“Do You Want To Sell Sugar Water For The Rest Of Your Life Or Do You Want To Change The World?”
October 16, 2009/
Would that line get you to sign on the bottom line? Worked beautifully for Steve Jobs, who used it on Jon Scully. Stole Scully from a nice, secure job as CEO of Pepsi to the then-risky start up known as Apple. Scully had built Pepsi into the powerhouse rival to Coke. Jobs wanted him to do the same for Apple.
And that line worked on Scully. But why? And would that line work for you? Yes, we’d all like to think we’d make that brilliant decision but hindsight is 20/20. And for me, transforming the world is not usually top dog on my job wish list. I’d rather have a goal I can achieve—and a better commute.
But it did work on Scully. And this week, I finally understood why. Steve Jobs brilliantly figured out what motivated Scully—and then pitched it perfectly to him. “To him” is the critical part of that sentence. Selling Scully on the hip startup environment or the market research data would have failed miserably. Jobs knew what made Scully tick—and what would motivate him.
And I have to thank Anne Miller for that understanding. Anne has an innovative way of analyzing people, that got me—and my team—to better tailor our pitches to the particular receiver. In under an hour, her fun, interactive program got us thinking and acting differently (by the way, she gets an Oscar from me for her role-playing.) Like me, you’ve probably sat through many sales training seminars. I wish all of them were as relevant as Anne’s. She’s worked with over 100 media companies and now I know why. Her presentation will make my team function better—and make us all better sales people.
Bonnie Zaben is COO of AC Lion. Anne Miller’s dynamite session was the first in our Fall 2009 Professional Development series. (You can read one of our interns take on the session below) Kudos to Eve Stieglitz, Director of Digital Media Search here at AC Lion, for coordinating this series. Stay tuned for posts on our future sessions. They should only be as good!
And that line worked on Scully. But why? And would that line work for you? Yes, we’d all like to think we’d make that brilliant decision but hindsight is 20/20. And for me, transforming the world is not usually top dog on my job wish list. I’d rather have a goal I can achieve—and a better commute.
But it did work on Scully. And this week, I finally understood why. Steve Jobs brilliantly figured out what motivated Scully—and then pitched it perfectly to him. “To him” is the critical part of that sentence. Selling Scully on the hip startup environment or the market research data would have failed miserably. Jobs knew what made Scully tick—and what would motivate him.
And I have to thank Anne Miller for that understanding. Anne has an innovative way of analyzing people, that got me—and my team—to better tailor our pitches to the particular receiver. In under an hour, her fun, interactive program got us thinking and acting differently (by the way, she gets an Oscar from me for her role-playing.) Like me, you’ve probably sat through many sales training seminars. I wish all of them were as relevant as Anne’s. She’s worked with over 100 media companies and now I know why. Her presentation will make my team function better—and make us all better sales people.
Bonnie Zaben is COO of AC Lion. Anne Miller’s dynamite session was the first in our Fall 2009 Professional Development series. (You can read one of our interns take on the session below) Kudos to Eve Stieglitz, Director of Digital Media Search here at AC Lion, for coordinating this series. Stay tuned for posts on our future sessions. They should only be as good!
