» Sales
-
Set Sales Goals for Your Storage Company’s Staff
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
In order to run a successful West New York self storage operation your employees need to have clear goals. You should have everyone set targets and goals for every month, quarter, and year. This will make sure that they always have something to shoot for and give them extra motivation to get more rentals. Many West New York self storage sites in New Jersey do not set goals for their employees and they are worse for it.
You should have clear sales goals that your employees should strive for. Make it real and do not just leave it to be an abstract thought. Write it down on something. You could even post their goals in the office so that they are always aware of what they are trying to do. You should get together with your West New York self storage to make sure that everybody has a goal and has clear steps that they will make to try to achieve their goals.
Competition is a good way to boost storage sales in your West New York self storage office. If you have several sites in New Jersey you should post the stats for all of your offices. You could use email as an effective to let everyone know how they stack up compared to others. If you know what each office is doing in term of reservations, you will know where to put your resources. You may be able to help an office that is struggling by visiting and helping out for a few days. A lot of times all an office needs is a little attitude adjustment. Offices can become filled with negativity and you can get in there and show them how it is done. Once the office is in good spirits, you should see the reservations and rentals improve very quickly. Employees can become stale, which is fine and completely normal, but you need to go in and help out from time to time.
Another great way to boost reservations is to set up bonuses for your West New York self storage employees. This does not work if you just have the same bonus month in and month out. You need to mix it up a little bit. Some managers feel that it is not fair to just reward individuals who get the most rentals, but you may want to reconsider if this is your attitude. A company wide bonus is great, but there are some downsides. First of all, there will be people who get a bonus that will not have earned it as much as others. This could bring about resentment. Also, you will not be able to offer that big of an incentive if you have to give every employee a bonus. The playing field needs to be equal if you are going to give bonuses to your top performers so the contest is fair. You could really give out some great things if you did it this way and it could be something tangible. You could offer a weekend stay at a resort for the best salesperson and their family. You could also offer a flat screen TV. These are bonuses that you could not give everybody so this would only work if you gave the bonus to the top performers in your company.
-
Maintain a Well Trained Storage Facility StaffBy jeff on January 21, 2011 | Comments Off
If you own a Union City self storage property, you probably desire to be the best. You know the competition in New Jersey is pretty tough, so it is necessary to always be at the top of your game. You need to have the best employees to be the best. There are many ways to ensure that you have the best employees that you possibly can. Having a great pay structure and benefit package is the best way to attract the best candidates. You should also have a great training program in place for all of your new Union City self storage employees. This will ensure that they get off on the right path.
Most Union City self storage companies will have a great initial training program in place, but usually the training is pretty lacking once they are at the job for a month or two. It is important to continue to educate your employees because the business is always changing. If you are one of better storage companies that New Jersey has to offer, then you should have employees that have been with you for many years. The market is much different than it was a few years ago, so the sales approach should be a little bit different to ensure that you are selling your facility to the public.
When the economy was good your sales staff should have been really pushing the quality of your storage units. You would also want to really sell the customer on how secure your Union City self storage property was by listing all of the great security features on site. Customers may have also been interested in a lot of extra amenities. Now that the market has shifted and is in a down cycle, it may not be wise to sell the facility like that. You definitely want to offer quality to the customers, but you may scare them off if you push quality upfront. When an employee is on the phone they should set a goal of getting the customer to the property to rent in the best way possible.
The best sales approach for many Union City self storage companies is to focus on the value of their sites. Really push the great rates and how they compare to other sites in the area. This will attract customers to your site more than anything else. You should be offering a move in service to new customers to get them to commit to your company. After that, you can exceed their expectations by giving them a great storage experience. This will help with customer retention, which is vital to your long term success.
Continue to educate your employees on how you would like your facility to be sold to the customer on the other end of the phone. You can continue training in a few different ways. You can make them do mandatory worksheets and quizzes to ensure that they are up to date on all the things about your facility. You should also spend some one on one time going over new developments in the storage industry. This will ensure that your employees are the best in the area. If you have the best employees, you will be that much closer to being the best Union City self storage facility in your area.
-
Storage Sales for Beginners
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
It takes a lot to be a great storage salesperson. To be the best in the Sunset Park Brooklyn self storage industry, you will first need to develop the right attitude. The best salespeople in New York know that learning how to sell can be a process. You will have ups and downs, but you will be able to achieve your goals if you have the right attitude. There is so much information about Sunset Park Brooklyn self storage that it is hard to know when to start. The key is to just start somewhere and try to keep learning each and every day. Just because you have a good month does not mean that you have learned everything that you need to about the industry. Storage professionals that have been in the business for years still try to learn more about the storage industry everyday.
