I’m sure that if you ask every estate agent what they sell, the answer will be the same.
“We sell houses”
This seems like an obvious statement. However, if you ask the buyer what they are buying, I’m fairly sure that they will say
“We are buying a home”
You might think that there is very little difference between these sentences but actually, there is a world of difference.
A house is exactly that. Four walls, a roof, possibly a garden, a kitchen, a bathroom, a living area and some bedrooms.
A home is where we live with our families, where we laugh and joke, where we play games, where our children take their first steps, where we welcome our friends and where we celebrate birthdays. A home is full of memories and our treasured possessions. We feel safe in our homes, we miss them when we are away, we enjoy being back in our favourite chair and our own bed.
A home is so much more than a house.
For an estate agent to successfully sell a house, they have to create the image of a home. They have to create a picture of how a family will live in the house, how the bedrooms will work, how the furniture will fit. Every family will have a set of requirements for their home and they have to understand how a house will meet them. This is where the estate agent can make the difference, by discussing how the house can fit their needs. If they can’t, then the chances are that the house is not the right one.
The problem is, not many estate agents do this. They show people around a house, point to the bedrooms, point to features that probably are not of interest but seldom for they find the time to truly understand what is needed.
Unfortunately, this is the same for many sales people. They fail to paint a picture of how a customer will change as a result of buying a product or service. They often fail to even understand the customer’s needs that are driving their interest in the product.
Start by getting to know your customer, understand them as a person, understand what they need and then start to paint a picture for them of what their life / business will be like once they have bought your product or service. Don’t try to sell the product, sell the vision of their future life. Don’t sell a house, sell a home!