By Joseph Zeleny                                       

Jay came into my office fifteen minutes from his appointment.  I could see him earlier in his truck animatedly talking to himself in his car.  The signs that he had worked himself up as he tromped across the asphalt to my office were all there.  His arms were crossed before he slammed himself down in the chair from my desk and stayed there a good portion of our meeting.

He said that he had been doing everything I told him nearly a decade ago but the market has died and now he is struggling just to make ends meet.  He felt like my marketing for him was wasted and wanted to know what I was going to do about it.

I asked Jay some questions about his landscaping business.  We discussed about how the water amounts varied from plant to plant, how two identical plants growing next to each other grew at different paces, even how as plants got bigger their water and fertilizer needs changed.  We talked about soil analysis and even about how to get bigger tomatoes with less water using a new gel soil I had never even heard prior.  We talked about how the weather changes drastically affected how he maintained beautiful landscapes.

I know this may seem like a side track, but for those of you who have read any of my previous works you know that speaking in analogies is one of the strongest tools I have.

The bottom line is that the business economy changes from year to year, month to month, and even day to day.  When the weather is right a business can thrive with little help.  But when the weather changes, a business needs to change with it or it will wither.

Jay is common of people in today’s market.  Yes, the real estate market has flattened out and it’s going to take another three to seven years before we have another upswing like so many have reveled in for the last three years.  If you doubt it, look at housing trends over the last fifty years and understand that I am not paid to lie to you.  My job is to make you grow and adapt no matter the soil or clouds.

So does that mean you shouldn’t start a business right now?  I would be a total liar if I agreed with that.  If anything I prefer this time for starting a business than any economic boom.  The ability to open and run a business right now will prepare you for boom.  Essentially the market has created a soil with little nutrients to give your hungry plants so you are going to need to find some strong ways to fertilize the soil and make the most of it.

Most contractors have spent the last several years working on homes that people sold or refinanced simply for the profitability of it.  Jay’s business was booming with new large jobs all over the place.  Now that the market had flattened the big jobs and even the small one’s seemed to be out of reach.

But now is time to look at the market differently.  We’re in a drought and if we want the plants to grow we have to give them some extra water.  If we want to keep gaining customers we have to approach them differently.  Where before people were selling their homes for the sheer profit margins, now people are selling them because they can’t afford them.  This doesn’t mean they are not willing to spend money, this means you have to approach them differently to spend that money.

In any given zip code in the United States an average of 3,000 homes are now for sale.  Nearly 30% of them are in risk of being foreclosed on, and at least 5% of them will be foreclosed or abandoned within the next 12 months.  This means that it is a buyers market.  Buyers can buy homes in auction, give counter offers well below asking, and even wait for a home to be foreclosed on before making an offer to the bank itself.  This makes for a scared seller.  Will my home sell?  Why isn’t it selling?  Is the sheriff coming to my door today?

In the “Beyond the First Step” publication I discuss the three types of marketing.  But in this article I will only discuss one, Fear of Loss.  Fear of Loss is a very powerful marketing tool and you must use it properly or you can go over the deep end and scare the customer into a corner where they will whimper until the inevitable day in their mind hits.  Fear of Loss is just as it sounds.  In a good market it’s usually sale related and riddled with keywords like “Limited Time Only” or “The first 100 people will Receive” etc.  But now it is time to use phrases like “Help Your Home Sell” and “Get the most for your Money” to get their attention.

A quick note, don’t jump in and sell snake oil.  You need to have it in you that you are going to genuinely help these people get out of a bad situation.  The buyers are sparse, so a home that was 60% finished prior now must be 90% or more finished if it is going to get the attention of the few buyers on the market.  The better a home looks, the more likely that it will sell and upgrades are more important now than ever.  But if you take advantage of these people now, you will never get another chance to do business with them in the future.  People are more likely to call consumer affairs or the BBB now than in the previous market.

The market will always change.  The people who prosper the most during these times are the educated people who adapt and change along with it.  Those who don’t slowly starve and whither until they are plucked and left on the side of the road for garbage day.