Let’s say you owned a hamburger stand…
I speak to a lot of business about their marketing, sales and how to profitably grow and scale their business.
And, I spoke with a prospective client recently and it reminded of a question Gary Halbert (one of the greatest copywriters of all time) used to ask:
“If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to see who would sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on your side?”
After asking he would receive a slew of different answers:
Some people would want the best quality of meat to make the patties out of…
Others would want sesame seed buns…
Some would ask for the best location…
And, of course some people would say they wanted the lowest prices.
Gary would say they could have every single advantage that they had asked for…
If he could have just ONE SINGLE ADVANTAGE.
What advantage did Gary want?
Gary wanted “A STARVING CROWD!”
See none of the rest of those advantages matter very much, if you don’t have a crowd of hungry people to buy your hamburgers.
And, if you have a crowd of starving people in front of you…
They’ll likely buy your burgers with or without a sesame seed bun or whether you have the lowest prices.
They are hungry and you have burgers!
Now the reason I thought about this story from Gary Halbert when I was on a call with this business owner is…
They had a “great product”
…but no starving crowd.
Honestly, what they were selling was actually pretty neat.
I bet everyone who they told about it thought it was very cool!
And, it even “solved” a problem.
But there was no STARVING CROWD looking for this “solution”
Their “burger” was awesome. It had the best meat, it had a sesame seed bun and the price was great…
But, there was no starving crowd of people who knew they needed this solution.
This doesn’t mean it is impossible to sell…
But it does mean it’s going to take A LOT more TESTING, to find out who the crowd is…
And then it will require a budget for EDUCATING the crowd, on why they should care about this product/solution.
Like I said, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
But, if you start with Gary’s answer BEFORE you create your product or solution.
And work your way backward, you’ll know from the beginning that:
(A) You have a market (crowd)
(B) They have a pain (hunger)
And now all you need to do is put your solution (a burger) in front of them!
Who’s your starving crowd?
Image Source (Screenshot): Kevin Halbert’s YouTube Video