Maybe I need to bring my Chicken Little back, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
 

Once had a blog, DOOM AND GLOOM. It feels a lot like those times are here again. Fed opens his mouth, the sky got closer to the ground.

OK, I don't know where this is going, I will tell you the trigger for it...and I'm telling you truly, this Alen Sultanic is way ahead of the crowd, and today he posted about need v want.

Well, if Alen is a decade ahead of his competition, thankfully, Dien and I have been light years into the future.

But today, I call upon my copious notes and recordings made 15 years ago with Harvey Brody, talking about needs vs. wants.

Harvey asked me to do him a small favor, it was about the Pistol Grip...and for my part, I had a fun field trip to country ACE hardware stores. And in many of those, the Zoom Spout Oiler display sat on the counter.

It was a great education for me to see Harvey's products in all of these stores, the Zoom Spout and the Pistol Grip.

Although he can write copy with the best of them, he explained to me, that having products WANTED AND NEEDED beat one or the other.

It was a fundamental lesson in CHOOSING profit streams at the beginning of the Entrepreneurial journey by design and not by chance.

I doubt if any repairman in the world goes to bed tonight with a dream of getting his next bottle of Zoom Spout Oil...that would be weird, wouldn't it.

But the next day, if he goes to a job and is out of it, and it is needed for the job, there is going to be some blue sky, via cuss words in that area.

Now it doesn't matter (to me) who is credited with saying it, but "if it needs copy (advertising) to be sold..."

If it needs ads to be sold...you have already dug a hole for yourself.

The shelf/counter display of the Zoom Spout oiler is the only selling...and when it gets low, there are time to reorder reminders...although much of Harvey's business is on auto ship type times, because his customers know how long usually the product takes to sell out.

Anyone here for over a decade, knows I use a Modified Maslow Pyramid when assessing my avatars for business decisions.

If you work with the Pyramid of needs, then you are pretty much able to see what the human needs are...Alen's point today was/is to turn wants into needs.

Again, you can save a lot of time, trouble, and eliminate the slop and mess of having to sell when you begin with a need, as in if you need to oil the motor without taking apart the unit, then ZOOM SPOUT becomes a must needed thing to have...and that is why it is has millions of units sold over the decades.

See?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Crumbl cookies, NO NEED THERE, but a whole heck of a lot of want. UNbelievable growth in 4 years, all from a want at that.

So there are two sides to the Want/Need coin, and you might want to think of that when you flip it when thinking of starting a new venture.

Any other thoughts on the subject?

Gordon

Selling ice to the... err... Inuit...
 

Hi Gordon,

I agree with you...

I USED to think... that if you were an "ace" copywriter... that you could sell anything...

Sell ice to the Eskimos... err.... Inuit, sand in a desert, that sort of thing...

Now... a little bit older and wiser... I know that just ain't so (at least not without "tricking" them somehow - which I choose not to do - or offering an amazing "value add")...

I believe the most powerful thing is the OFFER...

You can usually "sweeten" the offer... so that it's a "no-brainer," and gives them something they want...

Then - as long as you also have the trust of your audience - you should make sales, virtually guaranteed...

Choosing the right product to start with, for the right audience, is a big part of being able to craft a can't-say-no offer...!

Back to selling sand in a desert... It's hard to sell sand in a desert, because if a guy is surrounded by free sand, why would he pay for your sand?

Not saying you can't sell it (you could, with an incredible value-add), but it's definitely harder...

Why not make it easier on yourself? :)

Best wishes,

Dien

Re: Maybe I need to bring my Chicken Little back, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
 

I enjoy this train of thought.

It got me to thinking why I was able to sell my materials to entertainers, although I did not realize it at the time.

Independent entertainers need and want more shows.

Therefore, if I could provide materials that helped to book more gigs simply, then I had a winner.

This type of thinking sure saves a LOT of trouble.