Selling the Sizzle, Not the Sausage
So when it comes to communicating with your trainees and learners, how do you want to motivate them to buy into what you want them to learn?
What do you want to sell? – The sizzle or the sausage?
Without question, the quality that separates winners from also-rans in our society is the inner fire of enthusiasm. You never have to guess whether people have such a quality. It’s obvious in everything they do.
Everyone likes excitement.
When people bubble with personal energy, others enjoy being around them. Business firms like to hire a staff that brings zest to the establishment. Some national restaurant chains, for example, train their staff to form an impromptu ensemble and sing “Happy Birthday: or “Happy Anniversary” to their customers on special occasions. It produces more than noise. People keep coming back.
One restaurant, knowing how people respond to excitement, devised a special plan. When a customer ordered a steak dinner, the chef placed the meal on a hot steel plate. Then, just before the waiter left the kitchen, he would drop an ice cube on the platter.
The waiter was instructed, “Walk slowly to the table. We want everyone to hear the sound of that hot platter.” It wasn’t the steak that was sizzling, but the ice. The plan worked like instant advertising. If customers were in the process of ordering, they’d hear that sound and choose a steak.
The sizzle produced the sale.
Today, think creatively. Ask yourself, “How can I add some excitement to what I plan to deliver?”
Text taken from ‘The 24-hour turn-around’ Jim Hartness & Neil Eskelin, Revell Books
Séamus Ó Muircheartaigh