A Buyer’s Carol: How to Sell Without Selling
Three Spirits will haunt you… Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread.” – The Customer, Full of Regret, Who Wishes They had Already Bought a House
… Just kidding. If you are a literature fan, you probably recognize this line from Jacob Marley in Charles Dickens’s book, A Christmas Carol. But, if you have somehow missed this classic story, I’ll be a kind millennial (who may or may not have made it through high school English Class using “Cliff’s Notes”) and provide you a summary:
When we meet the main character Ebeneezer Scrooge, he is NOT a very friendly or happy person. Miserly, cranky, and downright mean – it is evident to the whole town that Scrooge needs to make a change in his life.
On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the tortured ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge that he is on a terrible life path (the same path that has sentenced Marley to an eternity of suffering). Using the famous quote above, Marley tells Scrooge that he will have three more ghost visitors– a ghost of the past, present, and future.
The Ghost of the Past arrives, and time travels Scrooge back to his earlier life. They examine key milestones that triggered Scrooge to become the cranky old man he is now – most notably his lonely childhood and the devastating heartbreak when his girlfriend dumps him because he is a raging workaholic.
The Ghost of the Present then swoops in and helps Scrooge understand what is going wrong in his world today. The ghost brings awareness to issues and struggles that Scrooge hadn’t yet acknowledged- primarily how his actions affect Tiny Tim, the adorable, physically disabled child of an employee.
The Ghost of the Future is by far the scariest visitor. He shows Scrooge what will become of him if he doesn’t make a significant life correction – he’ll die alone, and people will steal his curtains afterward (why the curtains are the most remarkable thing in this rich guy’s house, I have no clue), and, worst of all, Tiny Tim will die too.
After Scrooge concludes his ghost journey, something truly magical happens. His eyes are opened to his own truth. He is inspired! He wakes up, and it is Christmas. He runs through the street, making it rain money for charity, yelling “Merry Christmas,” and even buys a huge turkey for his faithful employee (father of Tiny Tim) to celebrate.
Right. So how does this relate to sales?
We have a main character who, in some ways, is similar to your customer – They need to make a change in their life. Their current situation is not working for them. But often, just like Scrooge, our buyers can’t be inspired to make positive change without a significant amount of self-examination.
We, the sales pros like Marley, need to let our customers know that we will go on a journey to uncover the truth.
The “spirits” we will introduce them to are their Dissatisfactions – Past, Present, and Future.
The Ghost of Dissatisfaction Past is the customer’s motivation.
It is the specific life event or trigger event(s) that led them to where they are today. The most important question for your buyer is, “Why are you moving in the first place?” Then, through our sincere and curious follow-up questions, we unearth their specific stories – the births, marriages, deaths, job relocations, neighbor feuds, accidents, inheritances, divorces, pay raises, home repairs, etc. that motivated them to start shopping.
The Ghost of Dissatisfaction Present is their Current Dissatisfaction.
Not to be confused with the triggers of the past, these are all the things that are currently not working for your buyer. This discovery stage aims to bring clarity and awareness to the customer’s current situation. Sometimes, our customers don’t even realize how much their circumstances bother them until they self-discover (much like Scrooge not realizing how much he cared about Tiny Tim until he was in this moment). Ask your buyer what’s going wrong in their current home and then dig deeper to find the emotion behind how that affects their life.
The Ghost of Dissatisfaction Future – What happens if the customer stays where they are now?
Even if it’s not quite as dramatic as Scrooge’s fate, we can reasonably assume that our customer’s dissatisfactions with their home will not diminish over time. A “small” house tends to only feel smaller in the future. The busy road they live by has a slim chance of becoming less dangerous. And if their neighborhood is in decline… Better to get out sooner rather than later.
After examining the ghosts, it’s time for Christmas Morning/Future Promise. After our buyers realize that they can’t continue living like they are living forever, we can more fully paint the picture of all the great things in store for them as they move forward. Let your customer tell you what they want their life to look like. Ask them how amazing that future will be when they accomplish their goals. And celebrate this vision!
Here is the most significant point of this analogy: Everyone knew that Scrooge needed to change his life, but it wasn’t until he went down a thorough (and sometimes scary) path of self-discovery that he was motivated to want to make that change for himself.
In sales, it is one thing for US to know the buyer needs to make a change… But it’s another thing entirely for your buyer to realize themselves. As sales pros, how can we help them do this? Using the 4:2 Formula® and genuine curiosity, we give our customers a safe space to share, feel, and bring clarity to their stories – past, present, and future.
And so, as Tiny Tim said, “A Merry [Selling Season] to us all; God bless us, everyone!”
