By John Doerr
Ray Kinsella: So what do you want?
Terence Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.
Ray Kinsella: No, I mean, what do you WANT?
[Gestures to the concession stand they're in front of]
Terence Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer.
From the movie Field of Dreams (1989)
All too often it seems I am stuck in this great scene from the movie Field of Dreams (one of my all time favorites) when I ask professional service providers what needs they fill for their clients.
Me: So what do your clients need?
Service Provider: They need an organizational assessment followed by an intensive training program. A six-stage customer research evaluation survey; a communications review. They need a detailed tax evaluation. They need a will.
Me: No, I mean what do they NEED?
Service Provider: Oh, profitability and a good night’s sleep.
The tendency is to think of what prospects need in terms of what services we have to offer. Even though we know prospects do not think of our service set, we retreat to the familiar in describing what we do in our marketing messages and sales conversations.
As a result, we try to “convince” a prospect to buy our services. Meanwhile the prospect’s eyes glaze over as her thoughts turn to her own worries and dreams, which usually have little if anything to do with the services listing we are babbling on about.
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