Best Sales Practices for removal and storage companies

Perfecting your homemover marketing might feel like the key to success. Generating consistent and relevant leads should create a constant source of new customers that your business succeeds on.

Or so many people believe. But any good sales rep will tell you that finding new prospects is only half the battle. If you aren't closing deals and convincing people to actually sign up for your service, you will still struggle to see any increase in revenue.

Unfortunately, closing sales isn't always easy either - but it can be made easier. Even without investing in seasoned sales managers or a perfect sales pitch - you can find more customer success by following a few sales best practices.

In this post, we'll cover some of those sales closing techniques and sales best practices that your removal or storage company can use to help close more deals and turn prospects into profits.

What are the 4 types of sales closing techniques?

When it comes to sales techniques there are plenty to choose from. Pick up a guide on how to be a winning sales person and you'll find whole chapters dedicated to complicated sales closing techniques. Many of which completely abandon the needs of your customer in favour of closing your sale.

When it comes to the homemover market, these underhand or overbearing approaches to closing sales won't help. One of your customer's main concerns will be how trustworthy your company is. Tricky tactics designed to close sales are more likely to scare them off than win them over.

Here are four of the most common sales closing techniques that work when targeting a homemover market. Just always remember your customer experience needs to come first.

Now or never close

This traditional approach to closing sales is easy to put in place, but can be quite restrictive. Don't limit your customer communications to emails or phone calls. With a now or never close, you can offer a limited-time offer to speed up a sale. For example, offering a discount if someone signs up today, or suggesting a limited supply. It creates a sense of urgency that pressures people into making a decision.

Summary close

Spend some time summarising the benefits and how your unique selling proposition can solve their problems unlike anyone else on the market, before asking if they want to commit.

For a self-storage company this might be:

"So that's a 50ft climate-controlled storage unit with 24-hour access for £X for the first 3 months and £X a month after that. What day shall we start your contract on?'

This brief summary reminds your customer of exactly why they should choose you, and what benefits exactly they're getting which will encourage them to commit to you. It's particularly great when you've been through a long conversation and the sale is nowhere near closing.

Assumptive close

This can feel like an intense method as it needs you to be confident in yourself and your product. The assumptive close requires you to believe that the customer already wants to buy your service. You believe that the sale is already closed, and you’re talking as though the customer has already signed the deal.

This is very much a 'power of positive thinking' approach, but it can be simpler when you're targeting a homemover audience. As they are definitely going to move house, you can conduct the entire sales process from the perspective that your company could make that a lot easier for them, just prove to them how much value you can bring.

Takeaway close

This is a good approach to take if you feel your customer is being put off by a big price tag (which can happen a lot with homemovers, when costs quickly mount up in the process). In this approach, you take something away from what you offer them and then give a revised price too.

It can work in two ways - firstly, the smaller price tag might appeal more but you will also engage the mysteries of reverse psychology. Your potential customers will suddenly be focused on what they are missing out on if they take the discount, which will actually encourage them to see its value more.

What is the best approach to closing a sale with homemovers?

There is never going to be a blanket 'most effective' approach to closing sales, even with homemovers. This is because each customer's needs and personality are different - for effective salespeople, the skill lies in being able to identify these early on and tailor your approach accordingly.

When targeting homemovers, your potential client or customer is likely to be under a lot of stress - and people react differently to this. For some people, it may make the Now or Never approach more effective, as it will solve a potential issue quickly (and with a benefit). Others may react badly to having more pressure added and need time to consider their options.

There are definitely benefits to using the Assumptive Close technique with homemovers too. In particular for removal services and van hire companies. People will need to transport their goods from their old home to their new home somehow - your only job is to prove why you will make this task as effortless and easy as possible so they pick your company to do the work.

Summary closes can also be particularly effective, and a better bet for storage companies as well as removals. Homemovers have a lot on their mind, so giving clear, brief information right at the end of the sales process will help refresh them on what brilliant benefits they are getting from you. It will help cut through the noise of moving stress and give them the clarity they need to make a decision.

3 top tips to help you close more sales with homemovers

Is your business is struggling to close sales from your homemover leads?  Here are a few tried and tested sales practice tips to help sharpen your skills.

Follow-up leads quickly and consistently

Regardless of where you're generating your sales leads from, the most important thing you can do is follow them up as quickly as possible.

Don't give your competitors a chance to get in before you, reach out to any potential customer quickly as possible and grab that prime spot at the forefront of your potential customer's mind.

This is doubly important once they've contacted you. Respond quickly, with as much information as you can. If you have automated responses set up, make sure you explain when the customer can expect a personalised response - make it a short time scale and make sure you stick to it.

Know your customer

As we mentioned above, an important part of securing homemover sales is showing your customer that they can trust you with their valuable possessions during a high pressure time.

Show them that you appreciate what they're going through. Familiarise yourself with your prospect's pain points - the issues that they are facing and the worries they have. Then tell them how you can solve them. This is how you should build your marketing but it also needs to inform your sales strategy.

Contact them at the right times, show that you understand what they need and prove that you can deliver it. Anticipating what your customers want is key to closing sales.

Know your business (and your competitors)

Once you know what your customers want, your next job is to know how your business can achieve it.

If someone is serious about signing up with you, they're likely to have a long list of questions they need answering. If they're looking for self-service storage, they'll want to know exact access arrangements - someone searching for removals will want to know the process if something goes wrong.

Make sure you can answer questions like this quickly and completely - then make sure your whole sales team can too. Potential customers lose their trust in you if they have to wait around for answers on issues they think are obvious.

Here at MoverAlerts, we pride ourselves on helping you perfect your homemover marketing. Our subscription service can provide qualified leads of people who are actually in need of your service to kickstart your sales cycle and put you on the path to closing more sales. Get in touch to find out more here.