What my local chicken dealer taught me about business & life.
When I was younger, I loved trips to my local fish & chip shop; the walk was two blocks away from our quaint South Auckland flat, down evergreen tree-lined streets in the burbs where I lived.
Since moving to Melbourne, for the first time as an adult everything I need is less than 5 minutes away on foot, and it gives me those childhood freedom vibes and feeling newly grown-up nostalgia all over again.
The Local Chook Dealer
There is an organic rotisserie charcoal chicken shop two blocks from my home, and they are often sold out of birds by 7 pm. Initially, it surprised me—in NZ, we have a love affair with cooking our own chooks at home, and supermarket selections are endless—but now I’ve lived in Melbourne for a minute, I get it. While they have several things on the menu, this is their hero dish. They do this one thing—delicious moist wholesome organic fresh tender nourishing rotisserie chicken, for marginally more $$ than the supermarket— and they do it brilliantly.
They know what business they are in. And they who they’re for.
No fancy chairs. Limited menu.
A product made for a specific customer in mind to solve a particular problem.
Their customers can buy a nutritious meal, as good as homemade, in an instant, for a price they can easily afford, to nourish the bodies, minds and souls of those they care about. They can feel like they’ve done their part to take care of the fam & planet, pronto.
It is much easier to create an excellent product when you know who you’re making it for. When you know everything about your customer’s and prospects’ needs, wants and desires.
But living in the mind of a customer is easier said than done. Some of us get attached to our solutions rather than solving problems. We must ensure we understand the problems our prospects & customers are trying to solve—from their perspective.
We’re not in the business of selling a product or service — we’re in the business of solving a problem and selling a desired state, aka feeling. That’s where the power of emotion kicks in, which drives action.
When you start this way, you create a hook — you get people to pay attention and to think, ‘is this for me or not?.’ It qualifies them in our out.
That’s what you want in marketing and sales. And the sooner, the better.
The sooner your prospect decides ‘not for me,’ the less time you both waste on something that wasn’t meant to be in the first place. The opposite is true: The sooner they decide, ‘That’s what I need!’, the closer you are to being of service and developing habit-forming products or services, like my local chook dealer (rotisserie joint).
If you’re passionate about what you do, chances are high that you’re not just in it for the money. So if you’re ever wondering what else to do to generate more revenue, sales or marketing, your customer & prospects' most important and pressing problems are one high-value place to focus first.
