Chapter 25 from the book Money, Meaning and Beyond
Question: “When you’re trying to sell something to someone, I know it’s important to communicate with people more than once. I’ve already emailed my newsletter readers with four different offers this month, but they still aren’t buying. What should I write in my next email that will work? I’m tired of pounding them so many times.”
With thanks to Aesop, let’s paraphrase a little story. It may give you a new perspective on this as well as other situations where you feel like you’re trying awfully hard.
The Sun and the Wind decided to have a little game. They agreed to prove which one of them was more powerful.
When a man came traveling down the road, they seized their opportunity – they decided to see who could make the man remove his coat, thus proving whether the Sun or the Wind was the more powerful.
The Wind took the challenge and began to blow. He blew as hard as he could at the man, trying to get him to remove his coat.
But the more the wind blew, the more the man clung to his coat and hat, and the wind had to give up.
Next the sun gave it a try and turned up his rays so it began to warm up. As the day grew brighter and the man grew warmer, he naturally found it too hot to keep his coat on and was happy to take it off.
Coming up on a small stream, he even took his shoes and socks off and took a wade before he continued on his journey.
With this story as a backdrop, let’s get back to the above questions:
“How do I stop chasing after customers and get them to try (or buy) my stuff?”
“How do I stop trying so hard to get results?”
These are very common questions for business owners and the answers are in the parable.
Ask yourself how you can be the sun, and not the wind.
How can you step into the river of your customer’s natural desires, rather than chase after them waving your company brochure as they go down a different path?
The saying goes, the only smart place to put a hot dog stand is in front of a crowd of hungry people.
Between the wind and the sun, which would you rather be, as you pursue the natural, effortless, stress-free growth of your business?