Revenue Journal®

Every business starts with a dream. Every buyer starts the buying process with a dream.

Every business can turn into a nightmare. And, every buying process - especially those involving large, expensive, important purchases - can turn into a nightmare.

These dreams - and fears of nightmares - drive the decisions and actions of both business owners and buyers.

We've all seen this at work in extreme cases, where an individual will let their own fantasy world overwhelm reality to the point where they lose their job or their business, and the people who supported them along the way.

But these situations are rare. The more usual, day-to-day situation is one where the seller and buyer are trying to find common ground, to negotiate a realistic solution where everyone can be happy. These situations can be difficult - not because each person is being unrealistic, but because the seller's dreams and nightmares are so different from the buyer's dreams and nightmares.

For example, someone selling a house has definite dreams and needs underlying their decision to sell. They need to receive a certain price in order to be able to pursue their next dream. They need to sell by a certain time in order to satisfy the requirements of the seller of their new house. They need a buyer who is willing to meet these requirements.

They also have put a certain amount of effort into making their house "sellable." They are hoping that the new buyer will look past the unfixed things which were too expensive or too complicated to fix. They are hoping that the new buyer will see his or her dream, and will be willing to overlook things like that crack in the foundation that has been there since the seller bought the house years ago. These are the seller's hopes and dreams.

What are the seller's nightmares? Not being able to sell the house. Not being able to sell the house for enough money to afford the next house. Obligating to the new house before the old house has closed, and then the old house deal falls through. Somehow being defrauded by the salesperson (although the laws - in most countries, anyway - make this virtually impossible).

What are the buyer's dreams? The buyer wants to find the perfect house, one where everyone in the family will be happy. The price has to be affordable, in balance with the amount of money the person makes and how much it will cost to fix any real or perceived shortcomings. The buyer wants the buying process to proceed smoothly, in spite of all the complications involved in buying a house, including real estate agents who have perfected the art of telling incomplete truths, and dense, scary legal documents.

The buyer, when visiting the house, "tries it on," imagining how her dreams will be realized in that house. The buyer sees herself sitting on the porch enjoying the view, glass of wine in hand, having friends over, and watching her children play in the yard. She imagines what she will do with the gardens and how she will remodel the kitchen. She imagines her children asleep upstairs while she and her husband are snuggled in bed watching a favorite movie. She imagines coming home from work to this house. She imagines her friends admiring the house.

The buyer is also driven by her own nightmares. She doesn't want to buy something she will come to regret, something that has problems that were not immediately apparent, such as a tainted mortgage, taxes due, a leaky underground oil tank, a septic system that must be completely overhauled in a couple of years, a crack in the foundation that was concealed by a well-placed piece of furniture in the basement, or a contaminated well. The list of "gotchas" is endless, and she knows it.

Obviously, what the buyer wants and what the seller wants are miles apart - except for one, solitary thing: a completed deal. If the buyer falls in love with the house, investigates it thoroughly to eliminate the possibility of future nightmares, she will then want to move to complete the deal. The seller wants a completed deal from the start, even before the house has been put on the market.

As with any complex sale, the buyer is not acting alone. Sellers have to determine who else is involved in the buying decision, and know what their anticipated nightmares are.

Sellers have to be prepared - in advance - to address the nightmare scenarios of the potential buyer, others involved in the buying decision, and the buyer's hired experts.

Worried about a tainted mortgage? No problem, here are the town records on this house. Worried about leakage somewhere? No problem, we had an assessor go through - even though we know you will do the same - and here is his report. Worried about that buried oil tank leaking? No problem, we had it removed last year and replaced it with an above-ground oil tank - and had the ground tested around the old oil tank. Here's the report. Worried about cracks in the foundation? Here, look at the basement. There are no pieces of furntiture, or carpeting, or "mechanicals" hiding the foundation. Worried about a tainted well? Here is a report from last year on the water quality in our well. Of course you will want the water tested yourself.

The difficulties arise when there really is a problem with the house, and the seller decides not to disclose it. The seller "lets the buyer be stupid." If the buyer doesn't bring it up, the seller doesn't mention it. This is when the nightmares are justified, when they begin to become a reality, a reality the new owner will have to face when the problem is discovered later.

These are the dream/nightmare dynamics that drive every sale - and every purchase.

What is really important to note here is that the seller of a house, once the deal is signed, is protected from the buyer's wrath if the buyer discovers later that the seller "let the buyer be stupid." The contract is signed. The seller is long gone. That seller will not be selling that buyer another house. That buyer is not going to be talking to other buyers about that seller. This is NOT the case with many other types of sales.

If you're selling software, for example, and you "let the buyer be stupid," you will have difficulty making sales in the long run. When a buyer realizes, after the sale, that you misrepresented the facts, that buyer will make sure everyone knows exactly what you did. That buyer will tell everyone who is interested that you are not to be trusted, and that they should avoid doing business with you. A negative wave will be created that will overwhelm your efforts to create positive momentum in the marketplace. You will never gain the traction that makes sales easier over time. On the contrary, sales will become more and more difficult.

If you're struggling to make sales, it's time to make a list of all the nightmares your buyers are afraid of. Honestly assess how your product stacks up against the nightmare list. Are some of their nightmares justified? Are you trying to hide your product's flaws or rationalize them away with well-rehearsed answers to their questions? If so, you are running away from a reality that is ultimately going to destroy your business. That would be a real nightmare. Face reality and make changes to your product.

If their nightmares are not justified, and you really do have their dream product, then it's time to make it easier for them to discover that. For example, maybe they're worried that they can't generate a particular type of report. Create a map of reports for them, a "tree directory," that shows all the reports your product can generate and exactly how they can navigate to those reports, using your product's menus.

There are two cures for nightmares: factual reality - as in, "there are no cracks in the foundation," and communication - as in, "here's the proof."