(article previously published in April 2020)
Historically, due to the absence of online media, the buying and selling of homes was a face-to-face process. The developer sold apartments and you went to his house to buy them. At most, advertising was used to advertise the offer.
Most of the process was carried out at the developer’s home. With more or less investment, the sales material was prepared (brochures, models, plans, prices,…), the sales space (waiting room and meeting room). In the best of cases, even a show apartment was built to be visited.
That is, the physical means that existed were used for a purpose :
Obtain sufficient trust from the potential customer before building what you wanted to sell him, i.e., get ahead of the future.
All this with an added difficulty. We’re not talking about buying shoes. The challenge is to close the most important purchase in the customer’s life.
You lose nothing. Invest the same but in new media.
These changes have nothing to do with this damn pandemic. They go back a long way.
It is clear that new technologies (virtual reality, renderings, augmented reality, virtual tours, video, interactive video,…) have provided you with new tools of conviction, of sale.
But,
what distinguishes these tools from the ones we have been using all our lives?
They are not face-to-face. The client does not have to go to the developer’s office. And that simple fact has many advantages.
Online access to information has made the buyer more proactive. They no longer receive information about your promotion in their physical mailbox. That strategy based on PUSH was “killing flies with cannons. It sought to offer regardless of demand.
The customer uses the PULL method. He does not want to be sold > he wants to buy.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one trend was gaining momentum:
The client wants to buy his house and NOT have it sold to him. He needs to have decision-making autonomy. When he asks you, inform him.
In the meantime, offer him the tools to get into his heart. to get into his heart.
Of course, you will eventually have to see him in person, but if you don’t do the above, you won’t be able to shake his hand to close the deal.
THE TRADITIONAL PROCESS
Historically, due to the absence of online media, buying and selling homes was a face-to-face process. The developer sold apartments and you went to his house to buy them. At most, advertising was used to advertise the offer.
Most of the process was carried out at the developer’s home. With more or less investment, the sales material was prepared (brochures, models, plans, prices,…), the sales space (waiting room and meeting room). In the best of cases, even a show apartment was built to be visited.
That is, the physical means that existed were used for a purpose :
Obtain sufficient trust from the potential customer before building what you wanted to sell him, i.e., get ahead of the future.
All this with an added difficulty. We’re not talking about buying shoes. The challenge is to close the most important purchase in the customer’s life.
You lose nothing. Invest the same but in new media.
THE TOOLS HAVE CHANGED AND SO HAS THE PROCESS
These changes have nothing to do with this damn pandemic. They go back a long way.
It is clear that new technologies (virtual reality, renderings, augmented reality, virtual tours, video, interactive video,…) have provided you with new tools of conviction, of sale.
But,
what distinguishes these tools from the ones we have been using all our lives?
They are not face-to-face. The client does not have to go to the developer’s office. And that simple fact has many advantages.
Online access to information has made the buyer more proactive. They no longer receive information about your promotion in their physical mailbox. That strategy based on PUSH was “killing flies with cannons. It sought to offer regardless of demand.
The customer uses the PULL method. He does not want to be sold > he wants to buy.
COVID-19 HAS CHANGED A LOT OF THINGS
I’m not saying it will change. I’m saying that it already has.
The process of buying and selling a home has been modified. Today, it is not that it has changed, it is that no transactions are taking place. This situation is temporary and will gradually relax.
It is a good time to prepare for the future. Meditate and make a business plan. Establish the new rules of the game.
WHAT WILL YOU NEED FROM NOW ON TO SELL?
ADAPT TO THE CUSTOMER
Each person will manage his fears and precautions as he understands best, and the seller must adapt to the conditions established by each potential buyer.
GET YOU INTO YOUR NEW SALES ROOM
We talk a lot about teleworking as a solution, but we seem to find it hard to understand that non-face-to-face selling is the trend.
We need to have an aseptic channel to get close to our customer’s heart.
“The new sales room is your customer’s living room.”
That’s where you need to get to. I’m not talking about the real estate portals that have already gotten into our homes. I’m talking about you, about your promotion. You should no longer wait for them to approach, you have to do it yourself. Make it easy for them. But you can plan this process yourself.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEDUCTION
You have to provoke this approach in terms of seduction, not information. Yes, you have to inform, but remember: decisions are made with the heart.
Your virtual sales material has to excite. Turn your product into something aspirational. Provoke the : I want it.
When we make the video of a promotion, we always show the project in a reliable way but, above all, we look for the emotional factor to convince. It is crucial.
DISTANCE AND TIME MANAGEMENT
In these aseptic times we are living in, physical distance does not have to become a barrier. Your entrance to the home through the cable will be your umbilical cord with the customer. Play smart. Take advantage of all the benefits technology has to offer. But, take my advice, do it always aiming at their heart.
Give him more space and time for intimate reflection. The customer can’t stand the aggressive salesperson anymore. He likes to decide on his own. Accompany him but respect his time and distance. The art, the magic of selling is done in the brain and for that you don’t need to invest in a face-to-face sales room.
DO LIKE THE VIRUS
If you wait for C19 to disappear and go back to your old strategies…you are lost.
New viruses will almost certainly emerge and, if you have not changed your “modus operandi”, you will encounter the same problems again.
So think, plan and act. The process has changed and you have to adapt.
Mutate or else you will die entrepreneurially.