Developmental Psychology in Selling Real Estate - Essay Example

?Influencing Situation of Influencing Situation The influencing situation being considered is based on convincing another person to buy up land in a certain region in the suburbs of the city. The subject land being sold off is available in an area that is being developed as yet so it may not seem highly attractive as yet to potential buyers. However, there are chances that once the land is developed, it will gain value rapidly give its prime location in an emerging residential sprawl scenario. The development time is expected to take up to five years so people are reluctant to buy up land in the subject area. The object of this study will be to accost a person in order to convince them to buy up some land in the subject development scheme. The subject person (who will be talked to) will be from a list of potential buyers that has been provided by a real estate agent. This will ensure that the person being talked to is already interested in buying up real estate. If a person was chosen at random to sell real estate, it would be necessary to convince them to buy real estate in the first place. However, this would lengthen the overall convincing process so a person already interested in buying up real estate has been chosen. The contention behind this exercise will be to choose a fitting influencing model based on the situation in order to convince the person being targeted. 2. Choice of Influencing Idea The influencing idea being chosen to deal with the situation is the hierarchy of needs. A number of reasons can be attributed to why this model has been chosen in preference to other models on this issue. 2.1. Justification of Influencing Idea The primary facet of the needs hierarchy is the understanding that the person being influenced has needs. The needs of the person being influenced are utilized in order to gain a deeper understanding of the motivation with which the person can operate. For example, tabulating or estimating the person’s needs ensures that the influencer has a clear idea what stimulus the person will respond to. On another level, using the needs hierarchy provides the person being influenced with the impression that they are helping themselves by agreeing to the influencer’s ideas. This allows greater participation of the influenced person to make the influencing situation a success. This stands in contrast to other methods of convincing such as using heuristics, central route or peripheral route because these methods rely on more externalized approaches. When a person is involved on a more personal level with the influencing situation and tends to view the overall situation as benefiting him, it serves their need. These needs can be classified in a number of manners such as the classification by Maslow but the central idea remains the same – people have needs that require fulfilment. The needs hierarchy is a fitting premise for the current situation because it allows the influenced person to fulfil his needs. In addition, the needs hierarchy stands as a more effective strategy to convince people because it tends to bolster people’s self-esteem. This is in itself a need that requires constant fulfilment and using the needs hierarchy strategy will allow the acquisition of the idea without being lowered in self-esteem (Goble, 1970). The influenced person will gain the impression that the decision is totally his which will allow him to feel better about himself. 2.2. Basis for Influencing Idea The hierarchy of needs derives itself from the ideas of Abraham Maslow presented by him through the paper A Theory of Human Motivation (Maslow, 1943). The ideas presented by Maslow run parallel to other approaches in developmental psychology (Bornstein & Lamb, 2005) (Lerner, 2002). In essence all of these ideas rely on human growth through various stages in order to classify modes of development. In his own work Maslow adopted the terms physiological, safety, belongingness and love, self-esteem and self-actualisation in order to describe the various needs associated with human beings at different levels (Maslow, 1954). The fulfilment of these needs has been presented by Maslow as a fitting means for providing motivation. The bulk of ideas displayed by Maslow have been derived through his study of extraordinary human beings such as Einstein, Fredrick Douglass, Eleanor Roosevelt and the like. This approach in psychology relies on observing healthy specimens in order to delineate the reasons for their success. This approach stands in contrast to the study of mentally ill as well as neurotic people in order to decipher how human psychology operates. Given Maslow’s derivation of ideas, it would be unrealistic for such ideas to be applicable to the general public. It must be realised that most people are not exceptional in life and hence it may be possible that their psychological needs and its ramifications would differ. If Maslow’s ideas were based entirely upon highly motivated and exceptional people then they would have failed to apply to the masses. In order to make his ideas more acceptable, Maslow studied the top one percent of college students in order to decipher their motivation and their hierarchy of needs (Mittelman, 1991). This has allowed two things as per Maslow’s derived hierarchy: a large enough population sample was used to derive Maslow’s ideas that provides his ideas with greater credence; Maslow’s hierarchy is more applicable to the general public because a more representative sample set was used for the study. Overall this can be seen as contributing properly quantified ideology to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which stands in contrast with other ideas on influencing people. For example, rapport and classifying personalities are more abstract ideas when compared to Maslow’s ideas. While Maslow delineates a common framework that is applicable to all human beings, the other frameworks such