ezStorage Corp., which operates 45 self-storage facilities on the East Coast, has launched a new sweepstakes aimed at college students and staff. The "Pack It. Store It. Win." promotion runs through June 30 and offers new customers the chance to win one of three new Apple iPad Airs.

In addition, students and staff with valid college identification who rent a storage unit will also receive the first month of rent for free, 10 percent off their rent until Aug. 31, and a 2GB USB flash drive while supplies last. Complete contest rules and restrictions can be found at ezstorage.com or on the company’s Facebook page.

ezStorage is promoting the sweepstakes on its website, via in-store fliers and through its social media channels. "Social media and mobile are great ways to connect with college students, offer them discounts and continue to be a leader in our digital space,” said CEO Todd Manganaro.

The company has created a new responsive website that allows customers to use any digital platform to find and reserve a unit. Customers can find their closest ezStorage by selecting the "Use my current location" tab on any smartphone, tablet or desktop, Manganaro said.

Based in Columbia, Md., ezStorage was founded in 1987 and operates self-storage facilities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The company’s portfolio comprises more than 41,000 units.

B² Interactive, a firm specializing in Internet marketing, website design and software development for the self-storage industry, has acquired Storage.com from Self Storage Co., a subsidiary of Extra Space Management Inc. Storage.com is an online directory and search engine optimization (SEO) tool for storage facilities. The transaction includes the purchase of various domain names, including Storage.com, all intellectual property, and ongoing business concerns of the website. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

B² took over the day-to-day operation of Storage.com in October 2013, following the signing of a licensing, marketing and development agreement in which Storage.com agreed to move its operation to Omaha, Neb., where B² is based. The website and domain will now be entirely owned and operated by B².

“As a company, we have worked diligently over the last few years to build a team that can execute on a vision that we have had for Storage.com for a very long time. There were limits as to how far our teams could go in executing our vision for Storage.com without owning the domain name and business interests of the site,” B² co-founder Bill Hipsher said in a press release. “With this acquisition, we can confidently say that we are poised to successfully develop Storage.com in a way that provides real value to self-storage owners."

Self-storage operators and consumers using Storage.com shouldn’t experience any service disruptions as a result of the transaction, B² officials said.

“Storage.com is meant to be more than just an online marketplace for the storage industry,” added B² co-founder Brandon Taylor. “We are excited to continue building out services that benefit a storage owner’s online marketing efforts in the same way we provide services to our agency clients.”

B² will also continue to operate other websites related to self-storage including StorageUnit.com and USstoragesearch.com.

Storage.com was designed to help storage businesses compete more effectively in the online marketplace and allow potential customers to search for self-storage in their area, according to company officials. The website features software integration with property-management systems and offers inventory-management tools for facilities without such a system. It delivers reservations to operators and provides a SEO package.

Founded in 2012, B² provides local, regional and national clients with digital-marketing, SEO, and Web-development services. It also owns Hurrdat Social Media, a marketing agency specializing in social media strategy, design and development. Together, the companies employ more than 80 people.

Morningstar Properties LLC, which operates self-storage facilities under the Morningstar Mini-Storage brand, has acquired its third storage property through its proprietary investment vehicle Blue Doors Storage Fund II. The facility at 5800 W. WT Harris Blvd. in Charlotte, N.C., comprises 110,000 square feet in 850 units, company officials said in a press release. It’s the company’s fifth Charlotte-area location and 10th in the state.

Morningstar is planning an extensive capital campaign to re-invent the asset, with a direct focus on street visibility and curb appeal to capitalize on the 43,000 cars passing the facility each day, the release stated. The property is near Northlake Mall and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“This is an investment in our home market, adds scale to our current presence, and supplements our extensive development pipeline here in the Queen City,” said Dave Benson, president. “We are very bullish on Charlotte and its projected growth, and will continue to aggressively invest through acquisition and development in the Charlotte MSA [metropolitan statistical area] as well as across top MSAs in the Sunbelt.”

Blue Doors Storage Fund II is a $75 million, self-managed, institutional investment fund the company launched last fall. Morningstar intends to acquire and develop 35 properties through the fund during the next few years, officials said.

Morningstar acquired its first two storage properties through the Blue Doors Storage Fund II in February.  The facilities in Birmingham, Ala., and San Antonio comprise 135,000 square feet in 1,200 units.