The basics of the Sunset Park Brooklyn self storage properties are a great place to start. You will want to learn about all of the different types of units that are offered so that you can recommend the best spaces for your callers. There are drive up spaces and units inside the building. There are standard spaces and units that are climate controlled. You should check out every type of unit available in New York and do this right away. This will let callers know that you know what you are talking about and will make them more comfortable with renting a storage unit from you.
After you have the basic types of units down, it is time to learn how to effectively sell over the phone. You should have a basic sales process that you follow for all of your Sunset Park Brooklyn self storage callers. This will help you structure the call so that you can close more storage rentals. It all starts with the greeting. This is your only chance to let your customer know how happy you are to help them with their storage needs. Keep a positive tone throughout the phone call. You should probably stay away from an over the top approach like late night TV infomercial salespeople. This is not the right environment for that type of sales.
Ask a lot of questions. This will keep the Sunset Park Brooklyn self storage caller participating in the call and will increase the likelihood that they will do business with your company. There are two types of question, discovery and buying questions. Discovery questions will allow you find out what needs the caller has and what is important to them when storing. Examples of discovery questions would include asking the caller what they are storing and how long they will be storing for. These questions would help you recommend a size and unit type as well as finding out what specials and discounts they may qualify for. Buying questions are a little bit more direct. You may ask them if they feel that your site is secure or if the location is good for them. Always remember to ask a question and then let the caller respond. Let them talk and do not interrupt. This is a very important part of the sales call. A lot of storage salespeople talk too much and do not listen enough. You may need to practice listening to improve your skills.
-
Getting Your Customers to Say “Yes”By jeff on January 11, 2011 | Comments Off
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
When it comes to storage rentals in Missouri, time is of the essence. If the Springfield self storage caller does not rent from you on the initial phone call, the chances of them renting from you go way down. Storage callers do not call back. Most reservations are made on the first phone call. You can pick up a few rentals from people calling back or from follow up phone calls so keep your call back procedures in place. However, you should really find ways to get the rental on the initial phone call. Otherwise, another Springfield self storage company will get their business.
When a caller phones your Springfield self storage company, you need to stress limited availability of your storage units. In a lot of cases, you may only have a few units left and you know how fast units can get picked up in busier times of the year. Let the caller know this information. If they do not act now, they could very likely miss out on the deal or current promotion that you are offering. Now is the time to rent a storage space. This tactic will help you pick up a few extra rentals and will make a big difference in your overall revenue.
Every customer is worth a lot of revenue so treat them with respect. Do not resort to high pressure sales tactics to sell units. You should be able to develop a rapport with the caller so when you stress limited availability; it is seen as friendly advice and not just a sales tactic. No Springfield self storage customer wants to feel like they are being pressured into getting the unit, so be very careful when you are trying to get them to reserve a space. The best storage salespeople are able to apply pressure without the customer knowing it.
A common call you may get for Springfield self storage is from individuals who will need storage in about a month. The problem may be that you do not have enough spaces to hold one for when they need it. If you feel that the caller is very serious about renting with you, then you may want to make an exception for them and hold the space longer than you normally would. Some callers in Missouri may not be worth the time if they are still shopping so be careful that you do not hold a space that you would otherwise be able to rent to someone else. This could cost you a lot of revenue over the long run, especially if the caller ends up renting elsewhere.
You can also suggest that they move their schedule up to get in on the special. They will also guarantee that they will have a unit when they need it and will not be out of luck when they time comes. You may tell them that you have other units, but they cost more and the unit currently offered is a great value for the Springfield self storage area. Also, they will be able to move things in to the unit slowly over time as opposed to doing all of it at once. This will be a nice selling point that may sway the caller towards renting a little bit earlier than they originally planned.
-
Curing The Common Cold of Complacency
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Here in the world today, no one has the cure to the common cold. Now, some would say if you take different medicine the way it was prescribed on the label you will get better. On the other hand, you may have some relative that believes in their home remedy that if you hop up and down on one foot, flap one arm like a chicken, while using the other hand to feed yourself egg yolks, you will instantly be cured. While the second option is fun, most people will just try to take some medicine or just try to let their immune system do the job it is supposed to do.
Just like the common cold, there is no cure or way to ensure that your company will be around in the decades to come. To most readers, this might sound like an extremely harsh thing to say, but it is reality. No one business is guaranteed to be in business in the future. For this reason, many companies are racking their brains trying to figure out how they can stay around in their community.
You will see some people do all sorts of different ideas or schemes in order to keep their business out of the red. Some people have huge sales every week, where they put out balloons all over their building. There have been companies that send out flyers or go door to door to get people through the door of their business. No matter what idea they come up with, they still will have issues if they can not fix the internal workings of their sales staff. Having an effective team of individuals taking care of the clients and their businesses will dramatically affect your bottom line. To most people that is not a secret, but some companies are learning the hard way and are being bought out by larger companies that get it.
