Are you buying drills?

An old adage came up in conversation the other day,

“People don’t buy drills, they buy holes”

If you are in sales you may have heard this — it is a reminder that people purchase what they need and you work to satisfy that need. With this pity adage it is the hole the person paying for and the drill is just the way they get what they paid for.

• Selling “drills” is product and not customer focused — people prefer you are focused on them.

• Selling “drills” is a good indicator that you are inwardly focused — everything that you can’t control (and which impacts you) is happening out in the “big bad world”; it’s good to know what’s happening out there.

• Selling “drills” is a good indicator you are not solution driven — people prefer solutions and not just to buy something. They really don’t like when they buy something that doesn’t satisfy their need.

• Selling a “drill” is a feature, whereas a hole is a benefit — people buy benefits.

• Selling “drills” is a transaction and not partnership oriented — people prefer to deal with trusted partners.

• You are engaging with (and understanding) the customer when you ask why they need a hole — when you really know customer you can help focus in on what they need.

This literally applies to anyone trying to convince someone to purchase a drill, and if you consider it figuratively, it applies to almost everything else — the features of a fitness club, what are the benefits? The features of a political parties promises, what are the benefits? The skills of a person, what are the benefits?

And with benefits, comes value.

Getting into the weeds a little there is extrinsic value and there is intrinsic value. Extrinsic value is the generally accepted value that comes from the benefit, whereas intrinsic value reflects the benefits specific to the person. If we go back to the drill example, the benefit of making a hole is the extrinsic value, but unless a person needs a hole, he or she doesn’t care — it is only when a person needs a hole does it offer intrinsic value and the likelihood they would be interested in buying a drill.

It becomes an alignment of features to benefits to intrinsic value — and with it, an understanding of what is intrinsically of value to you.

And if you know that, you will never buy a drill you don’t need (figuratively speaking).

iamgpe

Insights from an unexpected life coach...

At this time of year you would be hard pressed to find anyone in Canada who hasn’t started to think about winter…

I’ll be shameless and will say, “winter is coming” — and with the approaching season, we also find ourselves thinking about hockey. We watch it, we play it, and some literally live it … it’s a national sport after all.

Hockey is a game I wasn’t particularly good at, haven’t played for years, and as a fan, not interested in anymore — probably because (as I said) I wasn’t very good at it. Interestingly enough though, I found myself at a hockey complex the other day (where I sometimes train) and was drawn to a hockey practice. A group of young players who were down on one knee listening to their coach.

I was inspired.

A coach’s passion offered insight into something much bigger than just hockey —

• Have a strong body.

• Have a strong mind.

• Work very hard.

• Someone will always be watching — use any feedback to be better.

• Do something — it is better than doing nothing.

DO something… it is better than doing “nothing”

• Take that trip.

• Take the CFO gig.

• Quit that job and travel the world.

• Build that house.

• Be that lover.

• Propose to that girl.

• Start that company.

• Be who you want to be.

• Take that job, although you are scared “shitless”

• Do something for fuck sake,

How you interpret this is up to you… all I ask is that you do something.

iamgpe

The most beautiful people...

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depth.

Beautiful people do not just happen.

I came across this motivational quote the other day — I can’t say if someone of notoriety said this or if it was a person who had insight into the human condition.

Either way, I like it very much.

I think it may come from a fundamental belief that when something is too easy we are given nothing for it, and although I will admit I may be misguided with this simple premise, I don’t believe we grow when something is too easy. We are hardwired for struggle when we come into this world and it’s the struggle that is the blue print for our growth and success — having it too easy isn’t holistically in our best interest.

As a species we have done an extremely good job of controlling our environment and minimizing the historical struggles that came with day to day survival (the spectre of famine, war, disease, or the wrath of mother nature). I’m not suggesting that these still aren’t very real for people but I will suggest that in North America, for the most part, when someone says they had a day where they really struggled, they are not referring the four horsemen.

Black and white; good and bad; right and wrong, love and hate, sweet and sour… hard and easy. More and more we seem to think in absolutes, whereas it’s really about the spectrum between these opposing extremes; it is the struggle that happens between the two polar extremes where our growth and strength can be found. And as the quote suggests, it is only in that struggle that you will ever become all you can be (aka beautiful). When it’s easy there is no effort but when it’s a struggle there is effort, strain, creative thinking, adversity, development, defeat, understanding, and victory. It may just be me, but I just don’t see the beauty (or adventure, for that matter) in something being easy.

And as I think about it, I think it also applies to familiar, controlled, comfortable and predictable.

Although, as I said, I may be misguided.

iamgpe