Two World Views

Seth Godin is one of the most admired and respected minds in marketing today. He is the author of more than a dozen books and publishes a daily "must-read" for anyone who runs a business. What makes Seth special is that he looks at the world through different lenses, constantly challenging the status quo to take fresh new approaches that work more often than not. He was among the first marketing minds to understand that the way people purchase had changed and recognized that it is necessary to change messaging in order to effectively respond to the paradigm shift that had taken place.

 

Today’s marketing requires telling stories that resonate with the people you want to reach, because the story is meaningful to them and makes a difference in their lives. The challenge, according to Seth, is to change your worldview. Many of us are still living in the world that says all people want as much stuff as possible for as cheap a price as possible. That’s why we have Black Friday sales, self-storage units and the belief that offering discounts is the way to convince customers your showroom is the right one for their bath remodel. There is always somebody happy to push you to buy something you don’t need because the object of the game is for you to have more stuff. That’s a world view based on scarcity, with the belief that most people don’t have enough stuff and are always questioning how do I get more?

But there’s a different view that is not so obvious. It’s a view not based on scarcity, but rather on abundance. In an abundant economy, it’s not about acquiring more stuff, because when we are honest with ourselves we know we have enough. What we don’t have is connection and time. We’re lonely. Study after study finds loneliness to be a pressing and disturbing societal problem.

Think about your customers. How many of them are lonely?  How many of them have excess free time? Think about your team and yourself - do you have too much time on your hands? If you want to create a tribe of raving fans in a world of abundance, you need to provide your customers and team members with connection and meaning where they can be at their best.

What does this look like at a decorative plumbing and hardware showroom? It’s not about specialty finishes, gallons per minute, quartz versus stone, and so on. It’s not about how much margin you need to cut in order to make a sale. Those may be nice, but will discounts and product mix provide connection or meaning? What will? Start by answering these four questions:

1. Who are your next customers?
2. What are the stories they have told themselves before they visit you or your showroom?
3. How do you encounter your next customers in a way that they trust the story you want to tell about what you have to offer?
4. What changes are you trying to make in them, their lives, their story?

What can you and your team do to change your prospect’s life, provide meaning or build connection?