A Great Tippps For Advertising Success: Go Deeper With That Ubiquitous Drill-bit Story!
Let’s get right to it! Here’s the TIPPPS™: “No one wants a hole!
Now let me explain what that TIPPPS™ means by sharing with you an excerpt from my Milk & Cookies for Success book. It’s entitled Daniel’s “Drill-bit” Story.
It was an unusually cold, no, frigid day at the end of March (2000), with freezing rain and gusty winds. A really miserable day, a day to stay home. But I had told my wife the previous Wednesday that I’d fix the kitchen sink, “… next Saturday, come Hell or high water. Promise.” I should have added, “… but not if the water is coming down as freezing rain, making driving conditions hellish.” But I didn’t, so there I was at the store buying an elbow for the pipe.
I met Norman there, my neighbor of three houses down. He was on his way to the till carrying a special drill bit (the kind you need to make a one-inch hole). So in jest I shared with him the “drill bit story” we hear all the time in marketing seminars (a pet-peeve of mine):
“… every year, people buy 100,000 quarter-inch drill bits. But no one wants a drill bit. What they really want is a ¼ inch hole. So sell them the results, the benefits, not the specs.”
“Hell no!” he replied. “I would not have risked my life driving in this sh--- for a one-inch hole. Are you nuts? But I need to make a bunch of those holes to finish this big birdhouse I’m building for my son Tim. He has to take it to his Boys Scouts meeting Monday. Gotta finish it today so we can wax it tomorrow.”
I was standing in line behind Norman. A minute had passed when he turned around and said, “I should spend more time with Tim, I know. I like doing stuff for my boy. Makes me feel good. I’ll take the whole weekend if I have to, but he’s gonna have the nicest birdhouse of anybody there.”
Another minute went by, and he turned around again to add, “And it’ll get Marcie off my case. Man, she’s been nagging me about this for weeks. Peace in the household once again. Then I can get back to working on the dune buggy. And that’s gonna make me really happy!”
When I got to my car, I couldn’t wait to write down the whole conversation and the enlightenment it had given me. The drill bit was just a tool. But so was the one-inch hole, just an intermediary goal, in a sense, a tool to get the next goal. Which was to finish the birdhouse, again a tool. What Norman was REALLY out there getting that morning was stuff for himself; pride and self-satisfaction from a job well done, feeling of importance vis-à-vis his son, and peace in the household. All of those would bring the one and only result that mattered to Norman; it’d make him happy, or at least happier. That was the end result, the ultimate goal he was after. Everything else was either a tool or an intermediary goal—a means to an end. It was all about WIII-FM—What Is In It For ME?
Keep that in mind the next time you hear the drill-bit story. It’s not about the bit for sure, but it’s not about the hole either. No one wants a hole. It’s about the benefit the hole will provide. It’s always about BENEFITS! So dig a little deeper, and see if you can figure out what your product or service REALLY provides for your customers or clients.
BENEFITS: That’s THE recipe for getting “on first base” by design – and not by accident – with your readers, listeners, viewers, visitors, etc. Coincidentally (!?!?), BENEFITS are also an important ingredient for turning “first base” into what I call “Firm-Base” – from where EVERYTHING is possible!
I wish you ALL the personal and professional success you desire and deserve. (Just remember that…What you “desire” is a function of your ambition, what you “deserve” is a function of your ACTIONS…Are the two aligned?)
Daniel G. St-Jean, BB, IMA, AMA, FBMI, SEM
(BizzBooster, Internet Marketing Advisor, Article-Marketing Alchemist,
Firm-Base Marketing™ Instructor, Successerenity™ Exponent & Mentor)
I’m Daniel G. St-Jean, half of The BizzBoosters. We just produced the butt-kicking 18-page Mini-Report Get On First Base By Design. That BizzTool WILL help you get a lot more traffic, leads, subscribers, distributors and customers. Go get your FREE copy NOW at www.FirstBaseByDesign.com . Get 20 of my best business-boosting articles for FREE (one every 5 days) at www.BizzBoostingArticles.com .
Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Advertising Articles Via RSS!
