Marketing Luxury Real Estate: The Difference between Marketing and Selling - Part 3
This is one of the most poignant and informational posts I’ve read on AR by Ron & Alexandra Seigel explaining the difference between “selling- scheming and maneuvering” vs. “marketing – focusing on the client’s most pressing needs”, allowing potential clients see how you can provide them with a product or service they need or want.
Their wisdom can be applied to ANY business and may make you rethink your marketing strategy like it did for me!
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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