What the COVID-19 lock down has reiterated on the differentiated value that people bring in real estate

By Bennett,  Marketing & Brand Head

Attributes that need to be reignited to build essential leadership values – the litmus to conversation and closure

Does it feel like a movie being watched over and over again? You wake and sleep to the same settings, the same routine. You feel that time is a machine that has stopped working. You begin to learn to recognize emotion and then you begin to learn to value the feelings of others.

Maybe, you wish that you could rewind, turn back time to doing things differently, yearning for a conversation that’s different, that isn’t possible in today’s trying circumstances but is being craved for. It’s the absolute trial for a lot of people who are looking within to understand what this pandemic and calamity is doing to our lives. I think it’s broken a lot of people’s defences, even those who are resolute, those who are pretentious. It’s forced them to rethink….

My narrative is that of the linkages to people, their bridge that they lay while communicating across stakeholders in the real estate space.

A mentor somehow taught me how to shake hands, let me correct that hold someone else hands in one’s own as an absolute gesture of commitment. That seems unreal in today’s context where social distancing is well……should I say it? 

PEOPLE

The starting point to establishing differentiation in real estate is through simply sourcing and building the right talent. People build buyer and investor confidence. People take shape of the image that is being positioned. People can bring quality alive through the most creative interpretation and bridging of the selling premise. Simply put, people keep the purpose of the enterprise alive.

BRAND CONVERSATION BEING COMMUNICABLE – PEOPLE

People are the most powerful enablers in transmitting, disseminating and continuing the brand narrative such that it becomes not just an integral but an inseparable and a seamless part of the selling story that will help create long term brand and enterprise value.

Weaving the brand story and purpose at every touch point and at every level of consumer interaction is intrinsically linked to contributing to the brand’s ubiquitous appeal. This definitely culminates in not just higher sales velocity leading to higher revenues.

BRAND CONVERSATION BEING EMPATHETIC – PEOPLE

There is no substitute to the degree of honesty that becomes relevant in this real, transactional world that is devoid of human empathy. There is a reason why a single happy customer can make at least a dozen qualified references and ensure at least half of those as sales closures. Now, it certainly matters if you’re selling a product range that’s in between 4 Cr. and 12 Crores. The multiples however are far higher in a lower priced product segment, say sub 1 Cr.

BRAND CONVERSATION BEING HUMANIFIED – PEOPLE

The signing off of a sale transaction is the result of a conversation and a bond that has developed between two people, of which one communicates consistently the promise and the purpose of the brand. The sales person is after all an extension of the brand and the brand has to have an honest exchange with the customer. The sales personnel are carriers of the brand messaging and have a direct co-relation to sustaining a competitive advantage for the real estate brand in question.

BRAND CONVERSATION BEING PERSONIFIED – PEOPLE

While technology facilitates conversations, ensuing in relationships, the real need is the mastery of the art of ‘Selling without Selling’.

The need of the hour is the craft of story-telling. It can never be about just selling the product. And it can never be the recital of the product’s functional attributes. The product attributes can be found online and read through in downloadable version. It is the narrative that truly engages the product and the brand essence.

BRAND CONVERSATION BEING PERPETUAL – PEOPLE

A successful sales closure is an inspirational story where the ‘felt need’ is brought to the surface and communicated beautifully. The consumer need and the context is delivered in the most relevant manner.

But what is really critical is not just the conversation that is managed during the selling process but its continuance post purchase. This is where ‘Continuing Customer Conversations’ comes into play.‘Customer Centricity’ is the need of the hour. Consequently, so much of dissonance can be avoided and so many slippages can be avoided.

From the need to continuously feed into the ideation funnel and the communication of the brand narrative, I’ve put together my collection of attributes could help considerably in contributing to developing future leadership talent:

1. VISIONARY – Not necessarily a seer BUT highly imaginative
2. CURIOUS – Is willing to actively explore possibilities
3. PERSEVERING – Is able to champion new ideas BUT with dogged tenacity
4. RISK CATALYST – Is willing to step out of the comfort zone
5. ARTICULATE – Communicate the INGENUITY of an idea simply BUT effectively
6. FLEXIBLE – Open to Serendipity AND Willingness to rebalance and change
7. INTREPID JUGGLER – Balances Intuition & Analysis. Trusts Gut BUT uses the Head
8. SELF ACCEPTING – Setting benchmarks is a worthy aim BUT perfection becomes an enemy in this pursuit

But the truth is as far as this mechanism goes, it’s best disseminated top-down and this starts from an effective leadership in sales for example where ‘INTEGRITY’ has to be an in substitutable quality of leadership.

What is also equally important is the mechanism that is being deployed to source talent. The right education hubs, the sourcing of personnel from diverse industry brings about a diversity of experience that helps approach solutioning differently. Nurturing talent by allowing them to take time off to give exams that upgrade their knowledge and apply this to the organization.

The management of resource is critical. This is essentially the rewards mechanism to keep the momentum and drive continually going; the financial bit is necessary, the emotional part, the recognition absolutely imperative.

CAN PEOPLE REALLY MAKE THIS DIFFERENCE?

When customers become increasingly sensitive to what you’re saying and they synthesize carefully the intent behind what you’re saying, this often leads to an admittance or plain dismissal.

People make all the difference when they meaningfully respond to the questions that have been asked and have provoked a fair degree of curiosity.The sincerity brought about in response brings about a genuine resonance.

In the real estate business, you learn more about people and you learn more about community issues, and you learn a whole lot more about people. The way people behave towards each other is a measure of their value as human beings.

Since, most of us are so abashedly judgmental without clear reason, maybe it’s best that we beginning listening without bias or to borrow from the album cover of one of the best song writers of all time, learn to listen without prejudice.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)