The difference between wants and needs.
A panhandler’s guide to business.
Reader Note:
This is the second in my Panhandler’s Guide to Business Series.
Read the first one: Pay people what they’re worth.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I watched the cardboard sign melt into a recyclable mush on the side of the road. My roadside human resources consultant had disappeared and the twenty dollar bill, stored for days in the glove compartment, had been used to buy a “number one meal” at McDonalds one night on the way home.
I’d decided that he’d moved on. After all, New England winters are rough and for a homeless panhandler they seemed insurmountable. I’d stopped turning down my radio as I approached the exit ramp assuming I’d never see him again, when one Tuesday night after a long day of client meetings he was back.
I quickly turned down the radio and willed the green light to turn red.
“Turn red, turn red.” I chanted out loud as my car approached the intersection.
And it did. I slid over into the right lane nearest the median where he stood and the arctic air dove through my power window as it rolled effortlessly down.
“Hey!” I barked, to catch his attention.
He turned and approached my car.
“You read my sign.” He said, knowingly.
“I did.”
“Well, what did you decide?” he quizzed.
“I mulled it over for a whole day and the peace of mind you brought me was worth at least twenty bucks.” I said with a smile.
“And when I wasn’t here?” He asked.
“Well, for days I waited to see your next sign.” I said, and I motioned to the mutilated cardboard box he held close to his chest.
“Ah…” He sighed an all-knowing sigh. “Remember, when you write someone a paycheck you’re not only paying them for the work they’ve done, but the potential to do more work.”
I scrambled to find my wallet before the light turned green. I just had to see the next sign. He was right. When I decided his advice was worth twenty dollars I was only thinking of that sign. That first sign was worth twenty dollars. But, what about the next sign? What about ten signs from now? I pulled all the cash I had out of my wallet, maybe sixty dollars, I had no time to count it, and I handed it to him.
“Here you go,” I said. “You’ve got me.” As the words ‘you’ve got me’ came out of my mouth and turned into steam in the cold January air it dawned on me that this might be some sort of scam.
He smiled, wadded up the cash and shoved it into his coat pocket.
As he spun the sign around he said, “Welcome to my class.”
The light was about to turn green, I was positive.
“There’s a big difference between what people say they want and what they actually need.” It read.
The jackass behind me honked.
I waved, he smiled and I pulled away as the window cut off the cold air.
I juggled the words in my head. This one was pretty obvious, I thought. There are plenty of things I want, like a giant boat, a private jet and one of those endless pools, and none of those things I really need. But in business?
I thought about all the client meetings I’d had in the past two weeks. One client needed a promotional video, one needed a new corporate brand, one needed an interactive teaching tool, and another needed a creative ad for a trade publication. They all seemed to know exactly what they needed. After all, that’s why they called us, we are an advertising and marketing agency.
I’d approached every meeting with their needs in mind. I’d listened to their requirements and distilled them into a budget. I’d submitted estimates and we’d been awarded some of the projects. Other’s we’d lost. All-in-all I assumed we gave each client exactly what they were looking for.
But the panhandler said that there’s a big difference between what they ‘say’ they want and what they ‘really’ need. ‘Say’ and ‘Really.’ Those seemed to be key words. In fact, he’d underlined the word ‘say’ on his sign.
I knew what our clients ‘said’ they wanted but what did they ‘really’ need.
As I parallel parked my SUV in front of my Boston row house, I resolved to make some client phone calls to find out exactly what the clients that didn’t hire us really needed.
The next morning, I rushed to work pondering what they might have really needed. I set up my laptop and started dialing.
The first account we’d lost had originally told me that they needed a creative advertising concept for a trade publication geared at a very specific audience. As I dialed, I recalled that we discussed some possible concepts in the first meeting and I’d budgeted for one of the concepts they really liked. I couldn’t imagine why we didn’t get the job. After all, it wasn’t a lot of money.
“Hello,” I said. “It’s Andrew Davis from Tippingpoint Labs.”
“Well, how are you?” He asked.
“I’m good.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth I realized that I had no idea how to ask him what he ‘really’ needed. He knew what he really needed — an ad. What more could he say? “I was actually wondering if I could chat with you a little more about your advertising concept.”
“Sure.”
“I did some thinking…” I was winging it. “…What, exactly, where you trying to accomplish by placing this ad?” Nice save, I thought.
“Well, to be honest, what we want the ad to do is try to educate our potential customer base about our diverse product offerings and show them how the whole suite of products can meet their needs.”
“And why did you decide on placing an ad in a trade publication?”
“We know that our potential customers subscribe to this magazine and we thought it would be a great way to get our name out there.”
I agreed. “It would be a great way to get your name out there, but it might not be the best way to educate the magazine’s readers about your products, what they do, and how your product line might meet their needs. If you want to do that, you may want to consider a direct mail piece sent to the magazine subscriber list. In the piece you could actually give the reader a more in-depth understanding of your product offerings. That might be a better use of those advertising dollars.”
“That’s a really interesting idea.” He remarked.