Founded in North Carolina in 1981, Morningstar Properties is a vertically integrated developer, owner and operator of real estate products focused primarily on self-storage and marinas in the Southeast. The company has developed, acquired and operated more than 125 self-storage projects across the country, totaling more than 8.8 million square feet. It currently owns and operates 30 self-storage centers in eight states, with most concentrated in the South.

Colorado-based Red Dot Storage has purchased two Illinois self-storage facilities from Stor Tek. The properties in Monee and Richton Park, Ill., have a combined 270 storage units as well as vehicle-parking spaces.

In February, Red Dot acquired the five-property DeKalb County Self Storage portfolio in Illinois. The facilities in Cortland, DeKalb, Malta and Sycamore have a combined total of 250,000 rentable square feet of storage space in approximately 1,600 units.

Red Dot was also recently identified as one of eight independent self-storage operators expected to grow significantly in 2015 by SpareFoot, an online marketplace for self-storage consumers. The company’s goal is to purchase more than 50 facilities in the north-central states this year, according to “The SpareFoot Storage Beat.”

The Red Dot brand is operated by Boulder, Colo.-based Sparkplug Capital LLC. Launched in 2013, it owns and operates 22 storage properties in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Storage Authority, which operates self-storage facilities in Connecticut and Florida, has launched a franchise opportunity that offers existing self-storage owners and those looking to enter the industry the chance to build a business under the brand’s operational framework. The company also offers consulting services and facility-manager training.

Storage Authority will provide franchisees with pre-opening training and ongoing support. Its “Dynamic Ease” system is manager-driven and based on practices used by self-storage real estate investment trusts, company officials said in a press release. Franchisees receive the company’s proprietary operations manual, placement in its national reservation system and a listing on the Storage Authority website. They are also provided with an individual facility website, including search engine optimization; Storage Pro management software; a customer-loyalty program; a customer-satisfaction guarantee; and national and local marketing support, according to the release.

“We believe [franchising] is the future of the self-storage industry,” company officials said in the release, citing similarities to the hotel and restaurant industries in which small operators leveraged franchising to cut costs and improve operating systems, as well as to increase reservations and brand recognition. “Now in 2015, the majority of successful hotels and restaurants in the U.S. are franchised, and we believe the self-storage industry is on the same path.”

Storage Authority was co-founded by Marc Goodin and Scott House. Goodin will serve as president and has extensive self-storage development experience. He designed his first storage facility more than 25 years ago and currently owns three locations. He’s a civil engineer and self-storage consultant who has written several books on development and facility operation.

House has more than 20 years of experience in franchise development and marketing. He has specialized in hotel franchising for most of his career and held several executive positions, including president of a national brand, according to the release.

StorageStuff.bid, a licensed and bonded auction company, has launched a website that enables self-storage operators to list their lien sales online. The company employs several auctioneers, including a principal auctioneer who’s licensed in every state that requires it, officials said in a press release. It has also acquired bonds in states where it is required.

StorageStuff currently operates as an auction business in Florida and has several auction-company licenses pending in other states, according to the release. It is also able to advertise sales on AuctionZip.com, an auction-listing website exclusively for licensed auctioneers, the release said.

“When we started doing research on this new business venture, it quickly became clear that legislation and judicial review were starting to catch up with technology,” said Rick Yonis, managing member. “We knew that we needed to get authority from the governing bodies to operate without any disruption of service in the future.”

Each account on StorageStuff.bid has a hierarchal user management that enables storage operators to assign permissions of use to each member of their team. As a responsive website, it’s designed to be fully operational on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. This also allows operators to upload photos and unit information directly from mobile devices, company officials said.

The team behind the website has 75 years of combined experience as self-storage owners, auctioneers, online marketers and Web designers, according to the release. Staff can assist operators during the lien and foreclosure process, and auctioneers can help with auction-related best practices and procedures, officials said.

StorageStuff will officially debut during the Inside Self-Storage World Expo, April 6-9, at the Paris Hotel & Resort in Las Vegas.

What’s the most important function of a self-storage manager? Keeping the property clean? Opening the office on time? Maybe making delinquency calls? All of these are crucial, but the most important job of any storage manager is to rent units.

Storage owners spend tens of thousands of dollars each year to get potential customers to contact their facilities. They allocate time and funds to online and print advertising, referral programs, direct-mail campaigns, social media, etc. I’ve seen some amazing marketing campaigns over the last few years, but what about finishing the sale? Many owners stop the sales and training process at marketing and then wonder why revenue is less than they projected. The best marketing in the world is useless if you aren’t converting leads to paying customers.

