If you want to move someone to take important impactful action, first help them by inviting them to step into a new story of a future of possibilities.

Recently I was in Barcelona, Spain for business, and I took the opportunity to drop in and meet up briefly with a friend who wants to sell his factory located in Barcelona, potentially to someone with deep pockets in Asia.

He wants to sell his factory because he has been running the family owned business for several decades and would like to sell the factory and do something else.

I asked him what he is looking for. His answer is:

Either (1) sell the factory to someone who want a factory to make stuff or

(2) Sell the second hand machines to someone who needs machines to make stuff.

If that’s what it’s for, It’s not a great prospect. There are already too many factories making too much stuff all over the world. Especially in places like China and India. No one really thinks he needs to buy a second hand factory with second hand machines from Spain! They can easily set one up with brand new machines at 10% of the costs from China and India that will do a better job!

Hey, “making stuff” is no longer that valuable in the world today. We live in an age of overproduction of nearly everything “ordinary”.

What is truly valuable is helping someone else step into new roles. Helping others transform themselves.

The stuff we make is only an excuse. What we are doing is helping someone else transform into something they never imagined possible. We help them add enormous value to others and themselves.

I said to my friend, hold on. What you have been doing is you have been trying to sell is a piece of your past. What if you reframe it as helping someone buy their new future. You are inviting someone to step into a different exciting future than he currently has. You are selling someone else’s future story rather than dumping your past onto someone.

I described to him how someone can be invited into a new story of transformation. Seeing a new transformation relationship with imagination and unlimited potential, rather than a boring transaction.

Suddenly the sky opened up. Suddenly the keys to adding value to someone else’s life are found.  Suddenly we can start enhancing someone else’s life rather than selling something to someone.

Instead of selling a factory, or even a business, he is now selling:

Status: someone from Asia who buys his factory in Spain will transform his status from someone with a factory in India or China, into someone with the status of an owner of a prestigious factory in Europe.

Connections: Barcelona is one of the best connected hubs in Europe. It is a hotbed of startups. It attracts the best talents.  His factory is only 30 minutes from Barcelona Airport. It means it’s potentially someone’s “European HQ” or even “Global HQ”, for expansions into the world.  Barcelona can also be reframed as a hub to enter the huge untapped South American market thanks to th cultural, linguistic, and transport links Spain has with South America.

Networks:  The network effect of Barcelona is definitely different from the network effect of Delhi or Shanghai.  It’s value is as big as one’s imagination.

Environment: The buyers of this business will immediately buy himself an environment which will change him. Environment is everything. The German environment produces brands like Mercedes Benz and BMW, the French environment produces Champagne………take away the environment, the brands become hollow.

Distribution centre: The buyer will suddenly have an effective distribution centre within the European Union from where he can distribute goods sourced globally, including from the buyer’s home country, to credibly engage with customers throughout the European Union.

This is only the beginning of a new story for my friend……………

As Einstein famously said, “logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere”