Jeff (Jeff For Local Marketing) argues that the 2020 pandemic—though widely seen as a crisis—contains business opportunities if owners shift mindset from ‘waiting for the pandemic to end’ to becoming the solution customers need. He uses a children’s experiment and the ‘pony in the pile of manure’ metaphor, then gives a client case: they began work in February 2020, the client’s showroom temporarily closed by April, but continued content creation led to year-over-year growth while closed and an 80x increase in website traffic; Jeff cites that ~82% of buyers research fully online before contacting sellers. The piece concludes as a call to action for local businesses to create helpful content to become their customers’ ‘hero.’
Questions this video answers
February 2020
April 2020
82%
80x (eighty times)
Chapters
Foreign.
Most people, if you were to ask them about 2020 and if they are ready for it to end, what do you think they'd say? What would you say? Oh geez, yeah, I'm ready, so ready for it to be over. This has been such a blank. You fill it in year. Yes, I can't wait for 2021. These are just two random examples and by now you've already thought of your own response from to that question and the chances are 80% of the time it is a negative response. Herein lies the opportunity. Now let me give you a quick story about seeing and discovering opportunity and what others might classify as a mess. There was a scientist and he was conducting a controlled experiment. He would bring children into the lab and ask them to choose between one or two outcomes or two different decisions. The scientist has two different rooms behind glass, and the children, as they come in one at a time, could clearly see the objects in the room at the same time. So making a clear and easy side by side decision was a snap for them. Well, as he did this, bringing children into the lab and allowing them to select the room of their choice, overwhelmingly the children selected room one. Now, in room one was a stack of wrapped toys. Why did they choose room one? Because in room two there was a pile of horse manure. I know, right? Who would want horse manure? And then this one little boy came in and without hesitation selected room 2. The scientist was stunned since up to this point and literally 100 children had come through the test already and had chosen room one. So he asked the little boy, why are you choosing room two? You know it's a pile of horse manure, right? The little boy, with excitement in his voice, responded with that much horse manure? There must be a pony in there somewhere. Well, the pandemic of 2020 is Room 2. For most people, it is the last choice they would want. A pile of manure or a pandemic that shuts down an economy, causes strife and financial challenges and yes, even people dying. I mean, come on, it's just a pile of horse manure. Right now I want you to think just for a moment because I don't want you to dwell or build a condo there. What challenges have you faced during the 2020 pandemic? We all have our list right now. What if 80%, and I think it's even greater, 80% of your customers think the same way. They see the 2020 pandemic as a pile of horse manure. What could you, the entrepreneur, the local business owner, the leader in your industry do to show them there is a pony in there? I know this may sound funny, but at the end of the day, isn't there a desire in all of our hearts or corners of our minds we want a hero of sort to come in and save the day, change the outcome and save the girl. I mean, let's go back to the original question. Are you ready for 2020 to be over? Who or what is your mystical hero here? It's a freaking date on the calendar. I mean, this is what 80% of the people are hanging their future success on a date on the calendar. So how can you shift them from a date on the calendar to you, your product or your services instead? How can you get them to see the pony in the pile of manure? I want to give you an example of what we did at Swing Point Media for just one of our customers with a specific example and an outcome and how we not only shifted the mindset from a day on the calendar, but their business actually grew. I mean, we filled up a stable of horses. We did this by simply knowing there is a pony in the pandemic. Now let me give you the details of this client and then I challenge you to shift your mindset from I can't wait till this pandemic is over to how can I, my products and services, be the metaphorical shovel to uncover the pony or opportunities for my customers? This was a fairly new client. We had begun working for them in February of 2020. It was going great. We were creating content that their ideal customers were seeking answers to. Creating videos and written blogs to further support this and and placing this on various platforms to ensure it being seen, viewed or read. Things were popping. Then the pandemic hit and we were and we here in our area, by April, it had caused this business to have to temporarily close its doors. I mean, it was the law. But we kept shoveling, creating content, pushing it out and attracting new people interested in how our client solve their ideal customers problems. And during this time two months when their showroom was physically closed, they did more business year over year. That's right. They grew even when they were closed. Now you ask how can that be? Because we kept making content, growing audiences being ever present to solve the problems their ideal customers faced. Metaphorically, our client was the hero in the story. They were the knight in shining armor. Now let's roll this forward to December 2020. We are now, what, eight or nine months into this pandemic, their local competitors are getting crushed. Why? Well, I can't answer that specifically with 100% certainty. But I can tell you this. When people, the people who buy their products and your your products too by the way, go online and begin researching before they buy, data shows 82% will do all their research before they ever call a salesperson or walk in the showroom, the businesses that shows up providing the answers wins. This is our customer. In fact, their website traffic has grown 80x not 80% 80x. Why? Because we only create content and put it into the Internet ether that their ideal customers are researching and seeking answers to. You see there is a pony in your pile of manure. The pandemic is full of opportunity. We just need to shift the mindset from seeing it and helping our customer. The same thing from a pile of manure to There is a pony in there. I want to leave you with just a few stats. During some of the greatest financial challenges in American history, more wealth is always created, but it comes from seeing and knowing there are ponies. Continue to do the things and being the solution to your ideal clients greatest challenges. Your clients current and future need a hero. Will you be their pony or the manure.