Most of these successful companies get the idea turn to a mystery shopping agency that can help provide some quality feedback. The thought around a mystery shopping agency is to evaluate your business and through either a report or face to face contact, give you what they found. Let us look closer.
Just think how it would be to have a company that you partner with that can help you enhance the performance and profitability of the companies the work for in a specific, measurable and intense way. There are many agencies out there but not all the ones guarantee their work or your money back. Not all the companies will give them a confident recommendation to use their services. There is a mystery shopping agency that can provide proof of the previous sentences to you and more.
When looking for a mystery shopping agency , you have your work cut out for you. As stated above there are many companies that state what they do, you just need to verify it. There will be fees associated with the different services they provide as well, so you have to see if those services fit in your budget. Sometimes, depending on the current situation of your company, you might have to decide whether or not you need to pay more to get an instant result.
No matter what mystery shopping agency you find, there is one important part that you must follow in order be successful. Now, as far out as this may seem, here it is. The information that you get from the mystery shopping agency , in order to make it worth your time and money, should be used it to make a difference in your everyday business life. When you get information from them, it can not just sit on your hard drive or in a file folder never to be seen again. Your associates need to see how they are doing and it is a great performance management tool for your business. You could sink or swim based on what your clients hear about the service you are providing for them. Most people would like to have the method to improve their business. Having a mystery shopping agency on your side can make a dramatic improvement to your business if you allow it to what is meant to do.
-
Secret Shopping Raises The Bar To Stay Afloat
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Sales industries, while seeing some growth over the last quarter, are uneasy about the tight pocketbooks of most consumers. Consumer spending is being cut because families do not have extra money to go out to eat, buy new clothes, make those renovations to the house or go on vacation. Their extra money is going into the gas tank and maybe paying loans with raised interest.
It has become more important than ever for a sales based business to capture every opportunity. But does a business manager or owner have to just blindly trust that all his associates are doing their part to make every customer count? No, he can use secret shopping services to give him a true, unbiased opinion of what sales opportunities are being lost.
Keep in mind that the most effective secret shopping services go beyond reporting if the associate said hello within 10 seconds or if they had their name tag on. All those practices can be controlled without needing an outside expert to tell you so.
Secret shopping services should be sales focused and this is where the quality control and shopping industry must go if they want to stay in business with businesses who are pressured to cut spending. Shopping services have to report on habits and techniques that are working to the advantage of a sale and also critique those which are not. That is what makes successful secret shopping services .
Consider this. You are the manager of an Ultimate Buy Electronic store. There may be 5 to 10 associates on the sales floor at any given time. You cannot possibly listen to all of them, all of the time. You have not been meeting your budget goals and you see customers walking out of the store without a purchase in hand.
The latest shopping service report showed that Jane had her shirt tucked in and greeted the customer within just a few seconds of being in the home theater department. The shopper report shows a check mark in the field indicating that Jane asked if the customer needed any help. The report also shows that the shopper asked about the comparison of two TVs and Jane told her the difference.
What are missing from that report are the sales details. Did Jane genuinely offer to help the customer or did it seem she only asked out of obligation for her job. Did Jane offer to demonstrate the two TVs to the customer and find out what brought them in to look at TVs. Did Jane use any closing questions or also recommend accessory products or the extended warranty? Did Jane connect with the customer and close the sale?
We sales managers have been conditioned to look at reports from our secret shopping services for a few quick seconds and then hand them over to our associates. Do we realize that we are missing pieces of the puzzle? We have the framework, but we can not see the whole picture without knowing the sales specific details of our customers experiences.
The quality control and shopping industry does have a few providers who offer these top notch sales shops. Will they become the last man standing as other businesses realize they are paying for less than quality shops or will we sales managers continue to look at ineffective reports and be none the wiser?
-
Feeling Hot, Hot, HotBy admin on July 27, 2006 | Comments Off
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Sarah Little offers a bit of relief from the heat.Welcome to PhoneSmart’s secret shopping blog, your peek into the secret shopping world.Last week Missouri had one of the hottest weeks so far this year. Temperatures rose above 100 and it felt much hotter. Severe storms left much of the St. Louis area without electricity. Without air conditioners, many families opted to stay at hotels until conditions improved. Stepping outside for a moment lead to sweaty shirts and panting dogs. I can’t imagine if I had to move my belongings into a storage unit.The labor of it alone would be enough to risk overheating, and then add to that a hot steamy storage unit… No thanks! When Mother Nature has it in for your storage profits you have to find a way to outwit her.If your facility boasts climate controlled units, be sure to make that a key point when talking to your customers during the dog days of summer. If you don’t have climate control units, keep a cooler with chilled bottled water and offer it to tenants moving in. The courtesy and thoughtfulness is sure to make you their favorite self storage provider.
