I am in some partnerships that will be taking over some facilities and doing some expansions (a conversion actually). So I have been thinking through some of the spaces our team will have to go through as we prepare to bring these projects online.
Given the purpose of these episodes is to learn out loud what we do in the self-storage industry, I thought this a fitting episode for early 2026.
The Manager
First, and perhaps most importantly, we are thinking about the manager.
Even if you have a “remote managed” project, I recommend having someone on hand and close by during lease up to actually “sell” (yes, I used that word) your new space.
Algorithms do not sell, and people do not make decisions to purchase something based on algorithms. People make emotional decisions to take action in life, and algorithms do not create the emotional responses necessary to take action. Just my opinion, and I admit I am a dinosaur.
So we think about what traits we want in our manager, the front-line person our customers will interface with and get to know. A manager that reflects the culture we want to create in our facility. We also know that the skill sets needed in the initial phases of lease up may not be the ones needed for a stabilized property.
We have approached a person in our Inner Circle group and will be meeting him there in a week or two to show the property, our vision of it, and get his take. We hope we can come to an understanding. We think the goal would have him set up our onsite operations, coordinate with the marketing and phone bank team we will be putting in place, get the project rolling in the right way, then in a year or so, train his replacement as he moves on with us or on his own to his next project.
I firmly believe the right manager is critical out of the gate. Years ago I did an episode on managers, and here is a link to that episode if you want to glimpse into what we think good managers look like. You can see it here.
USP’s
Once we have our onsite team in place, we will come up with no more than five unique selling propositions (USP’s). These are features that separate our facility from our competition in the area.
I believe for smaller owners, especially competing with larger players with more resources, this is critical.
Part of what marketing is, in my opinion, is selling the benefits these USP’s provide our customers. Part of marketing is educating the customer base in a trade area that storage is not a commodity and renting space from us offers them value they cannot get from our competition.
It starts with the USP’s.
These can be many things, or anything. Anything that separates our facility from the competition in the area.
I have been involved in a project in Florida where one of our USP’s was the fact our project has never flooded or had any water penetration in a weather event in its history. We knew that most, if not all, of our competition had been flooded at least once.
We have had 35-foot drive lanes be a USP. We have had underground drainage be a USP. We have had 24-hour access, as well as limited hours of access, be USP’s.
It could be the fact we are a new facility or a refurbished one. It could be the fact it is locally owned, or it is owned by a small owner, or local owners, or family owners and not a big company (this has been a big one for us). It could be we won’t raise your rent as fast or as often as the bigger players do, or we will lock in your rate for a specific time period.
Look closely at your competition. Rent from them. Get to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, then lead the discussion with your team creating the USP’s.
We work with the manager and staff of a facility and let them help shape what the unique selling propositions are for a project. It starts with features (what a USP is), then we let them create the benefits the USP’s offer.
Our staff will know that it is the benefits, not the features, that create the value our customers will experience.
Lastly, we train the staff on how to sell the benefits to create long-term customer relationships.
Creating Your Message and Telling It To Your World (i.e. the trade area)
Also, part of your marketing and creating a culture your customers, staff, partners, and vendors all experience is crafting your message.
Another way I relate to this is our facility’s story.
It doesn’t matter if I am selling storage in a lower demographic area, raising capital from sophisticated high net worth investors for an investment, working with vendors, or talking to a small child about an allowance, human beings respond to stories.
It is hard wired in our brains and bodies.
I think this is a result of our evolution as a species over a few hundred thousand years as we sat around campfires telling stories that shaped and defined our beliefs and reality.
No matter the cause, people take action when they are inspired, and stories inspire better than anything. Even if you think you are a totally analytical person making data-driven decisions, I have news for you… you make emotional decisions and use data to rationalize them.
So we craft a story about why we bought this facility and our goals for it. The USP’s are just a part of and fall within the story. Then we take that story and create a “message,” a short but powerful portion of the story we want our trade area to know about our facility.
Why this is important is it helps define how we want our customer base to think and relate to us. It also helps create a space where the unique benefits and value we can offer can be heard.
For example, on a particular project I was involved with in a trade area where there was a lot of lease up from larger players going on and we were behind them in bringing our space on due to construction delays, we knew we had an uphill climb.
What did we know about our competition? We knew they were larger players and would have low entry rates, then raise prices dramatically.
So this became part of our message. We are owned by local people who are part of the community and have families here. We would not treat our family that way. When you rent from us, you are part of our family too. We treat you like family.
So part of what we are doing is creating our message to get out to the world (our trade area world) in a way that hopefully impacts them and hits an emotional chord.
The Marketing Team
Then we make sure our website provider, who for us is also in charge of our marketing and answering service (hello Guy) for after hours and when our onsite team can’t answer the phone, knows and uses these USP’s and benefits.
We want to make sure as much as possible our USP’s, benefits, and message are above the fold on our website or very easy for people to see. Also, the message and benefits are known and used by our onsite staff, as well as people or bots involved with our phone bank service.
Another effective way we have used the USP’s and benefits has been if we are clear someone calling is calling other facilities and we are not going to convert them on the call (or online chat with a bot), we actually give the prospect questions we suggest they ask when calling other facilities.
Obviously and selflessly, these questions highlight the competition’s weaknesses and our strengths, thereby reinforcing the value our facility offers over the local competition.
This assumes you actually know what the competition’s weaknesses are and you train your team in how to highlight them to prospects.
Remember, if you are in the storage business, you are in the business of selling and providing customer service. Period.
All of the social media, Google Ads, and marketing carry a consistent message with the benefits that separate us from the pack (in that trade area), and we work with the marketing team to ensure this.
Conclusion
We will create with the marketing team specific ads to test and, with the staff, our grand openings and trade area marketing. However, where we currently are in the due diligence of bringing these facilities online, this is where at least I am currently focused.
I will be meeting with the partners and manager in the next week or so, and thought I would share with you what I am preparing as I get ready. I’ll keep you updated as to our progress if you are interested.
If you are bringing online a new project soon, I hope this helps.
