The Embarrassing Reason Why I Keep My Lawn Green…
But It’s Such A Powerful Sales And Marketing Tactic
My lawn is in a sorry state. Patches of grass missing. Entire sections bare from recent construction hurt the curb appeal. It bothers me enough to bring in a landscaper. It’s not the literal state of the lawn that bothers me. It’s how it looks compared to other lawns on my block.
Green lawns make your property look nice. What makes us care so much? We just look at them. We don’t use them.
In fact, green lawns only became a “thing” in the 1940’s with the rise of suburbia. Now, it seems every guy keeps a watchful eye on lawns in the neighborhood. What matters to most of us is how our lawn looks compared with others on our block.
Since the value of our homes partially depends on how nice the neighborhood looks, we want all our neighbors to keep their lawns nice. Secretly, we want ours to look just a tiny bit nicer.
When I hired the lawn company a few years ago they asked me my goals for my lawn. Their choices were:
- Keep it respectable
- On par with other lawns on your street
- The greenest lawn on the block
So much for subtlety, right? This is one of those Keeping Up With The Jones’s examples.
The Comparison Factor
We evaluate our success in any area of life by comparing our state to those of our peers. We all fall victim to it. I put myself in that category too. My neighbors have nice lawns. Mine needs to look nice too.
Marketers and sales people use this in campaigns all the time. Exploiting this technique in your persuasive efforts comes with one small caveat.
This strategy only works when you compare your prospect to someone she sees as a peer.
What does this mean?
Don’t Billionaire Me
Sell me an investing technique and show me how hedge fund billionaires rake in millions. It might raise a tinge of interest. But those guys are not my peers. I look at a campaign like that and think:
“That’s them. It’s not meant for someone like me. I don’t need to compete with them.”
Show me how my neighbors are making an extra ten thousand a year. Now, you win my undivided attention. Those are guys like me.
My peer inches a notch above me on the food chain. That kind of appeal gets in our heads.
Keeping Pace
Admit it. Your neighbor pulls up in a brand new BMW. He just traded in his Honda. You no longer feel so good about your Toyota. It might even cause some uneasy feelings.
Yes, we can fight the urge to retain our pecking order but we often fail to do so. More often, we take financial risk or other risk to keep pace.
Keeping up with the Jones’s pumps a lot of money into our economy. Use it but keep the caveat in mind. When making the comparison, make sure you compare your prospect to a peer, someone he sees as an equal.
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