Blog 345: Pushing versus PUlling

Is there anything as desperate as the salespeople trying to sell credit cards in airports by offering free flights?

Can you imagine a least interested audience than exhausted flyers who never want to see an airplane again? You’re essentially selling cancer at 50% off. The salespeople look demoralized and out of place and somehow misplaced in time. I mean, who does this? Who else stands around in a crowded place, shouts to get your attention, and then asks you to sign up for something?

When PUSH Was King

Before the world went wired, this is how everything was done. Pushing.

Stores stocked their shelves with what they believed their clients wanted and then waited for them to buy them. Taxi cabs waited at the corner, hoping you’d come out of your hotel and hail them to take you to the airport and, of course, door-to-door salespeople went door-to-door selling encyclopedias and everything else.

Once we were all connected, PULL won the war forever.

When we need something, we find it with Google or Amazon. When we are curious, we can find an answer, on our own, in moments with a quick search. Nobody can sell anyone anything, all we can work to do is capture someone’s attention, time and we hope, investment.

There are still people PUSHING …

When you want to make some noise, start a conversation, or do work differently, that matters and transforms and stands out your instinct will be to start pushing.

Pushing out content. Pushing out posts. Pushing, pushing, pushing.

I’m not saying it doesn’t work. I’m saying that there is an easier, more authentic and enjoyable way to win people’s attention to earn their trust and business.

Shift to pull, focus only on those you have, and you create more value and revenue more quickly than you can with pushing/promoting.