Making Sales Growth Predictable, Sustainable & Scalable

Hurricanes

Written by Doug Davidoff | Apr 7, 2006 3:35:49 PM

What would you pay for a 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood? According to Home Depot’s website, it’s $15.99.

What would you pay for that sheet of plywood if you lived in Florida and a category five hurricane was on the way? My guess is that you’d probably be willing to pay a lot more.

I am not advocating price gouging. But the point is this: at the end of the day, every offering is a sort of plywood. That ‘thing’ we sell (whether it is products, services, hours, experiences, whatever) is just a form of plywood. Plywood has a limited value – it’s limited by what the competition is charging.

Industrial-age-based sales and marketing focuses the entire sales process on selling plywood. Plywood is a commodity. Hurricanes – those issues our customers/clients are dealing with provide a lot more opportunity to create value. If you want to accelerate your growth and increase your margins, stop selling your plywood. Start helping your prospects understand their hurricanes, the financial implications of those hurricanes and how to protect themselves from them. Do that and price stops being an issue.

If you’d like help figuring out what hurricanes your prospects may be facing, give me a call or send me an e-mail.