Jeff Harrison (Swingpoint Media) opens with a personal anecdote: while walking, a known acquaintance on a scooter offered him a ride. He uses this to argue that many business owners 'sell the ride'—offering a ready solution without first asking what the customer actually needs. He cites the ‘when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ aphorism and gives examples (plumbers, HVAC, AI solutions) to recommend a more consultative approach—asking questions about needs/conditions before proposing solutions.
Chapters
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 to ride? And all of a sudden, it struck me is 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 Swing Point 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 to 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 I 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 will say, hey, I have a plumber. So anytime I see somebody who's a homeowner, I. I immediately go for a plumbing repair or if I'm in 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?
