Page 66 - Green Builder March-April 2020 Issue

FROM THE TAILGATE By Ron Jones

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

The Finer Selling Qualities of

Quality of Life

HE EARLY TRADE SHOW CYCLE is well behind
us now. Everybody seems to have moved on to thinking
about the upcoming quarters of this year and even the
2021 calendar. But, I want to comment and share some
T takeaways from those recent experiences.
I always like to poke a little at the edges of the comfort zones of
the people representing the various products, systems and services in
the building industry, and the sustainability sector in particular. So,
while cruising around and engaging in conversations at the two big
shows in January—CES followed by Design & Construction Week—I
experimented by gently introducing the suggestion that basically
everybody there is selling the same thing: quality of life.
I believe this is true and when you stop and think about it, the
notion can apply to just about anything that companies are trying
to sell. Sure, their o‘erings may have very speci’c applications but
one way or another, just about everything in the market is intended
to make the customer happier, more comfortable, safer and more
secure, more e“cient, more successful, more attractive, healthier. The
list goes on forever, but in the end the idea is to provide something
that in some way improves one’s quality of life.
The reactions I got to this suggestion were markedly di‘erent
depending on who I was talking with but generally, they fell into one
of two types. There were a good number of people who grasped the
theory immediately and looked through that lens to get a perspective At one point I actually called this to his attention but he glossed
on what they were o‘ering to customers and just how much potential it over my comment and went right on delivering the rehearsed spiel
held for delivering the goal, even if it simply made someone’s life easier. that he was apparently comfortable with. I was not immediately in
Other folks seemed to glaze over as if they were hearing an unfa- the market for what his company produces. But I can tell you that
miliar language. For the majority of those people, they couldn’t seem his failure to acknowledge, or at least hear, the basic message put me
to get beyond the immediate purpose of trying to sell as much of o‘. It is highly unlikely that I will seek out his brand the next time
what they o‘ered to as many buyers as they could. It didn’t seem to I’m specifying that particular building material category.
matter whether the product or service met any abstract criteria or Now, in his defense, I realize that it can be challenging to make a
embodied lofty attributes as long as they were successful in piloting meaningful pitch and provide any kind of relevant message when the
potential customers to the ’nish line. attention spans of half the attendees at the event are compromised
There was something else I noticed about that second group. Many by toting bulging plastic schwag bags under each arm with giveaway
of them approached the conversion process by selling against the yardsticks poking out (actually, this year they appeared to be four feet
competition rather than concentrating on communicating the ben- long, not three). So, maybe quality of life, much like beauty, is in the
e’ts and positive elements of their brand and product lines. This eye of the beholder. And maybe he knows his customers better than
was particularly noticeable in the case of one young man who spent it seemed and I’m just not giving him enough credit.
half of the time it took him to tell me about his particular o‘ering, After all, it helps if you can read your audience no matter what
bad-mouthing the main competitor in his sector. you’re selling. GB

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