“It’s really hard to get across your solution in a full page print ad, especially, when it’s in a magazine surrounded by advertising for everything else. In fact, you’d probably get a higher response rate to a direct mail piece that’s a little more in depth than a really busy ad.” I was on a roll.
“I like this concept.” I could hear him smile on the phone. “We haven’t actually paid for the ad yet, could you run some numbers on what this might cost and get back to me?” He said.
I was elated. He’d let me drive the boat. It was pressure-free and all I did was listen, assess, and advise.
What he really needed was to educate his customers and what he ‘said’ he wanted was an ad in a magazine. There was a big difference between what he ‘said’ he wanted and what he ‘really’ needed. It worked. In fact, the direct mail piece would be bigger business for us and I had up-sold him by offering him the ability to accomplish what he needed not what he wanted.
I had actually sold him something he never wanted and didn’t realize he needed. I now understood that I needed to listen to what they needed, not to what they wanted.
I was excited for my roadside chat with the panhandler at the end of a very long day. In one day he’d brought me the possibility of new business from three clients I hadn’t responded to with the right answers the first time. In fact, I’d originally given them exactly what they wanted and I’d almost lost their business.
From now on, I’d recognize that ‘There’s a big difference between what people say they want and what they really need.’
I sat in traffic most of the way home. As the car moved ever-so-slowly down the exit ramp, I saw the panhandler right in the median under the stop light. Occasionally, someone would roll down their window, they’d chat for a half a minute or so and when the light turned green, he’d step back and they’d move on. It seemed I wasn’t the only one enrolled in his class.
As I watched the light cycle I realized I didn’t know this guy’s name. I imagine he goes by something like ‘Doc’ or ‘The Professor’ — some sort of really clever name that gives him street cred’. I also realized that it would be very easy to miss a ‘class’ if my timing was off. I did my best to estimate how many cars made it through each cycle and tried to plan ahead to make sure I wouldn’t end up being forced through the light before I got to chat with ‘Doc.’
I also wanted to find out why he doesn’t offer his teachings as a class. I’d certainly enroll given what I’ve learnt so far. He could teach at some community college or something. He seemed well educated, just down on his luck. His disposition seemed fine. Alright, I know I’d only talked to him for a grand total of 27 seconds, but he seemed very together.
Eventually, I’d made it close enough to the light that I could catch ‘Doc’s’ attention. I rolled down the window and waved my hand outside the car. Something didn’t seem right about yelling ‘HEY!’ out the window to my professor. I tried to be subtle about it. He recognized my car and sauntered over.
“Well, good evening.” He said as he neared the window.
“Hello.” I said, trying to hold back my enthusiasm.
“Well, what’s the difference between what people say they want and what they really need?”
I grinned from ear to ear. “Listening, assessing, and advising.” I said simply. “That’s the difference.”
He smiled a soft smile and chuckled. “You’re a quick study.”
“I actually wanted to thank you for that advice. It might have won us some business.”
“That’s why I’m here.” He said matter-of-factly. “I chose this intersection, this city, this time, this method; because I knew there was someone hungry to learn.” He meant it.
“Hey, what’s your name? What do they call you?” I asked.
“I’m Terry.” He jabbed his mitten-covered hand through my window. I released the steering wheel and we shook. ‘Terry?’ I thought.
“I’m Andrew.” The light turned green, but I knew my chances of making it through this cycle were slim given the gridlock in the intersection. I slowly rolled the car forward with traffic and Terry walked with me.
“What is it that you do?” Terry asked.
“I’m in marketing and advertising. Print, interactive, video… pretty much everything.” I said with pride. “What about you?”
“Me? I’m a soul searcher, a life coach, a tutor, a friend and a philosopher.” I could tell he’d been asked this before. I nodded with a smile.
“So, how does this work?” I didn’t really know how to ask him about payment for his advice, but he knew what I meant.
“Pay me what I’m worth.” He said with a smirk. “Once a week is fine — cash — no checks. And if you get the Wall Street Journal, could you bring it to me?”
“Sure.” I didn’t subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, but if that’s what he really wanted I figured I’d get a subscription. If he found it valuable maybe I’d find it valuable as well. “No lesson today?” I asked.
“Ha!” He released all the air in his lungs. “Everyday of your life is a lesson and sometimes, you have to dig a little deeper to find out what life is trying to teach.”
I smiled and nodded my head. I glanced at the light. Was this it? I thought. I’d got his two best pieces of advice already?
The light turned green.
“Have a good one…” I said, as I drove away from the intersection leaving Terry at the median.
He smiled and waved as I rolled up the window.
I turned up the radio and tuned out as I zipped through the next two traffic lights. At the third light, I pulled into the left turn lane and waited. The ticking of my blinker was barely audible under the drone of National Public Radio. And there it was. Terry’s next lesson had been stapled to the telephone pole right next to the turn lane, just below a flyer for some rock band called “Mad Maxine.” Terry’s scribble read:
‘What you really want is a bigger business. What you really need is to stop being a cog. Build a system.
-Terry.’
