Andy Andrews is an author, well known speaker, and a consultant that was mentored by a homeless person.
Jones was a “Noticer” and he told Andy “…it all depends upon your perspective.” Someone that not only observed others but noticed principles of life (he also read books from the library). Even though Andy Andrews has achieved more than most by now (speaking in front of large audiences) how many of you would have mentored him as a young man living under a pier? How many of you would have picked Andy as a good prospect for success in the business? I suspect he’s an excellent example of not going overboard on qualifying a prospect.
Andy was a quick learner and said: “I had more credibility with people that didn’t know me.” After all, he was living under a pier!
A great Marketing/Innovation Book, Exploiting Chaos by Jeremy Gutsche (2009) gives an example of getting inside the head of your prospective customer. Today many in marketing know that the most powerful connection is a cultural connection. Connections are made in this order:
- Functional (tell)
- Incentive (fear or reward)
- Emotional (message memory)
- Cultural (lifestyle connection)
Cultural connections are made because we really know who are customers are–we obsess about our customer. For example, when you ask a “favor” of a Corp. person you can just about predict that you won’t get what you’re asking for because they have lawyers and other gate keepers. Often, they have about zero connection with their customers and prefer to keep it that way. They are very predictable, and you are probably wasting your time (particularly if you live under a pier so to speak), but go ahead and ask anyway because some of them do understand. This is one reason corporations (even large corporations) die much faster than people realize. They often can’t penetrate cultural barriers.
In the war against littering (littering is a huge problem) Jeremy Gutsche gives us a great example. Many people made an emotional connection with Iron Eyes Cody (American Indian) and they remember him years latter. He sees people throwing litter from a car and a tear falls from his right eye. Emotional connections get people to remember but not necessarily act.
GSD&M was hired to make a connection that would cause people to “act” in the state of Texas. First, they studied who was most likely to litter and found that 70% are young men driving pickup trucks throwing their empty beer cans on the highway. You know, the macho Texas gun slinger that owns the world. After studying their market they came up with this slogan and ad campaign: Don’t mess with Texas.™
They made a cultural connection.
“The Institute of Applied Research suggested that a reduction in littering of 10% would be above average; a reduction of 15% would be remarkable. In the five years that followed the launch (1986-1990), litter was reduced by 72%. This slogan was so effective it became part of Texan culture and the challenge became keeping the slogan connected to its original purpose.“
