that he ended up with a good tip.

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The next step is to get inside your prospects’ minds to help them talk themselves into renting with you. Now the trick to getting inside the mind of your prospects is to learn their internal dialog. You know this goes on. As you’re talking to your prospects, they’re talking to themselves. And you’re also talking to yourself at the same time. You may be thinking, “Gosh, I hope this person rents from me. I’ve got one 10×20 left; I hope I can rent it today. Geez, I hope the kids got off to school okay today.” You’ve got all kinds of things running through your head when you’re talking to people, and the same thing happens to them. So if what you can say to yourself is, “I’m going to rent to these people,” now you’re assuming the sale, and it becomes the power you need to make the sale. At the same time, your job is to influence or at least to understand the internal dialogue of your potential customer.

And this is happening right now. You’re talking to yourself right now while you’re reading this. You’re thinking, “Gosh, what’s this guy doing? I stayed up too late. I hope my 401K increases in value this quarter. Why is Tron going on and on about this?” You’ve got all sorts of thoughts going on in your head, and I’ve got stuff going on in my head too. I’m thinking, “Geez, I hope they enjoy this. I hope nobody falls asleep reading this.” That is just how it is.

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So let’s talk realistically about how these partnerships work. If they’ve already talked about storing, then the best way you could help them would be to take the hassle out of this situation and reserve a unit for them: “Well, if you’ve already talked about storing, and you’ve already pretty much decided what you’re storing, wouldn’t your wife (husband, partner) be pleased if you went home later and said, ‘Honey, I’ve got it all taken care of. One less thing we’ve got to worry about. They’ll have the unit ready for us Saturday.’?” Well now he or she goes home a hero. This works great most of the time. If somebody says, “I’ve got to ask my wife”; “I’ve got to ask my husband”; I’ve got to ask my partner.” Use the three question response.

It will not work every time. But when it does not work, it is a great set-up to invite both partners down to the store to look around and select a unit that they can agree on. Setting an appointment for both spouses to take a quick tour is never a bad secondary outcome of the conversation.

In the worst case scenario, you can tell the spouse you are talking to all the reasons why the other spouse will like storing with you, so he or she can be your proxy sales person and close the deal for you. This will work especially well if your proxy sales person can create a little urgency fro you.

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