If you own or operate a self-storage facility, you want to rent more units and make more money. That's the core of your business. But how do you accomplish this?

You could invest in marketing to get the phone to ring more often, create more walk-ins and make it easier for people to find you online. You should do those things, but the first step in renting more units is to maximize the leads youre already getting and increase your conversion rate. Theres little point in doing in more marketing if youre not doing your best to make the most of current efforts. Instead, try these five strategies to rent more units and generate more revenue.

1. Learn How to Answer the Phone

If you want to rent more units, learn how to answer the phone. I conduct several mystery-shop phone calls each month and, frankly, most facility managers are not very good on the phone. Sure, they can answer it, but so can all six of my grandkids. Effectively answering the phone means being able to convert callers into renters. It means giving prospective customers a reason to visit your store. With approximately 85 percent of potential customers calling before they visit a site, shouldnt you make sure you know how to answer the phone?

Self-storage is a need-driven purchasing decision, and almost 90 percent of people looking for storage end up renting. Yet many managers believe that when they dont rent a space, the potential tenant was just looking. Really? Who "just looks" for storage? If you didnt rent a unit to a prospect, you can assume one of your competitors did, and that should not be OK with you.

To be effective on the phone:

• Offer your name and ask for the customers, then use his name two or three times in the conversation.
• Quit asking, What size do you need? Thats like operating a self-serve gas station and expecting the customer to solve his own problem.
• Use price stalls, and do not quote a rate until youve covered the features and benefits of renting at your facility.
• Don't give up when someone says, Ill have to think about it." Know how to overcome objections.
• Finally, learn how to close the sale and rent the space.

2. Supercharge Your Referral Program

Your referral program is the only marketing effort for which you only pay when it works! But many storage operators are far too cheap when it comes to their referral program, and then they wonder why it doesnt seem to work very well.

Offering a customer a $25 credit on his account is not a strong referral incentive. Why will you only pay a current customer $25 for a rental when youre paying Yellow Pages and Internet aggregators much more than that for leads, whether the prospect rents a space or not? That doesnt make sense!

To supercharge your referral program, start offering cash or gift cards, up to $50 or $75, and make the program a really big deal when you review the lease with a new customer. Expand your sales force as large as you can. Open your referral program to the local pizza-delivery guy, as well as all local apartment managers and real estate agents. When you consider the value of each rental, the investment in a great referral program is one of the best youll ever make in your self-storage operation.

3.  Set Up a Lead-Tracking System

When youre only getting one or two chances a day to rent storage space, you have to learn to treat every lead like gold. Whether those leads come in by phone, the Internet or as walk-ins, you cant keep up with rental leads by using yellow sticky notes. Since every rental is worth $1,000 or more, every loss is a expensive for your business. Consider the cost of not renting space:

• The cost to generate the lead is wasted.
• The value of the rental is lost.
• The opportunity to sell ancillary goods and services is gone.
• The opportunity to gain a referral is lost.

The most successful managers rent to a large number of their leads after a follow-up contact. One of the most important pieces to the lead-tracking puzzle is follow-up. Failing to follow up is tantamount to letting a prospective customer know you dont care about his business and you really dont want his money. You simply cannot afford to lose the sale.

4. Use a Call Center

Its surprising in this day and age that so many self-storage operators still trust their rollover phone business to an answering machine or their managers' cell phones. Most potential customers will not leave a message on an answering machine, and its impossible for a manager to give a 100 percent sales effort while standing in line at the bank or out sweeping units. When you calculate the value of a rental at your facility and the costs of generating each lead, the value of using a call center seems clear.

Figure the cost of using a call center and the return on investment if it rents just one unit per month. Youll find this service offers one of the highest returns of any of your other marketing efforts. Using a call center helps an independent operator more effectively compete with the big guys and increases his level of professionalism and customer service.

5. Put Your Rates Online

Today's self-storage customer expects to be able to do business with you online. If youre still stuck in the dark ages and expect Contact Us for a Free Quote or Reserve a Unit to work, without publishing your rates, you really need to get with the program.

