- In my monthly networking meeting, a business owner raised an interesting insight about his marketing plan.
- When offering 25 percent off to customers failed to increase traffic to his shop, a small tweak in his strategy yielded more powerful results.
- I thought about how this revelation could apply to real estate agents, and the way consumers perceive a home's value based on certain language.
I need your professional opinion.
I found myself in my monthly networking meeting. This networking group includes a bunch of business owners in our community who get together and troubleshoot.
One of the guys, Nick Whitney, owns an armament and weaponry business. I am not sure of the exact products or services he offers, but he raised an interesting insight about his marketing plan.
He said that on the back of his business card, he was offering 25 percent off all purchases in the store. His goal was to increase traffic to his shop.
He told us that the call to action was not effective.
What Whitney did next was change the back of his card to $25 off. He continued to tell us that a customer would actually save more money by taking advantage of the 25-percent-off deal, but his sales increased exponentially with the $25 savings.
I thought about how this example would help me in real estate, so I asked the question. “What do you think of when you see a sign on a house for sale that states ‘price reduced’?”
The answers were:
- Why is the seller desperate to sell?
- What’s wrong with the house?
- What’s wrong with the neighborhood?
- Why would I want to purchase that house when the seller wants out?
This was interesting because we all know agents who will take an overpriced listing with the agreement to “reduce” the price in three weeks.
The public perception or the psychology, if you will, does not reflect that attitude. It actually repels the future buyer.
So, my question is, what can we do to change the psychology or perception of the buyer when lowering the price on home sales?
Maybe offer a $20,000 discount if under contract within 30 days, or $25,000 discount on all offers.
We need to start looking at the psychology of our marketing. What is the consumer’s perception?
Melinda Goodwin is Luxury Real Estate Advisor with Engel & Volkers St. George, Utah. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.
