During the height of the Roman Empire roads extended from Rome to the far corners of Europe and North Africa. The roads were made to accommodate the wheel width of carriages–the same width as the flanks of two horses standing side-by-side. Centuries later railroad tracks were laid on the same roads at the same width. Consequently the railway industry is based on, and limited by, a horse’s ass.

Similarly in the ’80’s effective sales teams used sales scripts with an objection/answer addendum, and the primary purpose of the sales team was to generate sales. The self storage industry was in its infancy at this time. Consequently they used this technology in their customer interactions. Those same companies are giants in today’s storage industry. Some will even manage your facility for you.

What has been the evolution in the last 40 years? “Salesman” is a four-letter word that conjures images of someone who tricks you into paying too much for a crappy product you didn’t want in the first place. Today we have “storage consultants” who provide “superior customer service” by leading the customer through a “needs-based conversation”.

Yet the “storage consultants” are trained using a script. Their performance is evaluated based on how well they follow the script. A side effect is the storage consultant generally becomes aware of the prospects’ needs, and following the script will efficiently guide both parties toward a sale.

However, a prospect’s needs has NOTHING to do with his/her decision to do business with you (assuming a competitive market with ample supply). Every prospect enters the conversation with ideas that are important and drive his/her decision, I call these ideas concerns. When all concerns are answered, there is nothing left in the conversation but a rental.

Scripts have been, and always will be, fundamentally flawed in answering concerns, thus results are hit and miss and often leave the prospect with the experience of not being heard and understood. This fundamental truth is behind the modern drive to get into the prospect’s world, thus storage consultants and superior customer service. BUT, they are doing this while sticking to the 1980s-based paradigm of a script-based conversation. Consequently the sales conversation smells like, and is limited by, a horse’s ass.

Instead of providing a script, I train your office staff to listen for the concerns/ideas underneath the conversation and answer those concerns while providing a specific customer experience. The result is a closing rate over the phone (a non-refundable deposit reserved unit), on the first call, that is in another realm than the industry norms and the customer is left satisfied with every step of the process. You’re left satisfied with your occupancy skyrocketing.

Pulling this off successfully requires a very specialized kind of training. Otherwise you end up with a different version of the script morass. When you are ready to dominate your market, contact me and together we will put together a training program to produce results that exceed your goals.