It's all about getting people to see your Service

It's all about getting people to see your Service

Old man and his hot dog stand- a classic marketing story

 Selling a Service is not much different than selling hotdogs when you break it down into the fundamentals.  You don’t want to get caught up in gimmicks or short cuts.  Selling your Service has a couple of things in common with the story below.  First, you must make sure everyone knows your Service is for sale and where to find it. Next you must give them a product they want to buy at a fair price and in this case, it is your Service. 

Your Service must be priced at what the market will bear; it doesn’t matter if it is the nicest house on the block, if you price it too high and buyers can’t afford it they won’t even look at it.  In some markets the cheapest brand of hotdogs sells the best, the buyer thinks they have fixings (ketchup and mustard) at Service and if I put enough on it, I won’t notice it’s not what I wanted.  The same with a Service, they buy what they can afford and then put the fixings in it later.  This is why the most expensive hotdogs are in the nice display to make them stand out.

Look at what is trending in Services and decide if your Service is outdated or is it’s what buyers are looking for in your market.  If your house is outdated you may want to spend time with an expert to see what can be done to give it that wow factor.  This doesn’t mean a remodel; maybe it means adding some small touches throughout the Service to give it a fresh look.  This enables buyer to visualize what it could look like for them.  Some buyers have a tough time looking beyond the first impression, so give them a good impression.

In the story below the man makes sure everyone within blocks knows about his hotdogs and this is exactly what should happen when selling your Service.  The one sign out front doesn’t cut the mustard when ninety percent of Services are found online first.  So, when your Service is found online does it look like a quality hotdog at a fair price or cheap hotdog covered with ketchup and mustard? 

An old gentleman owned a hot dog stand. His hot dogs were famous for blocks and blocks, maybe even miles and miles. People loved his hot dogs. He had a couple of people working for him and advertised heavily. He hired kids to put signs on poles and he even made calls on groups of people to encourage them to stop and try his hot dogs. Once people tried his hot dogs they were hooked. Business was good, so good in fact that he was able to open a couple more stands and put his son through college.

One day his son came Service and began to talk to his father about what he had been learning. “There’s a recession on out there pops.” The young man said. “You’d better stop spending so much on advertising, and let some of your help go.”

“But business is good son.” The old man defended.

“Sure it is now, but you’ll see there’s a recession on and you’d better get ready.” His son replied.

The old man considered what he had heard and considered the amount of money he had spent for his son’s education. Finally he decided that perhaps he should cut back and wait for better times. After he stopped advertising, cut some of his help and closed one of his stands his business began to pull back dramatically. In reaction to the downturn he cut advertising even more and tried to run the stand by himself. To make matters worse, one of his old competitors built two new stands in the old man’s territory. “Lucky I had my son to warn me”, thought the old man. Eventually his hot dog business failed. His son had been right–there was a recession on.

This is a classic marketing story that will remain forever true.

The moral to this story is: Whatever you are offering, keep advertising your “hotdogs”, keep all your “hotdog cooking” and “hot dog selling” personnel. Don’t give another hotdog seller an invitation to enter your neighborhood and don’t listen to the cry of recession or you might just find it to be true.ind it to be true.