The ultimate success of a seminar depends as much on the energy exchange between speaker and audience as on the quality of its content. If you have a knowledgeable, charismatic speaker, you’re bound to have an engaged, satisfied audience. If your presenter is flat, even the most powerful material will fall flat with him.
I know this not only from having attended hundreds of seminars during our ISS Expos, but from reading attendee feedback after each event. We have sometimes made the mistake of bringing in a speaker based on his talent and expertise in the field, without having seen him present. We'll later get comments like, "Really smart guy, but BORING," or "That was so dry!" Or worse—the attendee can't comment because he wasn't paying attention or didn't stay until the end of the session.
This week, I enjoyed a delightful seminar experience. Hats off to Tom Litton, who presented several sessions as part of the Arizona Self-Storage Association annual conference and tradeshow. The one I saw was "Sales & Marketing Boot Camp," in which he covered 50 great tips for self-storage operations. Tom was energetic and funny, very personable with his audience, and had fantastic ideas to share. I was extremely impressed.
Which is why I'm thrilled to announce that Tom will be presenting a similar program as part of upcoming Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Washington, D.C. On Oct. 5, attendees can take advantage of an intensive five-hour workshop on self-storage marketing and sales. Based on what I've seen, I highly recommend it. Here's just a very small sample of the ideas I learned during this class:
- Collect coupons from surrounding businesses and send them to tenants with their bill each month. You have to buy the stamp anyway, and tenants appreciate you helping them save money. Not only that, but it's a great opportunity to build relationships with your neighbors and cultivate those oh-so-valuable referrals.
- Keep a toy box of goodies for children to play with when they come to the facility with their parents. It keeps the kids happy, which keeps the parents happy. And if you get some toys printed with your store name and logo, you can distribute them to customers as well as schools and other local childrens' groups.
- Advertise your facility on craigslist. Don't forget to post a new ad every day. It's free!
This is just a very small taste of the seminar content. Tom is a fount of self-storage marketing ideas after his decades of facility management experience. Don't miss your chance to see him in action.
If you've got a clever marketing idea to share, feel free to post it to the blog or add it to one of the many marketing discussions happening at Self-Storage Talk: