For the third consecutive year, Lackland Self Storage is partnering with radio station New Jersey 101.5 in an effort to give back to the community.

From now until Nov. 14, New Jersey 101.5 radio personalities will ask their audience to share the holiday spirit by donating clothes and toys to various families from domestic-abuse shelters and transitional-housing facilities.

Each day, the on-air talent will announce information such as clothing sizes, ages of the recipients and toy suggestions. The families will be anonymously coded to protect their privacy.

Listeners can drop off their donated items to any of the 26 Lackland Self Storage locations throughout New Jersey.

By Vivian Hairston Blade

At a recent stockholders meeting, the vice president of sales for a global manufacturer reported, The economy has been tough on our industry. Sales volumes significantly declined and have not nearly returned to pre-recession levels. The company has laid off employees, cut expenses and, unfortunately, has had to cut prices to remain competitive. Competitors have cut prices as much as 40 percent on some products. Were underwater on critical components our customers need, but we have no choice.

Sound familiar? Could this be your company?

Like so many businesses during the recent recession, this company is having a tough time bouncing back. Consumers wallets and businesses checkbooks continue to be tight. In fact, the Price Index for personal-consumption expenditures, excluding food and energy, bottomed out in late 2009, but is showing signs of being unstable again.

While sales and profit continue to struggle, employment will remain stagnant and the economy will be slow to recover. Its a vicious cycle. Every company feels the trickle-down effect. Customers have reset their expectations, and companies attempt to cut price to retain customers, grow share and increase top-line revenue.

But is this really a viable business strategy? Focus on short-term revenue hinders investment in substantially improving the quality of your business for the future. Though not sustainable, many companies still operate on this short-term view.

Five Myths Every Business Must Avoid

Its time for you to take a look at five common myths that keep companies sprinting to the finish line. If you want to survive the recovery, avoid these failed strategies to stay ahead in the marathon.

Myth 1: Customers demand lower prices during a recession. When customers stop buying, the first reaction is to drop prices to jumpstart spending. When price is the carrot, buying behavior changes and customers wait for even deeper cuts.

Myth 2: You have to follow competitor price moves during a recession to stay competitive. Competitors use price wars to protect share. You soon find that suffering profit cant sustain the business for long. Rarely does volume make up for the loss in revenue!

Myth 3: Were good at what we do. Customers are privileged to do business with us. Sorry to disappoint, but its not about you! Companies with this attitude find customers dont stick around long.

Myth 4: Customer-retention initiatives are a cost that wont pay back. Companies that treat customer retention as a cost will allocate only a few resources to protect their greatest asset. Their efforts fail to improve retention or increase sales and, therefore, support dwindles.

Myth 5: Customer retention is the responsibility of the sales and customer-service departments. Service recovery is not a customer-retention program. Only one out of every 19 unhappy customers complains. Thats just 5 percent. And of the 95 percent of unhappy customers who dont even complain, more than two-thirds decide to buy elsewhere. Recovery as a retention strategy just doesnt work!

A Look in the Mirror

Do any of these myths plague your company? Where do you feel the effects? Consider these questions:

• Does the number of customer defections surprise you? What are these defections worth in revenue? Margin?
• Are you spending more on new-customer acquisition? How much more does it cost to win a new customer vs. retaining current ones?
• Are your customers really price conscious or are they really value deprived?

Studies show when customers believe they get more value for their money, theyre much more loyal and spend more with those brands.

Companies that take a long-term view of investing in value-based customer relationships are rewarded with double-digit growth and profitability that compounds over time. Does this mean higher costs? More often, investing in value-based customer relationships means reducing your costs or charging more for highly valued products and services.

Value is about how you make your customers successful. Dont forget that customers define value and expect you to deliver value, at a minimum, to meet their fundamental expectations if the relationship is to continue. Keep in mind a change in the economic climate causes the needs of your customers to change, which requires a change in how you respond to their needs.

Your Tools

How do you effectively deliver greater value in this tougher environment and remain profitable to survive the recovery? Integrate these value-creating imperatives into your business operation. As you review these brief descriptions, challenge your current thinking, culture and processes!

• Voice: Give your customers one! Be disciplined about listening to their challenges and needs.
• Accountability: Hold leaders accountable for customer voice and for action that responds to it.
• Levers: What is most important to your customers in how you help them succeed? How do they depend on you?
• Unbelievable experiences: Create experiences that surprise and elate your customers. Focus on those levers that drive your customers success and relationships.
• Engage and empower: Customers and employees are your two most important assets. Engage them. Empower and trust employees to take good care of customers and build collaborative relationships.

How well do you execute in each of these areas? How much value do your customers really feel? Each of these value-creating imperatives requires a discipline to become part of your organizations DNA. These are critical to your success for improving your customer retention and making your business more profitable, no matter what the economic environment.

Be unequivocal about creating promoters who sing your praisescustomers who know you are committed to their success and who are committed to yours.

Vivian Hairston Blade is president & CEO of Experts in Growth Leadership Consulting LLC (EiGL). Through a combination of coaching and training, EiGL helps Fortune 1000 companies execute value-based strategies by building high performance, high quality and high service-level organizations. For more information, e-mail [email protected] ; visit www.eiglconsulting.com .

Self-storage investment experts Jason Allen, Carl Touhey and Frank Rolfe will teach a two-day boot camp about investing in the industry Nov. 13-14 in San Francisco. The event aims to teach attendees how to find good self-storage properties and profitably manage their investments.

The speakers will share tools for buying, operating, renovating and selling a self-storage facility. They also share pitfalls to avoid and highlight profit centers. Topics to be addressed include how to find facilities to buy, how to flip deals, negotiating price and terms, conducting due diligence, recognizing deal-killers, lease options, seller financing, getting and keeping customers, advertising, hiring and motivating managers, hands-on and remote facility operation, and more.

Attendees will receive a due-diligence manual as well as a home-study course. As part of the boot camp, they will tour several self-storage facilities and meet with the property owners and managers.

The Immersion in Reality event begins at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 and ends 5 p.m. on Nov. 14. The cost to attend is $1,999 for one ticket or $2,999 for two. Attendees can opt for a payment plan that spreads the registration cost over five monthly payments. Details can be found at Selfstorages.com.

Allen and Touhey operate the Performance Self Storage Group Inc., which assists self-storage owners nationwide with facility operation, third-party management, marketing and finding sources of capital. The company also seeks to buy and invest in self-storage properties using its own capital sources and through joint ventures. Both have extensive real estate and self-storage experience.

Over the past 30 years, Rolfe has been involved in the commercial real estate business as an owner/operator of almost all asset classes, including self-storage. His experience includes the purchase and operation as well as the performance of due diligence on hundreds of properties.

A free webinar titled Converting Your Traffic, Calls and Walk-Ins into Move-Ins will be provided for self-storage facility managers and owners on Nov. 10, 2 p.m. ET. Presented by M. Anne Ballard, president and founder of Universal Management Co., the online seminar will teach the importance of tracking and measuring conversion ratios to improve overall revenue.

Topics to be covered include: how to sell self-storage on the phone and in person, techniques for closing the sale, the importance of conversion ratios, ways to improve revenue by tracking and measuring conversion ratios, and the importance of the traffic source. The online registration process for the event should be completed at Ministoragemessenger.com/webinars.

Ballard, well-known throughout the self-storage industry as The Hat Lady, is a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as the Inside Self-Storage World Expo, and a regular contributor to Inside Self-Storage magazine and other industry publications. She recently released a book titled The Hat Lady Speaks: Marketing Self-Storage.

Ballard founded Universal more than 15 years ago. The company specializes in full-service management, design, marketing, development services, feasibility studies, global consulting and training for self-storage facilities.

A-1 Self Storage, a provider of self-storage services throughout California, will support the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots annual holiday toy drive. All 40 A-1 facilities have become official drop-off locations for donations of new and unused toys to be distributed this Christmas to underprivileged children.

We understand that the recession and high employment threatens to deprive many children of getting a gift this Christmas, said Brian Caster, president and CEO of A-1 parent company Caster Cos. We feel it is important to bring hope and the joy of Christmas to needy children. Last years event was a huge success, and we hope to be able to collect even more toys for deserving children this year.

The Toys for Tots program was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks. Its mission is to collect new and unwrapped toys during the holiday season and distribute them as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which each campaign is conducted.

A-1 Self Storage has 17 locations in the greater San Diego County area and more than 40 locations across California. It is the self-storage division of the Caster Cos., a third-generation, family-owned company headquartered in Southern California since 1959.

Devon Self Storage released an operations update covering the companys performance during the third quarter of 2010 in its quarterly newsletter. Written by Angus Morrison, senior vice president of operations, the update covers occupancy, rental activity, pressure from competition, Web inquiries and more.   

The companys third quarter began with good consumer demand, reasonable rates and good inbound inquiry volume. However, demand waned in the second part of July and into August in many of the companys markets.

In June, Devon same-store sites gained 13,763 square feet. In July these same sites gained 13,696 square feet. In August the sites lost 11,495 square feet primarily as a result of student vacates and lower gross leasing. So while the quarter was still positive, momentum slowed during the last six weeks. The sites are still posting a positive net of 82,162 square feet for the nine months ending Sept. 30.

Devon continued to roll out tenant rent increases, but has been more selective and the rates have seen pressure from the larger real estate investment trusts.  Overall, posted rents rose approximately 11 percent during the January to June timeframe, and declined by 5 percent to 7 percent from July through September.

Rental inquiry activity slowed during this same period with a total of 7,093 inquiries in the third quarter. Closing percentages remained strong at more than 47 percent. Devon managers have an 81 percent close rate for walk-in customers, 41 percent for store telephone inquiries and 24 percent for call-center leads.

Inquires from the Internet continued to drive traffic to the self-storage operator. Overall, 19 percent of all move-ins came through various Internet channels. Referrals also continued to be a source of new move-ins, representing 16 percent of new customers.

The Devon operations team is led by April Noel, Jim Mooney, Michael Vinciguerra, Jerry Ostach and Jacob Steele.

The California Self Storage Association (CSSA) will host a five-hour manager-education event on the states new self-storage lien laws, Dec. 2, in Burbank, Calif. This limited-seating seminar will feature information on Assembly Bill 655 by the bills author, attorney Carlos Kaslow. AB 655 was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Sept. 29.

In addition to hearing about the new bill and how it affects self-storage operators in the state, attendees of the CSSA event will get a practical explanation of the states Business and Professions Code as well as detailed information on the statutory changes surrounding the passage of AB 655. They will also learn vital information they need to know before the law goes into effect on Jan. 1, including:

The most common lien-sale mistakes

• The legal pitfalls of sale and disposal procedures and how to avoid them
• A step-by-step procedure of how to sell a delinquent customer's goods
• Vital rental-agreement requirements
• Common lien-sale and auctioning practices for self-storage
• Legal requirements for advertising lien sales

The event will take place at The Marriott-Burbank hotel on Hollywood Way from 11:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lunch is included. The cost is $200 for CSSA members. To register, call 562.304.2864.

Hessam Nadji, managing director of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, was featured on "CNBC Squawk on the Street" on Oct. 26, discussing current commercial real estate market conditions, prospects for recovery by property sector and public real estate investment trusts. A copy of the broadcast can be viewed at http://www.marcusmillichap.com/Video/cnbc_102610.asp.

Marcus & Millichap is one of the largest investment real estate brokerage firms in the nation, with more than 1,300 real estate specialists in more than 70 offices. The company includes a National Self Storage Group that specializes in self-storage real estate transactions. 

Nadji, joined Marcus & Millichaps in 1996. He oversees the companys research and advisory services. Nadji was formerly was employed with Grubb & Ellis Co., and has been advising investors on real estate strategies since 1986.  

The acquisition and management of a self-storage facility in Boise, Idaho, by the state of Idaho has caused controversy in the industry, and spurred two self-storage associations into action.

Recently, the national Self Storage Association and the Idaho Self Storage Association wrote a letter of opposition to the Idaho Department of Lands. According to the SSAs most recent newsletter, the associations believe the purchase and management of Affordable Self Storage by the state creates an unfair competitive advantage. The associations have requested the state of Idaho divest itself of the self-storage facility.

The state paid $2.7 million in August for the 400-plus-unit facility on Maple Grove, in a Boise suburb. In an effort to increase its return on investments, the agency that oversees the states endowment lands added the storage site to a portfolio of properties that includes offices, parking garages and grazing land. The endowment benefits public schools and has generated $2 million to date.

Affordable self-storage is run as a tax-exempt facility. Though state ownership and operation of the property is legal, some people are concerned about the removal of this and other commercial properties from the tax rolls while competing with private businesses.

The StorageMart self-storage building in Brooklyn, N.Y., is sporting a sign to fan the heat of basketball rivalry between the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets. To capitalize on the buzz, the company has launched social-media campaign, giving away tickets to a showdown between the teams.

The Nets plan to relocate to Brooklyn upon completion of the Barclays Center sports arena in 2012. Featuring Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire and the message Brooklyn Represent, the billboard in question hangs in front of the Manhattan Bridge near the arena construction site. Nets CEO Brett Yormark called out the sign as a defensive maneuver in his comments to NYDailyNews.com.

The two teams play each other at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 30, and StorageMart is giving away four tickets to the game. Fans can enter the drawing via Twitter or Facebook. On Twitter, they should post an @StorageMart tweet using hash tag #storagegifts in the message. On Facebook, they should leave a comment on the StorageMart Gives fan page wall about the giveaway.

The deadline to enter the drawing is Nov. 18. StorageMart will draw a winner by the 19th and reply via Facebook and Twitter to notify the recipient. If prize is not claimed by Nov. 22, a new winner will be drawn. No purchase is necessary to win. Employees and immediate family members of employees are not eligible to win, but are welcome to share this contest with friends.

StorageMart is a fully integrated, privately owned real estate company that owns and operates more than 135 self-storage properties in the United States and Canada.