One of the beauty of being “heavily” involved in the world of entrepreneurship is the network I make.
And to a certain extent, I dare say this network is an important part of growth.
Quite unbelievable you might say, especially when networking is the bane of being an introvert.
Which is why many believe that Introverts can’t possibly freelance or start their own business.
Because the very thought and idea of mixing with a group of people, strangers no less, and talking for hours would have sent shivers racing down my spine.
Yet it’s been almost 7 years since I started my journey as an entrepreneur, and even today, the idea of networking is still oftentimes a major headache for me.
Don’t get me wrong…
Once I’m in the scene, I’m able to hold conversations, and speak with whoever I’m currently or going to talk to.
But it’s the process of getting to the event that still shakes me up.
I’ve always wondered if it just happens to me or do other successful entrepreneurs and business people suffer from this same anxiety and fear of speaking. Especially those who have grown and established a name for themselves.
To that end, I decided to once more pick the brains of people I know, successful in their respective fields, and uncover even more valuable life lessons.
Not surprising, what they had to share was largely similar to what I had concluded a few years back.
It all lies in the subtle art of priming!
Setting the Right Stage for Your Audience
In fact, one of the most common industries where the art of priming is often deployed by the leaders of that industry is the real estate scene.
And that’s where the power of networking really comes into the picture.
Let me give you an example.
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to connect with the business owners at SingaporeCarpetCleaning.org, an established online brand specialising in carpet cleaning services for local businesses.
Their latest endeavour was to reach out to a wider audience.
Now, most “new-age” digital marketer would tell you to start advertising, whether on Facebook or Google Ads.
“It’s the fastest way to reach out to your audience,” they would say.
This company decided to change their pitch and approach and it has made a great deal of difference.
The first thing they thought about was who they wanted to reach out to.
Given that they focus quite heavily on general office cleaning services, it made sense to find people who are involved in the office and commercial scene.
And while that still involves a great deal of businesses, they decided to niche down to real estate agents.
More specifically – property agents specialising in office rental.
It’s All In The Appearance
One of the first thing any successful agent does is a little act known as priming or framing.
Basically, it means setting the stage to be in an opportune place for selling.
Agents who skip this step, leave their sales opportunity to chance.
Instead, the hardworking agents will engage a professional office cleaning company to tidy the place and make it look attractive.
After all, it’s all in the details isn’t it?
As I learnt from these agents, the selling process isn’t just about what you say or how you say it…
The entire process is an experience that triggers each and every one of your senses.
After all, if something smells a little funky, it causes a break in the prospect’s thought process and that isn’t good for sales.
This is especially true when it comes to carpets.
While they may look clean and tidy on the surface, these particular type of flooring are prone to trapping lots of dirt and bacteria underneath the fibre.
You’ll need commercial equipment to conduct a thorough carpet cleaning to unearth and suck up the months or years of accumulated sweat, dirt, and stain.
So, with this strong understanding of the market, the team at CarpetCleaningSingapore contacted these agents directly and made them an amazing offer, which unfortunately I’m not at liberty to share online as they don’t want their competitors copying them.
But it was indeed a great learning experience to see how they “repackaged” their offer given the information and situation they’re in.
What About Situations Where There Isn’t Anything Available?
While the office cleaning situation was a valuable insight into the art of priming, I wanted to know if it could still be applied in situations where there wasn’t anything physical or concrete.
Again, I thought of the real estate scene or more specifically, the new launch scene.
In such scenarios, there isn’t any building to bring a prospect into. (The showflat isn’t usually available until much later)
Yet, these agents are expected to fill their calendars with appointments
Puzzled, I asked another of my property agent friend, about how he markets such new launch projects.
Using the example of the upcoming RV Altitude, a luxurious freehold condominium in the prime district 09, he shared that it was actually a lot simpler than I imagined.
After all, these upmarket condos are already seen as prestigious and only the affluent can afford them.
The goal of the agent is to captialise on these sentiments when speaking with a prospective client.
By helping them to uncover the additional selling points like the credibility of the condo’s property developer, in this case, Roxy Pacific Holdings, it gives additional weight.
And once, the prospect has convinced himself, oftentimes, the sale is in the bag.
Applications In Other Aspects
The fact is, not every one of us is a real estate agent or marketing a service to them.
But given how they have successfully used priming to set up a favourable scenario for whatever they’re doing, it makes sense to emulate their “strategy”.
Regardless of what we’re doing.
It could be for work, it could be a relationship, it could be for an important interview, and so on.
By taking a few extra steps to think about what a favourable scenario looks like, and what we need to “set it right”…
We could easily achieve the success we were “hoping” for.
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