Everything about a showhome is designed to make you imagine your oh-so-perfect life in that house. To make you mentally pack your suitcases and move right in.
Every perfectly plumped cushion, every colour-coordinated piece of fruit paints a picture of your potential aspirational lifestyle. ‘If only you bought this house’ they seem to whisper, ‘you’d be the kind of person who:
- perches on a designer bar stool sipping espresso every morning (no more Cheerios and Nescafe for you my friend)
- hosts intimate dinner parties serving beetroot discs with kale foam and microherbs
- colour coordinates their underpants in neat little rows (no more ‘floordrobe’)’
Developers pour huge resources into depicting this magical lifestyle – hiring interior designers, top-of-the-range furniture and lifestyle gurus.
Because they know that buyers and decision makers don’t always have great imagination. So, if we want them to buy, we have to paint every vivid detail of the new and improved future that our products or services will bring.
And it’s the same for your business or job too. Whether you’re in sales or just needing to become more persuasive, we can learn so much from developers.
Buyers and decision makers may recognise, in theory, that what you’re offering is great. But to get them reaching for their credit cards or green lighting your proposal, you need to show them two things:
- How they’ll FEEL after buying/agreeing to what you’re offering. More organised? Less stressed? More intelligent? Cash or time richer? Relieved? Reassured? Excited? Tap in to their underlying emotions – remember buyers and decision makers rarely make decisions solely on logic.
- How exactly their day-to-day life/their business life will be improved. Will they have more time to walk their dog? Get that promotion they’ve been wanting (and the new BMW)? Turn their clients into total zealots? Finally get a good night’s sleep? Have time to concentrate on more important things? The secret here is adding colour and detail to bring it all alive.
So think about what your showhome equivalent might be – can you:
- paint a picture in words with a story?
- offer a demo of your product or services?
- walk senior leaders through a user interface?
- use case study or before and after examples?
How can you help your stakeholders imagine a breathtakingly brilliant future with you?
Robo-toilet optional, of course.
