Selling security

Welcome to the proeprty management Blog, our window on the world of property management.

Do we agree that in order to sell the idea of renting a sapce at your property over another and in order to justify the cost of your space that you have to sell your features and amenities? If this is true, then safety and security would have to be high on the list of what we sell. Most surveys of renters show that safety and security are important factors when choosing an apartemtn or office/retail space. But your lawyer is telling you not to promise safety and security, so that if something bad were to happen at your property, you would be less liable than if you bragged on being safe and secure.

It is true that you can guarantee neither a person’s safety nor the safety of belongings at your property. Stuff can happen, even if you take precautions. But aren’t security and safety, or at least perceptions of security and safety some of the reasons people choose your project? Okay, we have a bit of a problem then, don’t we? We have to sell safety and security without making any implied or specific guarantees that people and their belongings will be safe and secure. You might think this is a silly argument I am having with myself. But look at the ads for drugs that you see on television.

You see the happy older couple dancing after dinner or cuddling on the beach. The announcer talks about how much more in love they are and how much happier they are now that they have discovered whatever wonder drug they are taking. Then the disclaimers come. Oh, my gosh. The cost of this happiness is the potential of one horrible side effect after another. Yet the manufacturers campaign the dickens out of these drugs. People demand them from their doctors. And they accept the side effects.

I have talked before about selling a property’s worst feature. In some ways the possibility that a person’s belongings will be stolen or that she will be murdered on her way into your office building are really the worst features at your property. And the fact that you have invested a bunch of money on gates, cameras, alarms and coded access are in many ways the best features of your property.

So here are some ways to sell your safety and security features without implying a guarantee.

1.Use the phrases “So that” and “Which means” when explaining your features so people can visualize themselves using the features and gain an emotional understanding of what these features mean to them. For instance, “We have an access controlled main entrance, which means only our tenants can come and go with their pass codes. It is so easy to use. You walk up to the door, enter your pass code on the key pad and it opens right up for you.” Touch on several of your security features and paint a picture in this way.

Talk about security features and their ease of use, so you are selling convenience, not safety. The picture we painted of the access controlled door focused on how easy it is to get in and out. It happened to mention that only tenants can come and go as a side comment, but that was not the main point of the illustration.
Talk about peace of mind, not security, so you are selling a good feeling and not good security. Try something like, “We have video cameras throughout the property, to give you an extra measure of peace of mind.”
Create a closing question so the person can tell you how much they like these features. For instance, try a tag-on closing question. “So you can tell we have invested a lot of money in making a great place to live, right?” Or try a straight closing question like, “Does that sound good to you?” or try an open ended closing question like, “How does that sound?” If your prospect says it sounds good or sounds like a good place to rent, they have bought the idea of our safety and security without any guarantee from you. Once people have given you a positive statement about your security features, you have allowed them to justify the cost in their mind and to accept that you offer something more valuable than just the empty space.

Don’t be shy abut selling your security features. You can sell them as convenience. You can sell the peace of mind they create. That allows you to leverage the emotional power of your security features without promising security and safety.

bye for now, Tron

Tweet This Post

View Tron Jordheim’s Profile Subscribe via RSS