Selling Ice to Eskimos
In Part 1 & 2
of this article series, we stated that in marketing luxury real estate
great marketing necessitates great strategy. Selling requires tactics,
scheming and maneuvering. When marketing is done right selling is
unnecessary and your competition becomes irrelevant.
Have you heard the expression “selling
ice to an Eskimo”? It usually means attempting to persuade people to
go against their best interest to accept something that they do not
really need or want. This is at the heart of what selling is in
relationship to marketing.
Selling is at best a complete waste of
time and it usually annoys the customer. It does so because it goes
against the self-interest of the client instead of focusing on the
client’s most pressing needs.
Marketing is the alignment of purpose.
It is tuning into the emotional needs of the client and allowing them to
see how your products or services can either relieve their pain or help
them gain what they want.
Have you every wondered how Apple became
the most valuable company in the world without a sales force? How is it
that they can consistently sell out of a new product offering within
days or even hours of putting it on the market without any sales
people?
Steve Jobs and company introduced us all
to must have products and services that we did not even know we needed
or wanted. Apple did not just invent new products; they invented new
product categories. In the process they created news that unleashed
unparalleled media coverage. It also sparked word-of-mouth advertising,
which turned very satisfied customers into evangelical salespeople.
Have you been to an Apple store? You may
see some amazing products there, but what you will not see is a single
salesperson. One thing that Apple’s competitors have not come close to
is in-store and online customer service. Having knowledgeable people,
people who speak our language from our own country available to answer
our questions, this is a luxury that satisfies some very important needs
in our time-starved world.
The key to marketing, in your luxury
real estate marketing practice, is to focus on marketing vs. selling.
Do not waste your time trying to sell ice to Eskimos. Make news! Find
ways to align with the most pressing needs of your potential clients.
Ideally, find an uncontested or underserved market niche where you can
create news and trigger word-of-mouth advertising.
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