as using friendly approaches or being assertive have little scientific ground to support themselves. It must also be mentioned here that Maslow’s work has been expanded upon heavily after his death which has provided all the more evidence and support for his ideas. Therefore, Maslow’s ideas are based on scientific investigation when compared to competing frameworks that rely on common sense, speculation, insight and other such elements or their combinations (Steere, 1988). This also provides that Maslow’s ideas are more scientifically sound so this provides yet another justification for their use. Recent research conducted on the ideas of Maslow validates the presence of universal human needs that apply across the board to all human beings (Tay & Diener, 2011) (Villarica, 2011). The only reservation that has been expressed by research is the placement of needs in the hierarchy. However, it must be kept in mind that the pyramid constructed to display human needs was not invented by Maslow himself. Instead, the pyramid used to house the hierarchy of needs is a later addition to Maslow’s work. Some other research on the ideas of Maslow indicates that human motivation can be approximated using binary patterns of growth. These patterns resemble the kind of patterns that are used in binary mathematics. The basic contention is the input and output that follows binary logic. The concerned individual (whose needs are being tabulated) tends to move through degrees of awareness as well as an increased awareness of inputs and outputs. These forms of awareness can be seen as imitating binary mathematical patterns that are described well by Maslow’s growth scheme (Villarica, 2011). Essentially as a person moves through life, he becomes aware of the first, second and third person perspective on life. This in turn enhances his awareness of the inputs and outputs in life. Essentially this has the consequence of making a person more aware as life proceeds. Even though the individual’s needs are changing over time, Maslow’s need hierarchy and its derivatives are able to account for these changes. Hence, the need hierarchy is independent of the age group or other social classification that it is applied to. Other approaches such as using triggers and consequences or using reward and punishment are not this independent of external factors. Moreover, models such as criticism are unable to free themselves of external social dependencies such as the individual’s age, experience, social consciousness and the like. This means that these models are weak at producing change in an individual when compared to the basis provided by the needs hierarchy. Another criticism of Maslow’s work has been his definition of the “self-actualisation” stage. Some consider this classification to be an improperly placed misnomer (Kenrick et al., 2010) (Kenrick, 2010). However the current investigation has nothing to do with self-actualisation or its redefinition because this study is more concerned with identifying need to initiate change. 3. Application of Influencing Idea The text below describes in detail the use of the hierarchy of needs to influence another person. 3.1. Individual in Focus The individual who will be influenced is a Caucasian aged 29 years. The individual works for a bank and has been actively involved in the real estate market as a hobby. At this point in time, the individual is looking to buy up real estate for investment purposes. In a discussion, the individual expressed the idea that he might even inhabit the real estate he buys now for his personal residential purposes by building a house. The individual’s involvement in the real estate market beforehand means that the individual has a keen eye in this sector. The individual is looking to buy up real estate near the central business district though I will try to persuade him to buy a little outside the metropolitan skirt. The individual in focus is neither a close friend nor an associate otherwise. While searching for an apartment, I came across the individual being focused upon in a real estate agent’s office. This makes the concerned individual a fitting sample for the investigation in question. 3.2. Influencing Approach, Methods and Returns The influencing approach in use will be based on the needs hierarchy. The first step will be to look for the individual’s unstated and stated needs. Only when these needs are fully identified and understood can a real influencing attempt be made successful. For one thing it is common that individuals will cover up their needs using social as well as other veils. The strategy is to look into the primary need of the individual so that other needs can be better uncovered. Several possible approaches could be used to uncover the primary need of the individual including observation of behaviour, discourse, penetrating the social circle of the individual etc. Given the fact that the concerned individual was not a close friend or otherwise an old acquaintance it was not possible to penetrate the social circle of the concerned individual. The other approach could have been to observe the behaviour of the individual at length but this approach was limited by time constraints. Observation of the individual was only possible if a reasonable amount of time was spent socialising with the individual. This was limited by the fact that the individual has a job that consumes up to eight hours of his day. The individual only socialises sparingly in the evening indicating that his socialisation and affection needs were being met otherwise. Time spent with the individual over a course of a few days for a few hours in the evening indicated that he socialised online through his cellular phone. The only real approach to gauge the individual’s primary need was discourse. In order to discourse with the individual, I frequented the office of the real estate agent where I met the individual. This was carried out in the evenings only when the individual