Making – Business – Sense

Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant. Says Scott Adam. Of course he has modified it with respect to today’s world!

Means something for the Marketer within you? Well, let me elaborate. We have a hungry man – your prospective customer. What is he looking for? He is looking for some sort of solution. But how do you suffice his need? Well, he wants to know about a solution provider, he wants to see what you can do. He searches up in Google and finds what he is looking for – a list of solution providers. That’s his fish. He takes it home with him and is gone. But his hunger will return tomorrow.

Teach a man to fish and he’ll buy a funny hat –

He takes a look at your display of fish (resources, collateral) and he knows there is a solution that exists for his hunger (problem). He can get it – the fish from you or any other fisherman. He can “Outsource” fishing to anyone and he can bargain for a better price in all probability. The next time around he will not come to you – because you have just satisfied his anxiety for knowing what can be done to solve his hunger, nothing more. He did not see anything special for him. He wears his funny hat and moves on.

Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant.

Exactly my point. When a prospect approaches you (typically by coming to your website/presentation/ receiving your cold call) he is looking for fish (solution). But more often than not, for him its just fish and you are a provider of fish, so he comes and looks at your fish. He’ll have a look at the fish bow his hat and get going. But what makes a good fisherman a rich guy is not just someone with a good catch, but someone who can say it is a good catch. That is – what you communicate. Talk to him about fish and not just the ones on display, but also the ones that are in your freezer, about the one you sold to the gentleman before him. Open the gills for him and when he sees red he is impressed. That’s your collateral.

It speaks volumes about your capabilities. It tells the customer, whether you can give him fresh fish, good fish, and how you employ your knowledge to do the same matters in the bargain. Go on brag a little – but in a good way! After all, all of us here are Fishermen – aren’t we?!