To successfully rent units, a self-storage manager needs three things: a solid funnel for leads, great sales skills and quality follow-up practices. Let’s take a look at each.

The Sales Funnel

You can’t discuss sales without first addressing the way you get potential customers to contact your facility. First, you have to create and implement a “sales funnel.” There should be a set procedure for leading customers from a piece of marketing, such as a website, to signing a rental agreement.

For example, if you launch a direct-mail campaign in your area, how do you want prospects to respond to it? Does the mailer tell them exactly what you want them to do—view your website or landing page, call a phone number, visit your facility? Is the message created to cause an immediate reaction and a sense of urgency?

Next, is everyone who works at the facility aware of the campaign? All too often, owners or marketing consultants launch a promotion without informing staff. If you facility is offering some type of rental special or incentive and not everyone knows about it, the effort is already hampered. It’s critical to keep an eye on the sales funnel to get the results you seek.

Great Skills

The ability to close a sale is a skill, just like carpentry or accounting.  No one is born with sales skills; they’re learned, tested and applied over time. Potential self-storage customers typically contact a storage facility by phone, e-mail or in person. Since a majority will call you, let’s work from that perspective.

A ringing phone is one of the most important sounds at a storage facility, on par with a fire alarm or siren from an emergency vehicle. In just a few minutes, you need to convince the caller to visit your property. If you can get him to make an appointment or reserve a unit, that’s even better. Following is an example of a great sales interaction, starting with what to say when you answer the phone. (You’ll want to tailor this to your company’s culture or mission.)

Manager: “Thank you for choosing XYZ Self-Storage. How may I help you?”

Customer: “I need to get some information and prices on a storage unit.”

Don’t waste this opportunity by just giving the requested details. If you simply give out a price every time the phone rings, you might as well shove all of that marketing money you spent into a furnace. Instead, be polite and pleasant, and attempt to get more information.

Manager: “My name is X. May I have your name?”

Most customers will be more than willing to move forward with the conversation. Let’s call our potential renter Sally. The idea is to get on a first name basis and become Sally’s go-to person for self-storage. Remember, you’re the expert. The average customer will have very little knowledge of the industry.

Manager: “Very nice to speak with you, Sally. May I get your phone number in case we get disconnected?”

If she answers, you now have her name and phone number. If she doesn’t want to provide her number, don’t harass her. You can attempt to get it again as the conversation progresses. The next step is to glean more details.

Manager: “Sally, you mentioned you need information on storage. What will you be storing, and how long do you think you’ll need the space?”

Asking what size unit customers need is a waste of time. Most know nothing about unit sizes. Remember, these are the same people who try to fit the contents of a 24-foot moving truck into a 5-by-10 space!

Sally may tell you she needs to store furniture, such as a mattress, couch and chair, as well as some boxes. She then says she’ll need the space for about six months while her new house is under construction. Bear in mind that, as with size, customers tend to underestimate the amount of time they’ll need self-storage.

Manager: “Sally, congratulations on your new home. How soon will you need the space?”

This will help you find out the level of need. People respond to pain more than pleasure, so if the caller’s lease is up tomorrow or he just experienced a house fire, his need might be immediate.

Sally: “I need the unit in the next day or two.”

Manager: “Sally, I can definitely help you. Let me tell you about a few things our customers love about XYZ Self-Storage.”

Now’s the time to discuss security, office hours, etc. Make sure Sally understands what makes your facility great. During your conversation, ask questions such as, “How important is security to you?” If you offer free use of a moving truck or tenant insurance, include that in your discussion as well. At this point, you can recommend a size you think will best suit Sally’s needs.

Manager: “Sally, I think our 10-by-15 will be the best fit for you. It’s $135 a month, which includes [insert features or amenities]. May I go ahead and reserve that unit for you?”

If she doesn’t want to reserve a unit over the phone, encourage her to visit your property and take a tour. Ask if you can set an appointment time that works best for her.

Follow-Up

Of course, not every caller will commit to the sale over the phone or even agree to an appointment. This is where follow-up comes into play. While still on the phone with your prospect, try to get some contact information. A special offer can come in handy here. It can be something as simple as 10 percent off packing supplies.

Manager: “Sally, before I let you go, I’d like to e-mail you a coupon. What’s your e-mail address?”