If it’s been raining cats and dogs but your facility has a loading bay, then be sure to advertise that to your prospective tenants.Make your facility more appealing than the other guy by offering perks that make a tenant’s move in less toiling.Storage Concierge Self Storage in Illinois
Storage Concierge Self Storage in Kansas
Storage Concierge Self Storage in Kentucky -
Alternate ChoicesBy admin on July 7, 2006 | 2 Comments
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Ronald Smith PhoneSmart call center rep knows how to offer choices to his callers.
Welcome to our blog. Your peek into the secret shopping industry.
Getting the customer involved in a purchase or conversation is a big part of providing excellent customer service. Everyone wants to feel that they are participating in the purchasing process. A key point that I was taught here was to get the customer to agree to something.A good example is when I needed to purchase a new TV. One day my fiancé and I were trying to fix the curtains that fell when the kids were playing. She wanted to refold the curtains before I put them back up. After she fixed them on the rod they way she wanted them, I needed to move the TV so that I could get to the window. At that time, the television was sitting on a chair. I needed to unhook the cable before I moved that chair. I asked my fiancé to hold the chair while I fixed the TV. The chair slipped and the TV broke.We were looking for the best option to replace the TV. We went to a rent to own place to get a flat screen TV. The salesperson greeted us and asked what we needed. I told him what we were looking for and he showed me to the area. He gave me a choice between a television that I could hook my computer up to and the standard flat screen. Giving the customer a choice lets them feel like they are a part of the process.Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry
Property Management Blog The ins and outs of property management -
Deal or No Deal
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
By Liz Langsteiner, A.K.A. Liz Taylor bilingual call center representative / Key Account Representative offers insight on the purpose of the PhoneSmart call center.
Welcome to the secret shopping blog, your peek into the mystery shopping world.
Our main objective in the call center is to take the caller off the market and get them to cross “storage unit” off the to do list. Every now and then you get a gimmie, but most of the time it takes patience, industry knowledge, building rapport and sales expertise to take the caller off the market.
Every morning Monday – Friday I log in at 6:30am. I choose the morning shift because I find the early morning callers mean business. Early birds are ready to give up their credit card and reserve a storage unit. On most days I usually have minimum of 1 credit card reservation and sometimes 2 by 7:30am.
Let me share with you my “Deal or No Deal” experience. IF you can get a laugh or giggle from your caller you are half way to getting a reservation. One morning last week I took a call from one of our East coast stores. During the call we agreed on location, size and time frame. I gave the price and noticed on my screen a super special ½ off the first 3 months. I decided to wait and offer the special at a perfect moment. The caller seemed to be in a hurry so I went for the close and gathered all the pertinent information. When I asked for the credit card I heard those dreaded words well I am not sure I want to do that now. I could feel the caller slipping away so I said “here is the deal you get ½ off of the first 3 months, you rent month to month with no deposits, pay a small admin fee of only $12.00 bucks and provide a lock.” DEAL or NO DEAL The caller burst into laughter and said, “DEAL”. The rest is history.Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry
Property Management Blog The ins and outs of property management -
Turn OffsBy admin on June 19, 2006 | Comments Off
Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home/secretsh/public_html/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787
Robin Turner, Phone Smart call center manager speaks out about telephone greetings
Welcome to the Phone Smart call center blog. We give an inside view of the secret shopping industry.
How do you feel when you call a business and the greeting you get is a simple” Hi, how can I help you?”I’m not sure about you, but it just doesn’t sit well with me, especially if I’m not sure I dialed the right number. I have to go out of my way to ask if I called the right store. The impression that I get with these employees (businesses) is that they really don’t want to be there. They don’t want me to know who they are or what store I’ve called in to.My first question is usually “Did I dial Xyz store?” They answer with a simple “yes”. Now I’ve got to go out of my way again and ask whom I speaking to. I shouldn’t have to do that. They should tell me up front. It may sound a little picky. But when a caller calls into a business, they want to feel as if they are special. They want #1 customer service with a smile. They don’t want to feel like the person answering the phone is trying to hide something. The caller shouldn’t have to feel like they are the ones having to try and “work” the call, or feel like they are bothering the employee.It makes a big difference on how you answer the phone no matter where you work. Some businesses have come up with some really clever ways of answering the phone. Sometimes they will add a special to the their greeting or something else that catches the callers attention. So the next time you answer the phone, spice it up a little. Be enthused to get their call. Sound like you “want” to help them.PhoneSmart Your Source for Lead Generation
Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry
Property Management Blog The ins and outs of property management