So, you've acquired a customer, they're paying you a monthly rental fee, referred a friend, purchased packing supplies and a lock from you and just insured their grandmother's heirlooms and son's baseball card collection they have stored with you.
What else could we possibly ask for?
A lot. What if it cost less to acquire this fine customer? What if we were able to lower your cost of acquisition by just 10%? 20%? 50%?
Don't laugh, it's possible.
Most facilities have advertising dollars spread out all over the place. Some of it is working, some is not, but in most cases the facilities have no clue whether it's working or not, and if they do, they're not quite sure how each medium is performing.
How about knowing your cost per call and cost per acquisition for each medium? This information will not only be extremely insightful, but will help you cut your budget where it's not performing. You can either put that money back in your pocket or re-allocate it to mediums that are performing extremely well.
That's one way.
But pretend for a moment that all of your advertising efforts are producing efficiently and there's no room for improvement there.
Can we still lower your cost per acquisition and increase your profits?
I'll put money on it - here's how: You're paying real cash to make that phone of yours ring. Yet, you're not answering it each time it does. If it costs you $100 to make the phone ring and your staff misses the call due to a line at the counter, a troubled tenant or an exciting game of solitaire, you might as well take a $100 bill and walk it down to your local church or branch of the Red Cross, it'll do more good there.
In addition to that, even those calls that are answered are under-leveraged. Do your people convert every phone call into a paying customer? Not likely. Not likely for anybody. But it's a worthy ideal to strive for. What if you were able to increase your global conversion rate by just 5%? That wouldn't drop your cost per call, but would definitely drop the most important figure, your cost to acquire a new customer.
To do this, you can hire an outsourced call center. There are many good ones in this industry. Or you can build a “sales center” in house, which is not an easy feat but can prove very worthwhile if properly built, trained and operated. A properly built sales center not only answers calls but also makes outgoing calls to customers thanking them for their business and performs other sales functions needed by your organization.
Work everyday to lower the cost to make your phone ring and the cost to acquire a new customer. Do this by getting a better response from your advertising and by increasing your phone call to paying customer conversion rate.
Copyright 2006 Derek Naylor

About The Author

Derek M. Naylor is the President of Storage Marketing Solutions (SMS). SMS has created, and proven many turn-key marketing solutions for the self-storage industry. Additionally Derek has helped thousands of businesses increase their profits by helping them implement elite marketing strategies and tactics. For a complimentary marketing strategy session, call SMS at 800.941.4805 or visit http://www.storagemarketingsolutions.com.