It takes brains to sell a house
Speaker explores the logic and emotion of home sales at Oklahoma Building Summit
Gord Cooke sees into your brain, homebuyers, and Thursday he gave homebuilders a glimpse.
Right side: emotion. Left side: logic. When logic fails to get across the value of high-performance homes, it falls to emotion to communicate, said Cooke, a principal of Denver-based Construction Instruction.
Cooke was a speaker at the Oklahoma Building Summit at Cox Convention Center. He made three presentations on “Communicating the Value of HighPerformance Homes.”
For example, using building science to explain the dance of heat, air and moisture that makes a house comfortable goes only so far, he said, partly because comfort is in the eye — or skin and bones, actually — of the beholder.
Take windows.
Using applied building science to explain that windows cause a house to lose or gain heat one of three ways — radiation, convection or conduction — and either cost more or less in energy, and money, depending on further details, satisfies the logical brain.
But Cooke said it can glance off if the emotions aren’t first engaged: Say, that window yields a lovely view, and the window seat makes a cozy place with great natural light for reading to a grandchild.
Cooke said a home sales person has five to seven minutes to hook a would-be buyer’s attention.
The right words
Finding the right balance of rightbrain, left-brain words is important for communicating the value of construction such as solar decking, insulated slabs, 2-by-6-inch framing, sprayfoam insulation, insulated concrete forms, LED light and low-emissivity windows.
“Comfortable,” “durable,” “efficient,” “sustainable,” “quality” and the like are “marketing words” that “hit the
emotions,” but are inexact, he said.
“We hear these words all the time and everybody says the same thing,” he said.
It’s better to say, for example, “more and better” windows, and explain why they’re better; or “more insulation,” because “insulation stops the flow of heat” — good for keeping in heat in the winter and out in the summer. But insulation also hinders drying, which is bad because “tight” construction traps moisture, and that can lead to mold.
It’s complicated. Even everyday words can be difficult.
Saying certain features “stop waste” is more effective than saying they “save energy” or money, he said, especially when dealing with seasoned (older) buyers.
“Fear of loss is more motivating than expectation of savings,” Cooke said in his first talk, which hit high points to set up the other two.
The big challenge for homebuilders, he said, is that most people surveyed say they would buy an especially energyefficient, high-performance house, but many won’t because:
• They think the house they now live in is efficient enough.
• They simply don’t believe manufacturers’ and suppliers’ claims about energy savings.
• They don’t know what sellers are talking about because they don’t know the science — or jargon.
The thing for builders to remember?
Marketing gets big ideas across, he said, and “sales” require explaining to people how highperformance features “can improve your lives.” That’s why most people really buy things, he said — not to save money.