If the industry's largest operators, ones whove spent a gazillion dollars on customer and market research, believe it makes good business sense to publish their rates online, why not take advantage of their findings? Theyre not stupid. Do you really think you can outsmart them by withholding your rates online? You cant.

Adding online reservations with rates allows you to be more competitive with the major players. Statistics show that customers prefer seeing rates online, and every day your rates are missing, customers are passing you by. Unless youre getting 10 to 20 leads a day, you cannot afford to let anyone pass you by!
You can rent more units using these proven techniques, which are used by the most successful self-storage operators. Its no accident these operators have higher occupancy and rates than those who do not. Its time to quit settling for good enough. You deserve better.

Bob Copper is partner in charge at Self Storage 101, an industry consulting firm that assists facility owner/operators and managers in developing more effective and profitable operational systems. It also aids in conducting performance reviews and providing the necessary tools to perform at higher levels in a competitive industry. For more information, call 866.269.1311; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.selfstorage101.com.

CubeSmart, a self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT),  announced the retirement of CEO Dean Jernigan effective at the end of next year when his contract expires. The company also announced its second-quarter common shares dividend.

"The board of trustees thanks Dean for his service to our company over the last six years and for his commitment to ensuring an orderly CEO transition over the next 18 months," said William M. Diefenderfer, board chairman. "Under Dean's leadership, the company has dramatically improved the quality of its portfolio, technology and balance sheet and has built a scalable platform capable of producing solid future growth both internally and externally. It is indicative of his thoughtful and forward-looking approach to have put in place a seasoned and talented executive team and to provide an appropriate period of time to ensure a seamless transition of leadership."

As part of the changes in leadership, the board of trustees said Christopher Marr assumed the role of chief operating officer on May 30, adding to his duties as company president and chief investment officer.

"I am extremely pleased to have been able to mentor Chris over the past 18 years and help him develop into a highly effective and results-driven real estate executive," Jernigan said. "The addition of the COO title reflects his expanded scope of oversight to include the property operations, revenue management and marketing functions of our company. I look forward to working closely with Chris over the next 18 months to position CubeSmart for continuing long-term success."

The board announced a dividend of $0.08 per common share for the quarter ended June 30. The dividend is payable on July 16 to common shareholders of record on July 2. A quarterly dividend of $0.484375 for the 7.75 percent Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares is payable on July 16 to holders of record on July 2.

CubeSmart owns or manages 481 self-storage facilities nationwide and operates the CubeSmart Network, which consists of approximately 825 additional facilities.

Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a publicly registered, non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) investing in self-storage properties, acquired an 870-unit, 3.3-acre self-storage property in Chantilly, Va., this week for approximately $7.3 million. The company's Virginia self-storage portfolio now includes five facilities totaling approximately 3,320 units. The new site will be rebranded as SmartStop Self Storage. It had been called Americana Self Storage.

"The Chantilly property is a prime asset as it is in close proximity to our nation's capital," said H. Michael Schwartz, Strategic Storage Trust chairman and CEO. "The government influence adds to the stability of the local economy and offers an increase in job growth, which ultimately promotes residential moving/self-storage transactions."

The property, which is 93 percent occupied, is at 14518 Lee Road in Chantilly between Lee Jackson Memorial Highway (U.S. Route 50) and Willard Road. It is approximately six miles south of Washington-Dulles International Airport and located close to several big-box retailers, such as Costco and Target. Built in 1985, the facility consists of three buildings with a retail office and approximately 83,700 net rentable square feet.

Strategic Storage Trust currently owns self-storage facilities in four Virginia locations: Fredericksburg, Hampton, Manassas and Sandston. The company's portfolio of wholly-owned properties now include 92 properties in 17 states and Canada that are branded as SmartStop Self Storage. The portfolio includes approximately 61,000 self-storage units and 7.5 million rentable square feet of storage space.