Selling the sizzle, not the Steak

(Jump to 3^rd paragraph if you don’t want to know me or why I wrote this)

People who know me very well will agree I’ve always been an antagonist of style over substance. When I buy something, I never pay a premium for brand – I need things to be functional, reliable and fit the contemporary need. This behaviour is exhibited in my profession too. As an IT consultant, I am often required to answer the ‘Why’, ‘What’, & ‘How’ behind a solution. Being the minimalist I am, you might have noted I have missed out ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’ simply because I don’t consider them too relevant for the client. Nevertheless, I tend to focus on answering the ‘How’. In brief, I am always concerned about the content rather then the packaging – I’d like to know end-to-end how a product works and whether it ticks the all of the boxes in the client’s minimalistic list of requirements.

When I joined one of the largest and most successful Global Technology Consultancies, it took me over a year to fit in to the culture. Every successful manager I spoke to seemed to very well spoken in strategy, vision, thought leadership but never bother speaking about the underlying technology, how it all works etc – it made very little sense to me. Some of the most frequently used phrases were ‘high level’, ‘overall landscape’ and ‘big picture’. It seemed as though a techno-phobic corporate culture that avoids getting their hands dirty cannot possibly sustain in a competitive market filled with IT slaves. I then stumbled upon one of our core approach-to-market values: “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”. It struck me as if the style over substance phenomenon that I always avoided was characteristic & reputational to my company. Only then did I learn this is in fact a very old sales technique that plays with human psychology.      

Selling the sizzle not the steak is an old sales technique that focuses on the overall experience by promoting the factors that excites your senses, emotion etc over the entire need. The following is something I found really interesting from Marketing Comet:

“When we go out to eat (for steak or whatever) it's not for the food itself. Sure, I may be hungry, but really I have a lot of choices to satisfy my hunger. I choose a restaurant because it gives me the kind of experience I want and solves my hunger problem. Taste, smell, ambiance, location, service are just a few of the reasons I might choose a particular restaurant. And these things speak to my emotions through my senses.” 

One of my personal examples is buying handhelds – for me, no matter how many times I have read reviews, watched un-boxing videos and memorized the bundle and technical specifications, I always choose the one which is ergonomically compatible. At the end of the day its overall experience which true salesmen recognize is a humanistic element.

So how does selling technology fit in to this picture? Let’s say the client requires the bog-standard data migration or systems integration program – this is the steak. And let’s face it; every service provider can deliver this, same way every restaurant can prepare a steak. So how do you sustain as the premium rate service provider – how do you sell the steak at the highest rate? Answer – you don’t focus on selling the steak, you sell the sizzle. You build relations of trust and reliability with the client so they know it’s not just a walk-in and walk-out assignment for you. You engage with strategy and vision so the client finds a technology partner in you – not just operational support. Instead of focusing on how you deploy the program i.e. which technology you will go for, invest time in focusing on the why the program is being delivered, or what your benefits will be. In short, recognize, appreciate and tap into the human element behind the client and not the technology they are asking for.

Ten points for realizing that only the last 3 or 4 lines actually describe how to practice this sales technique in technology consulting - the rest is selling the sizzle ;)

Devil Behind the Clouds

The photo was taken during an eclipse as the sun was partly covered by the moon. The rest of the arc was covered by the cloud. Making it look like devils horns and the characteristic red is simply stunning.

Now the metaphoric - The photo captures a church in front. Satan hides to cause the damage despite having God in the light. OR - although the devil may seem obvious, look carefully and you will find God.

East vs West - User Experience

I've decided to write some articles on how the west and east are different in areas that I am most familiar with. This one is about a common GUI feature - Graphic User Interfaces and user experiences in particular. I should warn you that I am notorious for stereotyping.

Ok, so let's start (I say start cos I intend to add to this series).

Creating Entities on Web based systems

In the past, online systems would gather all your data and then create an entity. Say for e.g. if you were placing an order, you would have to complete a form and then hit submit. The website's program would gather all your info, create a new entry on the database.

Later things started getting complex, for e.g. with shopping baskets, and thus the forms started getting bulkier which meant you'd have to spend over 10 minutes just filling up stuff before you can have your order created.

Hence, the standard was to create the order first, and then update this. Here is where the difference comes:

In the west, UK for example, a database entry is created and the Order ID is passed to the interface from the order database. This is like a placeholder, that the user is unaware of. This is not displayed on the screen untill the form is completed. When the form is complete, the record is updated. The user does not see any of the complicated token system. The reason the 'hidden token' is practiced, is because it allows the site to monitor orders that were initiated but not placed. Also, it allows queueing when orders are processed. But main motivation is to make life easy for the users or first time visitors.

In the east however, India for example, all this is exposed to the front end. The user has to first create a 'blank' order. Then the user has to open the blank order and add details to it by using an update option. Technically this is very robust - the user can keep a record of the 'blank' order created. Also, the user gets to understand how the site works (not sure how this helps really)

However, the problems with the later method is it's not user friendly - the user will need to understand two streams of operations on the site
a. Order Create
b. Order Update

I think it boils down to assumption of the audience's intelligence.
Programmers in India find it hard to appreciate how naive some of their western users can be. It also relates back to how we treat people - in the west, there is a general appreciation for other's time and energy. People in the west (in general) are caring and friendly when it comes to customer care. Back home however .. let's just say it's a different story.

My Favourite Lines from Merchant of Venice

SALARINO:
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what's that good for?

SHYLOCK:
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

He has disgraced me, and hindered me half a million;
laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains,
scorned my nation,
thwarted my bargains,
cooled my friends, heated mine enemies;

and what's his reason? I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes?
hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases,
healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.

The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Border Control Analogy

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

And that, your honour, is why I was at the border shooting at illegal immigrants - to deter the rest.

A rare and most pleasant surprise

I had a horrible day in London trying to find a decent place to live - at one point, was thinking if I am making the right move leaving the tranquil life in the west country.

LaterI got home, and saw this:

The good, the bad and the ugly

Here’s an old fable that I came across in a video.

A wolf saw a new born lamb, and said “Hey, you were the one who dirtied my water last year!”  The lamb defended, “No sir, it wasn’t me”.  “No, I know it was you!!” the wolf insisted. The lamb tried to explain, “But sir, I was only born this year. How could have I possibly dirtied your water last year?” “So it must have been your mother then for which you must pay”, and thus the wolf started feasting on the lamb.

The mother sheep came by, and what could the poor mother do when she saw her son between the jaws of the wolf torn into pieces? In passion of her motherhood, she head butted the wolf. Of course, the wolf was not affected by the mother sheep, but shouted out to other animals, “Look at this terrorist, head butting me”. The parrots heard the loud wolf, repeated in numbers what the wolf was shouting, and joined in voice “Yes, we condemn the ewe butting the wolf.” Where were the parrots when the wolf ate the lamb? 

The above fable was used by Osama Bin Laden when developing an analogy for the 9/11 attacks back in 2011, the wolf being USA, the water being Israel, the lamb being Palestine, the mother sheep being Iraq, and the parrots being the western media.

Of course, we now know through conspiracy theories, Osama’s logic was fairly scripted, as the attacks were portrayed as an act of defence. My personal modification of the story would be:

The wolf assembles a loud group of smaller wolves in sheep clothing, instructs them to bite and scratch it and then yell out to the parrots that the mother sheep and her clan did so.

Actual YouTube from Al Jazeera