What is in a Name

What is in a name? Introducing yourself to the person that you are talking to seems to be a lost art in sales. Now when you are involved in some other kind of negotiations, for some reason people seem to introduce their selves. When you are trying to sell a customer a storage space or other answers to their needs, the introduction seems to be not there. How much easier would it be to sell to your friend than a complete stranger? Isn’t it less rude to call a person hey you, or even sir or ma’am. Many people are comfortable with those types of greetings. On the flip side not everyone is.

When a customer walks into a self storage facility and the property manager does not acknowledge they are there, what impression does that give for the customer? That does not make the customer feel they are important or that the manager wants to do business with them. What changes when a property manager goes out of their way to say hello and greet them properly? Everything changes. The demeanor of the presentation changes, the customer is a little more receptive of the manager, and the possibility of building rapport is there. What do you think would change if we added the introduction of names?

It is very common for a customer to call a self storage location or any type of business and the rep on the other end answers with their name. Since the customer now knows your name, why don’t you know there name? It just makes sense right? Unfortunately it goes deeper than that. It is felt sometimes rude or people are scared to ask someone for their first name. They rather resort to just calling them ma’am or sir. That is formal and sometimes respectful, but what happens if you call the wrong person sir or madame? That could lead to an uncomfortable situation.

You will not always deal with a person face to face. You might only talk to them if they are over the phone. This might be your one and only shot to get them into the store. You can easily say something like, hi my name is so and so, what is your name? The customer should open up and tell you their name. If they do not, then there is another issue and you will have to make them comfortable enough to gain access to their name. Otherwise when you get their name, you should use it through out the conversation. Don’t say it over and over again like a broken record, just say it enough to where the customer sees that you are making an effort to be friendly.

When it comes time to close the sale, using their name is very important. At t his point you are on a first name basis so you can use their name to ask for the reservation or the rental. For example you can say, James, it looks like we have the best unit for you. Let’s go ahead and get you set up. You can begin moving in right away. That is a lot friendlier than using sir or just asking for the sale. It makes it more personal. Gain the customer’s name and make sure that you use it. This personal touch could mean the difference between you getting sales and not. Every little bit helps.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.