Perfecting the art of seduction with bespoke interiors
Melissa York talks to Julia Reynolds, the saleswoman who makes every viewing a singular experience
THE next time you walk into a show home, take a good sniff. It’s likely that a lot of thought has gone into what permeates your nostrils. The days of sales teams brewing coffee or arranging flowers at strategic intervals are over. Now, every whiff is tailored to you.
Projecting a specific lifestyle to a narrowly-defined target audience is now the name of the game when trying to sell new homes. The level of research and attention to detail is an art in itself and Julia Reynolds, sales and marketing director at Crest Nicholson, has been perfecting it for 20 years.
“We arrange for each room to smell as good as it looks, predominately using high-end candles,” she says. “Every room should smell different but not be overpowering. It’s about playing to the senses and making people feel comfortable.” But scents aren’t just chosen to smell good, they are compatible with the function of the room and the income bracket the future homeowner is likely to be in. Kitchens and bathrooms are imbued with subtle, clean aromas such as freshly-cut grass and cotton linen, while bedrooms emit soothing lavender notes. Jo Malone is the brand of choice at the new duplexes in Bloomsbury Gardens, King’s Cross, while Cowshed – a younger, zanier company – was picked for new homes in Battersea.
And the sales pitch doesn’t stop at your nostrils. “It’s crucial that show homes look ready for occupancy so that people can visualise living there. Cupboards and drawers, for example, have to be open, while pressed clothes should hang in the wardrobes and towels should be folded in the laundry room.
“We try to match the items with the buyer profile, so the cupboards at Bloomsbury Gardens are stocked with food from Fortnum & Mason and Harvey Nichols. In contrast, we chose red wine, bottles of San Pellegrino, and Sainsbury’s branded cous cous and wasabi peas for The Broadway scheme in Tooting.”
Flimsy brochures have been exchanged for enormous hardback tomes that are more likely to feature glossy shots of local parks and grinning coffee shop managers than a flatplan of the house. “People do all their research online now,” Reynolds explains, “but they want something substantial that they can have as a keepsake on the coffee table to show friends. This man used to phone me up and order one for every development. It turns out he collects them and catalogues them in his house.”
Crest Nicholson is a much smaller developer than Reynolds’ previous employers, Barratt Homes and Knight Frank, which means she has time to focus on personalisation. Nevertheless, she still works on around eight developments at a time which means she needs constant sources of inspiration, whether it’s an international interior design show in Milan or fencing around a car park in Croydon.
“I’ve got three developments coming up in London Bridge, all close together, about the same price, the same target buyer, but I have to find a way to make them all unique with their own individual characters.
“We’re really interested in selling the location, the lifestyle, the comfort, and giving people an idea of how they could live. Ultimately, we want people to feel at home.”