How The “Hitch A Ride” Technique Sneaks In Ideas Nobody Wants To Hear

Barry Davret
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read
Source: Stencil

I peeled back the wrapping on a container of yogurt. I gave it to my son without looking. Hungry for a snack, he took a big spoonful.

“Daddy. This is disgusting!

I took a look at it and threw my hands up.

“This yogurt is no good! How could they sell this stuff?”

I looked at the date on the packaging. There’s still one week before expiration.

“I should bring this back to the store and get a refund. I’ve never seen yogurt like this before.”

Have you ever opened a container of yogurt that had so many lumps it looked like cottage cheese? That’s exactly what this looked like.

Fooled!

On the container, I found the reason why it had the consistency of cottage cheese.

It was, in fact, cottage cheese.

This brand makes yogurt and cottage cheese. The packaging looks the exact same. Among the six packs of yogurt in our refrigerator stood this lone container of cottage cheese. I grabbed it off the shelf thinking it was yogurt.

It’s easy to be fooled by subtle differences in labeling. Need to move some containers of cottage cheese? Sneak in a few among the dozens of yogurt containers. With the same packaging, nobody notices the difference.

I bet the clerk who packed the shelves made the same mistake as me. The cottage cheese hitched a ride with the yogurt all the way to my refrigerator. Neither of us paid close enough attention to notice the difference.

Hitching A Ride is also a great tool to broaden your appeal and sneak in ideas.

The Hitch-A-Ride Appeal

What can I do to sneak into your world? I need to find some other way to get your attention. Just like the cottage cheese and yogurt story, my leadership training needs to hitch a ride on an alternate appeal.

What I need is a bit of misdirection. I avoid selling you on leadership and focus on a problem you do recognize.

Here’s an example.

Suppose my leadership training solves several issues. It helps with talent retention, productivity and decision making.

You won’t listen to me about leadership but you may listen to me about talent retention.

You may not see talent retention issues as a problem with leadership. Most likely, you attribute the problem to competition, industry problems or some other external cause.

It Starts With Attention

Once I have your attention I demonstrate how I solved it for others. That heightens your interest. I then share the benefits of my solution that solve your talent retention issue, not your leadership issues.

This is how my leadership program hitches a ride with talent retention. It doesn’t guarantee a sale but it gives me a ticket to play.

The “hitch a ride” approach is just one of my tools. Get my free guides on persuasion and creativity here. One more thing. If you liked this story, click the ❤ so others may find it.

surTHRIVAL Skillz — By Barry Davret

Next Level Skills For The Modern World

)

Barry Davret

Written by

Writer. Experimenter in life, productivity and creativity. Contact: barry@barry-davret dot com.

surTHRIVAL Skillz — By Barry Davret

Next Level Skills For The Modern World

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade