When it comes to sales, a lot of our time is spent learning about a prospect’s needs. Sometimes, one needs to “connect a few dots” to help the prospect realize just how urgently they need your proposed solution.
I’ll give you an example. A few years ago, one of my students approached the owner of a building in Silicon Valley that was 30% vacant. He told the owner, “You should install high-tech lighting in this space."
The owner was flummoxed. “What? Are you crazy?” he asked. “This space is empty? Why would I ever install the lighting before knowing what kind of tenant is going to lease it and what their lighting preferences are?”
“That's exactly why you need to put in a high-tech lighting control system,” my student said. “You're in Silicon Valley. The people who are going to rent this space are venture capital-funded game developers and the like. They're really going to get a kick out of being able to control the brightness of the light fixture above their heads using a widget on their computer’s desktop. In fact, I’ll bet you that if a broker takes a prospective tenant to tour your space and 10 others, at the end of the day, yours would be the most memorable one."
Long story short, the owner made some changes. He spent nearly $4 a square foot to put the high-tech lighting system into his building, which was 35% vacant at the time. Six months later, the vacancy had been reduced to 5%.
Now you ask yourself, could you position energy efficiency, comfort, and convenience as differentiating amenities to help lease up buildings? Your prospect might not know it, but you may be offering the very thing that will set them apart from their competition so they can attract more clientele.
