Robert Cialdinis Six Drivers of Influence
I recently was on my daily walk and went past a new Super Market that just opened. I am actually pretty excited as it is literally a block and a half away. The Albertsons closed down about a year ago and we have had to drive about 3 miles to the closest market.
Anyway, I was walking across the driveway and the cars were lined up to get in. I looked in the parking lot and it was completely filled.
Hmmm. To the untrained & easily swayed I would have thought, " my GOD they are making a killing". I remembered that a few days ago before they were even openthat I noticed the lot was half filled with cars.
Could it be that like a Piano player seeds his Tip Jar, they were seeding the parking lot?
It seems to be working as the place never has any parking spots, thus unconsciously making us all think that this once empty piece of commercial real estate is THE new Hep place to shop for food.
High Fives for them.
They are clearly using one of Cialdin's Influencers called Social Proof.*
I cannot wait to shop there to see what other Influencers they are using to get me to part with my dollars.
Can you see how this might work for an open house or house showing?........Yah. Do it. It is magical.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini Or Just Get the Book:
I use open houses for our rentals.
It is amazing when two prospects are touring the house at once -- it almost becomes like a competition.
Posted by: Jesse Barron | February 11, 2007 at 09:55 AM
Great post, Tim.
When someone asks you "How's the market?" what do you say??? "It sucks, and my sales are down 20% from last year, but it will pick up again soon." Or do you say something like, "Well, you know, the market overall experienced some volatility over the past 12 months. But because I focus heavily on internet marketing, and the statistics from NAR are 80% of buyers and sellers start their real estate search on the internet, I'm never not busy with buyers and sellers, no matter what the overall market is doing."
Posted by: Risa and David Weiss | February 11, 2007 at 09:06 PM
Very true, everyone wants to be around all the hype. Even the appearance of success makes others want to work with you.
Posted by: Laura Kaan | February 12, 2007 at 07:35 PM
If selling real estate can be done like selling hotcakes, everybody in the business would be like opening a Mcdonalds branch in every corner. But the truth is buyers are have discriminating taste for a property and sellers don't have enough inventories... sometimes their minds just don't meet. Yeah, i sure want to have a copy of that book.
Posted by: Johnny Rey | February 20, 2007 at 02:32 AM
I have started doing shorter open houses for the same reason. Say you have 5 people come to an open...whether that open is 1 hour or 4 hours will make a huge difference on how it is perceived. If they really want to see the house - they will come when it is available. A crowded open is good for business.
Posted by: Gina Tufano | March 17, 2007 at 11:14 AM
This is an amazing observation. It just goes to show that we don't know what we don't know. I was surprised when people told me about "staging" homes. Now this "Trick". It is amazing. People constantly browsing through an open house ... tons of cars parked outside ... boy is the real estate world looking differently to me. Great post. It's all about awarness, isn't it?
Posted by: UK Land Guy | July 24, 2007 at 07:37 AM