A lot of times we hear that numbers make stores more real. For example:
“I knocked at the door of her apartment”
Vs.
“I knocked at the door of apartment 101.”
When you see “Apartment 101,” I’m betting you saw a door with the numbers “101.”
Maybe you saw a wooden door with metal numbers. Maybe you saw a metal door with the number painted on.
Another way to use numbers, especially in business stories, involves using prices. And here’s where it gets tricky. People judge the way you spend money.
A life coach wrote, “I’m off to a conference. It will cost $1500, which seems like a lot of money, but it’s worth it.”
A business coach wrote, “I thought about going to a cowering space but they now charge $300 a month. No way will I pay that.”
A business owner at a networking event said, “Anyone here should be able to afford $60 for a dinner meeting.”
When you first saw these numbers, what did you think?
Did you think, “Wow – $1500 – I’d never spend that on a conference.”
Or did you think, “She’s got a scarcity mentality. That’s not so much for plane fare, a nice hotel, meals…and it’s tax-deductible!”
Or even, “She’ll probably make at least one contact who will pay her the full cost.”
For the coworking space, did you think, “He’s lucky – our local spaces start at $400?”
Or did you think, “He’s right – no way I’d pay that either.”
I vividly remember the networking event myself. I was thinking, “This guy is clueless. I know people who could afford to stay at the Four Seasons when they travel but book a Days Inn instead. Or people who fly first class but never eat out.”
When I tell the story some people say, $60? That’s nothing for a meal in the city.” Others shudder and say, “I spend $60 a week on all my food.” And we get everything in between.
The truth is, people respond emotionally to costs. When they’re evaluating you as a possible resource, they’ll pick up on little hints you throw out, just as they pick up on the stories you tell casually.
You’ve got lots of room for misunderstanding, especially if you’ve got a geographically distributed email list. If you’ve never lived in New York, you will be shocked at what people pay to live in a place that wouldn’t be on the market in the midwest.
I live in Philadelphia. People in the suburbs are shocked at what housing costs in the city (yet we smugly point out that we don’t need to own cars).
And I like to talk about the time I wrote about taking the #57 bus, only to hear from readers who assumed I qualified for welfare. Urban people ride buses.
You can usually find out your client’s backstory so you tell stories that relate to their problems and concerns. Lifestyle? Not so much.
