Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Needles

Seth Godin is a wonderful author. He has written many books, including Purple Cow, and Small is the New Big, His blog, "Seth's Blog", is hours of entertaining, insightful, and inspirational reading for anyone who is trying to "think outside the box".



The following blog entry "Needles, Haystacks & Magnetism" is, in my opinion, particularly important for aspiring coaches, trainers, and writers trying to make it in the ever increasingly competitive fitness industry:

"Most people, apparently, believe that if they just get their needle sharp enough, it'll magnetically leap out of the haystack and land wherever it belongs. If they don't get a great job or make a great sale or land a terrific date, it might just be because they don't deserve it.

Having met some successful people, I can assure you that they didn't get that way by deserving it.

What chance is there that your totally average resume, describing a totally average academic and work career is going to get you most jobs? "Hey Bill! Check out this average guy with an average academic background and really exceptionally average work experience! Maybe he's cheap!!"

Do you hire people that way? Do you choose products that way? If you're driving a Chevy Cavalier and working for the Social Security Administration, perhaps, but those days are long gone.

People are buying only one thing from you: the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, dating you, using your product or service, learning from you) makes them feel.

So how do you make people feel?

Could you make them feel better? More? Could you create the emotions that they're seeking?

As long as we focus on the commodity, on the sharper needle, we're lost. Why? Because most customers don't carry a magnet. Because the sharpest needle is rarely the one that gets out of the haystack. Intead, buyers are looking for the Free Prize, for that exceptional attribute that's worth talking about. I just polled the four interns sitting here with me. Between them, they speak 12 languages. No, that's not why I hired them. No, we don't need Tagalog in our daily work.... but it's a free prize. It's one of the many things that made them interesting, that made me feel good about hiring them."

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