Have you ever had to full stage a house for sale?
Not just cleaning/tidying it up, but removing all the clutter, extra furniture, stripping shelves down to a hilarious 1-3 knick-knacks, and making it look like no one lives there.
You remove all personal photos and put less furniture in each space than is functional to make rooms look huge. That is the key to great staging; it should look like no one actually lives there so that people viewing the house can imagine they do.
There is the marketing lesson. Selling is about the potential customer imagining their lives as a result of your house, or product, or service. You want them to visualize how their lives will improve and be more fulfilled than before they had what you are pitching.
Only the most ardent Marie Kondo devotees would have houses so minimally appointed when it comes to staging a home vs. living in it. But that isn’t the point. You are selling the dream, not reality.
I want to be clear – this isn’t deceiving or dishonest. You aren’t representing falsehoods. The home buyer could live in your house just the way it is staged. But just like the kitchen gadget you buy but never use, the rest is up to the purchaser. You can only show the best version of what you are selling, and the buyer needs to decide for themselves how to use it.
When selling a house, it isn’t easy to come alongside the new owner and help them get the most from your home, but if you are selling a product or service, don’t let the sale be the end of the transaction. If you can help them live out the dream, you will create lifetime customers and word-of-mouth marketing.
The lessons summarized:
- Pitch the ideal version of what you are selling
- It is about letting the buyer imagine how their lives will be better after they buy
- The rest is up to the buyer, but if you can help them succeed, it will be in your best interest too