came back from his day job to meet the real estate agent. Moreover, this was only done on weekdays as the individual did not visit the real estate agent on the weekends. Over a few rounds of discussion, the individual revealed that he was very fond of sports cars with luxurious trims and interiors such as Bentley, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Lamborghini and the like. Procuring such vehicles requires the use of large funds that the individual could not generate using his salary. In order to deal with this situation, the individual was looking to invest and found that real estate investments paid out best. This may not necessarily be the case because stocks, commodities and other fiscal instruments may pay better than real estate investments but the individual had garnered this perception anyhow. The next step was to identify the more specific plans of the individual so that he could be influenced for change. In order to garner a workable reputation with the individual, I chose to build a relationship of respect allowing for development of trust over time. This was bolstered using a percept of mutual gain. Further discourse with the individual revealed that he was not about to change his views in short bursts of conversation. Instead, the individual wanted lengthy reasonable discussion backed up with the right facts in order to alter his point of view on where exactly to invest in the real estate sector. Realising that limited discourse over the length of a few minutes or hours was not about to change anything, I decided to handle the individual sequentially over a number of days using the kind of stimuli he wanted. I developed a relationship of respect with the individual by making him realise that his knowledge and grasp of the real estate sector was far superior to my projection on the issues. This allowed for two things – the individual’s self-esteem and self-respect increased and he allowed himself to be more open and honest about his plans and their causations. Trust building was more of a problem area given the limited time. I tried to convince the individual that I could partially invest with him in order to alleviate his fiscal stress but the lack of funds on my part and his perception of my social status limited this aspect. The individual’s response was more or less dismissive in nature when I expressed my intention to invest with him possibly because he realised that I had little money given my socio-economic position. This aspect was also held back by my limited knowledge on deriving and managing funding for investments. Consequently, the aspect of mutual gain suffered a little initially but my continued persistence led the individual to believe that I would invest with him when I had the money. In this respect, my assertiveness and my confidence levels helped me out a lot although they are not part of the needs hierarchy. I felt that if I had backed out of my claims to invest for mutual gain with the individual, the individual would have been more closed out about his ideas to invest. The next step was to see how the individual could be convinced to invest in certain sectors in real estate. The individual had to be convinced that investing in the areas outside the metropolitan region was more profitable than investing around the central business district. This was achieved using excellence currency where the individual had to be convinced that one investment was better than the other. Another major method to bolster the trust of the individual was to use assistance currency. During discourse I felt that the individual wanted to evaluate different investment options in order to make a better choice. However, the individual did not have much time to investigate the available options given his day job and his socialisation needs on the weekends. I went through historical records on real estate prices in and around the subject areas and projected them using returns on investment as per time units (years and decades). The projected returns on investment were the real game changer as the change in attitude of the individual was visible. Previous to this the individual considered my options on a non-serious note and did not put much effort into evaluating my ideas. Once he was presented with hard facts and figures as per his perceptive demand, the individual was more open to discourse over the issue. The econometric trending of real estate prices enabled the individual to look into the entire thing with a new and more mature perspective. The effort that the individual did not expend for himself was presented to him as assistance currency and the results of these efforts proved for him excellence currency. Once the individual realised that the amount of money invested in both real estate sectors had vastly different rates of return, the individual agreed to change his perspective on the issue. Furthermore, the individual changed his perspective and perception as per my maturity and authority to deal with investment chances. The presented facts were enough to establish my authority in the subject area for the individual because both the individual and the real estate agent relied on market rumour to invest before this point in time. This idea was confirmed with the individual’s verbal discourse as well as his request for more analysis from my side regarding a few other real estate sectors. 4. Bibliography Bornstein, M.H. & Lamb, M.E., 2005. Developmental science: An advanced textbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Cianci, R. & Gambrel, P.A., 2003. Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Does it apply in a collectivist culture. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 8(2), pp.143-61. Goble, F., 1970. The Third Force. 1st ed. London: Viking Adult. Hofstede, G., 1984. The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept. Academy of Management Review, 9(3), p.389–398. 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