Ben joined StorMan Software in 2002 and is now StorMan's Australian General Manager.
Title: 4 things your software should do well
Date: 28th November, 2007
I recently attended the SSAA
meeting in Perth - a place where the Self Storage Association always
gets a great turnout. It’s nice to see that, even over the other side of
'the great divide', we are obtaining a great response to the service
members that are flying over to talk with and meet the new and existing
players in the market.
Further to that, I was really interested to listen to Leigh Farnell give
a talk about what persons in a Sales role need to do to win sales in a
competitive environment. He listed the following 4 things as crucial to
creating wealth...
- Training
- The right systems
- The ability to keep storer's for longer
- To encourage referral business
At the time, this struck a chord with me because, as I listened, I realised that not only does StorMan manage your accounts, it also helps you to do all of the above. How? Well let’s take a quick look at some of the things that StorMan can do for your business to maintain and increase your sales.
Firstly – Training. Like anything, training is as important as putting the “Open” sign out on the footpath each day. Why? Because you, as an operator, will only get the most out of StorMan if you understand all of its functionality and how to apply that to your business. It makes sense that if I understand how something works, then I can use it to its full potential. Check out our online training or contact me here in the Australian office on +61 1300 66 90 20.
Secondly – the right system. I interpreted this as “Operational Systems” - in other words “What do I have to implement to make my business successful and therefore create wealth?". Well the single largest thing to enhance your wealth in self storage today would be to sell your sites’ benefits & features - and then close the sale. In other words “sell the sizzle”. Sell what makes your site different to your competitors so that your potential clients have to make a decision based on more than price. To then say that "timely and accurate information at the time of decisions making would be crucial" is almost an understatement. It is essential! To that end StorMan has introduced in its version 7, a brand new Sales module that will allow you to achieve a better level of sale should it be used correctly. again, this comes back to training and of course having the “right system” - one that is made for your industry, by people in your industry. Again the “right tool for the job” is essential here.
Thirdly - keep the storer longer. This is the hardest part, as many operators out there take the view that once the customer has given notice, the battle is over and “nothing more can be done”. To me, that’s not entirely true. StorMan has the ability to track people potentially moving out…provided that they have told you that they are moving out, operators can take a number of steps. They could ring and offer the customer a smaller space, a discount if they wanted to stay or a referral card or voucher to be used next time that they need storage. All of these things can be automated in StorMan depending on what you want. Furthermore, many operators choose to use things that mask the length of stay for the customer… things such as direct debits and credit card payments mean that the customer is more likely to stay longer if the account is not bought to their attention every time it needs paying. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But these little things allow operators to enhance the value of their facility by using the tools at their disposal.
Lastly one of the key things to remember here is that if a customer was happy with your service the first time around then they are likely to continue to recommend your services to others or reuse the services themselves. Why? Because generally if someone is happy with what they got he first time they will go back time and again. This referral business is crucial to maintaining your wealth creation. These customers cost nothing, or very little, to keep as they are already happy. Therefore a good software package should be able to handle the marketing of customers who have left. Many times I ask operators if they send their specials to their past storer’s and the answer is generally a resounding “No, why would I want to do that?”. Well ask yourself this if you were looking for a place that sold good quality tires (another grudge buy) and you found a business that offered you everything you could have wanted plus a competitive price wouldn’t you want to know their specials, or their latest catalogue in case you had friends that needed the same service? Of course you would! It makes sense. To many of the operators out there this is repeat business that they just love because it cost them almost nothing to get.
These four things popped into my head while listening to Leigh Farnell talk about “Managing a Sales Team”. So to all who attended the Perth meeting, thanks again for a great night - and to Leigh thanks again for a wonderful and cohesive talk into how these four things can affect any sales orientated business. For more info check out Leigh’s company via www.bluerocket.com.au.
For the rest of you bloggers I will talk to you next time - hopefully
just before Xmas!
Regards,
Ben.
