Jeff For Local MarketingFounder of SwingPointMedia

Before You Sell the Ride, Ask What They Really Need

16 Mar 2026 · 2 min

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1:58

In this solo episode of The Local Voice, Jeff Harrison of SwingPoint Media shares a personal anecdote about being offered a ride while on a walk. He uses the story as a metaphor for a common mistake business owners make: immediately offering a solution (the "hammer") without first understanding the customer's true need (the "nail"). Citing a saying from his friend Andrew—"when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail"—Jeff explains that many entrepreneurs default to promoting their own services (plumbing, HVAC, AI, etc.) whenever they encounter a potential client, rather than asking probing questions to uncover the real problem. He urges listeners to practice discovery counseling—asking about challenges, needs, and context—before pitching a solution, emphasizing that this approach leads to more relevant, effective engagements across any industry, including AI services.

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So I'm out for a walk this morning. And as I'm walking, I'm kind of nearing the end of my walk. I'm probably half a mile from my destination. And I hear someone coming up behind me on a little scooter or a motorcycle and it slows down. And I look over and it's somebody I know. And he says, "Hey, do you want a ride?" And all of a sudden, it struck me as like most of us as business owners, we do that. Hey, my name is Jeff Harrison with SwingPoint Media, and I own a company, or excuse me, I own a company called SwingPoint Media, and welcome to The Local Voice. Today, this struck me as something that, hey, I'm guilty of, and I want you to ask yourself, are you guilty of this? A friend of mine, Andrew, he has a saying. He says, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Now, back to the gentleman who stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. He had a solution to what he thought was my problem. I was walking. So, he asked me if he could give me a ride. Well, a lot of times we have a solution and anytime we see someone who looks like they have the problem we can solve, what do we do? We immediately use the hammer and say, "Hey, I've got a solution. Get on the back," whatever, instead of what? What I'll call counseling, finding out what their condition is. Maybe they don't want to ride. Maybe they didn't want to ride, I just wanted some water, right? And so instead of stopping and saying, hey, how you doing? Everything going okay? What do you need? Or what's the biggest challenge you're having? Well, we as business owners, a lot of times we'll say, hey, I have a plumber. So anytime I see somebody who's a homeowner, I immediately go for a plumbing repair, or if I'm an air conditioner, same thing, or whatever it is. And quite frankly, we do the same thing when it comes to helping people with AI solutions, right?