I recently led Grace Church’s annual women’s retreat. One of the activities we did that weekend was a sort of team building exercise led by Coach Jane Albright. This activity turned out to be a retreat favorite. Partly because Jane can make just about anything fun and partly because of the way these ladies participated.
The assignment was to build and decorate a paper house with your team. Each team divided its members into designers and builders. The designers had to come up with plans following a specific list of criteria and the builders had to put it together and decorate it with magazine clippings. There were a couple of catches, of course. First, it had to be done in a limited amount of time and second, the designers could only use one hand each. The process erupted into chaos and laughter as each team executed their project.
I’ll be the first to admit that my team came up with the most pathetic house in the room. Pretty embarrasing for a group that included a professional faux painter and myself with 20+ years in the real estate and home building industry (not to mention some other pretty capable ladies).
Each house was presented by a representative from it’s group. They were to be judged on a few different categories: Did they follow the required specifications? Did the builders actually accomplish what the designers instructed? Did it have good asthetic quality, etc… This is where the competition became very interesting to me.
The first group had incorporated a cross and a picture of Jane’s dog, etc…into their house to have an emotional appeal. One of the other groups had come up with a beautifully constructed home. But, the winner really went for the heart. They created Jane’s parent’s home and a flood of childhood memories. It won.
This demonstrated something that is very true when it comes to selling people homes. Buyers want a certain size, a certain price, a certain location, etc… but that’s not really how they pick a home to buy. It’s got to appeal to their emotions. Does it “feel” like home. Can they see their kids and their dogs living there? Are there flowers up the driveway; a wreath on the door; cookies in the oven; friendly neighbors? Something about the house will need to trigger emotion or the sell will not happen. Period.
