You
Cannot Magically Create A Buyer... You can create a
compelling sellers' position
by Jay Mesinger
As a kid, I
used to do magic as a hobby. My stage name was Mr. Mystery,
Master of Magic, Mirth and Mystification! I worked birthday
parties and celebrations pulling rabbits out of hats and
levitating my 3rd grade assistant. It was all about illusion
- creating the appearance of things that really were not…
redirecting one’s view of things. Nice stuff for an evening
of entertainment!
There is,
however, no such thing as the illusion of a buyer. A buyer
is real or not real, and try as we all might to create a
buyer, it is impossible to pull one out of thin air. So what
do you do in an environment when buyers choose to sit back
and wait for what they feel may be better pricing? Waving a
wand is not the answer. Instead, create a selling
proposition that is compelling to the reluctant buyer, not
magically using smoke and mirrors, but with a combination of
benefits of the specific aircraft that you are selling and a
price which combines the specific aircraft with the current
market. This builds differentiations that create compelling
reasons to get up off of the sidelines and make an offer.
As an
aircraft sales professional, I always feel that people hire
us to sell their plane for top dollar of the day. Defining
that accurately is critical to a successful relationship
with my client and ultimately the sale. This attention to
detail has never been more important as you work to create
the benefits statement and not focus solely on price or
availability as a selling motivation.
There is no
way we could create an accurate benefits statement without
really understanding the plane. In fact, because so often
items are incorrectly stated or omitted, when we take on a
new listing we always send one of our technical
representatives to the aircraft to build from scratch the
specification package used to market it. There is no way to
correctly set an asking price without a full understanding
of the plane. Just using price to differentiate your
offering from the next is a never ending battle.
One must
know when to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an offer that is
price-driven and without the intimate knowledge of the
aircraft and its surrounding market, you would be lost. Good
photographs that depict what will be seen if viewed is also
an integral part of the benefits and selling position
package. Sometimes pictures look terrible and other times
the pictures actually look better than the plane. If a
prospect travels to see a plane based on the cosmetics and
the pictures do not accurately represent the offering you
will start negotiating against yourself immediately.
With that
in mind, in terms of price, these are very interesting
times. If you have been in this industry for many years, the
times are not completely surprising. Sellers are trying to
grasp the current market and buyers are trying to figure out
if prices will be falling and to what levels. Since sellers
are obviously reluctant to just arbitrarily lower asking
prices, what occurs is a ‘wait and see’ attitude on both
sides.
In the past
few years the prices were driven up by lack of supply. For
example, if you wanted to buy a Gulfstream G550, you sat on
the sidelines, money in hand, and tried to be the first to
get an offer to a seller. Often the seller received multiple
offers on day one, and by day two was contracting for the
sale. Sellers wrote the play book and delayed deliveries
were common. Whatever it took to lock up the plane was the
buyer’s attitude. In many categories of planes there was
only one plane at a time for sale. This brought about
tremendous frustration among buyers. No one even looked at
the configuration. Forward galley, aft galley. One lav or
two? It didn’t matter.
Today,
however, as the inventory levels creep up, the
aforementioned benefits of the offering play a bigger role
in the buyer’s decision- making process. The good news is
that there is absolutely no shortage of buyers, but if there
are plenty of buyers, why are there so few sales? What does
the buyer want to motivate them to get off of the sidelines?
Price! A seller can’t expect to capture the frenzy pricing
of just months ago, even with a global market, and sellers
must combine benefits with realistic pricing.
I do not in
any way mean that prices will drop like a rock. I do mean
that the premiums paid for many aircraft may have to roll
back for buyers to feel confident enough to step up. There
is no way that a seller can come into a market with an
opportunistic attitude and expect to attract a buyer.
Also,
buyers who are only coming to the market because they feel
opportunistic may be disappointed as well. It is the healthy
middle ground that will support the weight of a transaction
in today’s market.
So ladies
and gentlemen, for my next trick, I would like to pull a
buyer off of the sidelines. Please watch closely as I create
an opportunity of success. I will take this airplane and
describe it accurately, and then I will look around and
compare it to the other offerings and price it accordingly.
Finally, I will demonstrate to the buyers that my client
acknowledges the market conditions. Then presto changeo, we
have a sale! Pretty slick trick!
Jay Mesinger is the CEO of J. Mesinger Corporate
Jet Sales, Inc. He is on the NBAA Board of Directors
and is Vice Chairman of the AMAC. Additionally, he
served on the Duncan Aviation Customer Advisory
Board for two terms, is a member of MEBAA, EBAA
and is associated with IBAC.
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