Selling pianos
What is the essence of the modern buyer's psychology? Edward Bernays, the godfather of public relations, gave a fabulous illustration almost a century ago.
Imagine you had to sell pianos. Broadly speaking, you could take either a direct or an indirect approach.
A direct approach would be to accentuate the benefits of your piano brand, diminishing the appeal of alternatives.
You could make claims such as: “Buy this brand of piano now. It has the best price. The best artists use it. It will last for years.”
You could bombard the airwaves with feature-focused campaigns.
You could assume, quite naively, that the target buyer is simply evaluating different piano options.
By contrast, an indirect approach would be to nurture the emotional currents that steer consumer demand.
You could engineer the circumstances that ultimately shape desire, building enthusiasm for the idea of a music room in the home.
You could work with designers, decorators, and architects to showcase the aesthetics and prestige of having a baby grand in the living room.
You could show you understand that before buyers choose one piano over another, they must first choose between a new piano and a new car, between locomotion and music.
Direct sellers see themselves as part of a battle for control of the buyer's decision-making process, while indirect sellers know the buyer will never move forward unless he thinks buying a piano was his idea all along.
The final words from the direct seller are: “Please buy this piano.” The final words to the indirect seller are: “Please sell me this piano.”
After putting up with decades of sellers' misbehavior, modern buyers are understandably fed up with the direct selling approach. They are easily triggered by all-too-familiar pressure tactics, and they quickly pull away at the first hint a seller is using them. Buyers have learned to distrust sellers' ideas and to put more faith in their own.
Today's products and services must be bought, not sold.