At the end of the call, you’ll have Sally’s name and e-mail address, and possibly a phone number. This will allow you to follow up with her if she misses her appointment. Even if she didn’t commit to a site visit, she’s still a strong lead, so reach out to her no later than the next day. The ability to follow up with prospects and track your leads can be the difference between having a facility that is 65 percent or 95 percent occupied.

It’s also important to use sales scripts and make sure the selling process is uniform for all staff members. There’s a reason telemarketing companies use scripts. They keep people from “winging it” and “thinking outside the box” while keeping the process orderly.

One last piece of advice: You’ll notice there was no mention of a rental special during the call. If at all possible, sell your prospects on what’s great about your facility, not price. At the end of a call, you want potential customers to feel your product provides the best value and price is, therefore, a secondary concern. If you’re priced within your market, or even a little higher, cost won’t be an issue for most renters.

Keep things simple and process-based. This will lead to more revenue, better occupancy and happier customers.

Matthew Van Horn is vice president of Cutting Edge Self Storage Management, which specializes in facility management, feasibility studies, consulting and joint ventures. He’s also president of 3-Mile Domination, a full-service self-storage marketing and strategy company. For more information, visit www.cuttingedgeselfstorage.com and www.3miledomination.com, where you can download a free e-book.

Metro Storage LLC, which operates more than 100 self-storage locations in 11 states, has acquired a former warehouse in Northbrook, Ill., which it plans to convert to a Metro Self Storage facility. The property at 2121 Shermer Road will feature a two-story building encompassing 67,000 rentable square feet of storage space in 660 climate-controlled units.

Interior demolition and conversion of the building is scheduled to begin in May. As part of the project, Metro will create a second-floor mezzanine within the building. The new facility will feature multiple elevators and loading points, advanced security and a large, modern business office.

“There is high demand for quality self-storage in the Chicago area.” said Matt Nagel, chairman. “This property is located in an excellent location to meet that demand.”

The new facility is scheduled to open in the fall. It will be the company’s 18^th store in the Chicago area.

Headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., Metro Storage is a privately owned, fully integrated real estate operating company specializing in the acquisition, development and management of self-storage facilities nationwide.

The Grossman Cos. Inc., a family-owned real estate company, purchased Roslindale Self Storage in Roslindale, Mass., a suburb in Boston, for $8.8 million. The acquisition was backed by a $6.4 million loan from Brookline Bank. The facility was previously owned by James C. Dow of Northeastern Realty Trust, who acquired the site in 1995 for $330,000, the source reported.

The property at 34-44 Lochdale Road and 48-99 Mahler Road is just off Washington Street near the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. It encompasses 44,000 square feet of storage space in 366 climate-controlled units on 1.24 acres of land. It also features 55 vehicle-parking spaces and 17,000 square feet of commercial space that’s currently occupied by two tenants, Autoparts International and Cataldo Ambulance Service Inc. Property amenities include drive-up access, free Wi-Fi, online billpay, and the sale of moving and packing supplies.

“We have been pursuing urban self-storage property for the last few years and are excited about this opportunity in Roslindale, which is a densely populated, under-supplied market,” said David Grossman, co-president. “The asset has historically been fully occupied and its stable cash flow is extremely attractive; however, we are optimistic that we will be able to create significant value in the medium- and long-term.”

The facility will be managed by Storage Asset Management Inc., a self-storage property-management and consulting company based in York, Pa.

Quincy, Mass.-based The Grossman Cos. is a real estate investment, management and brokerage firm that owns and manages approximately 2 million square feet of commercial and residential properties concentrated in New England.

After the success of its first facility in Tomball, Texas, Big Tex Self Storage has opened a second facility in Houston. Located at 3202 Weslayan St., the facility will serve the neighboring River Oaks area. To celebrate the opening, the business is offering specials to new customers, including one month of free storage.

The new facility includes all climate-controlled units. Security features include individual door alarms and 50 video cameras. Customers can also use of the facility’s moving truck and dollies at no charge.

The company’s first facility is at 24922 Kuykendahl Road in Spring/Woodlands region. Owner Bobby Grover built it shortly after buying a home in River Oaks.

“While remodeling our house, my wife and I needed to find a storage facility nearby. We found the storage options were scarce, pricing was high and security was limited. We were looking for a bright and inviting place to store our valued items with great customer service and were having trouble finding it,” Grover said. “So I decided to build and manage a quality storage facility predicated on providing the best of everything a storage facility can offer to discerning customers.”

Big Tex Self Storage is family-owned and -operated. In addition to self-storage, the company offers boat/RV storage and mini-office warehouse units.