> Grant Rettke <grettke@acm.org> wrote:
> Talking more to folks about this, I found that the going in position 
> was:
> 
> 1. If I don't learn it on the job; I won't learn it at all.
> 2. I want to learn about tasks like how to drop a control onto a form
> or deploy an ear; but not how to think.
> 3. I don't have much more to learn; I am already awesome.
> [snip]
> This is for whom you are marketing "designing programs" and FP: people
> who don't want to put forth any effort, who don't want to learn how to
> think, and don't see the possibility that there is anything left for
> them to learn.

There's a lot in this.  If you want to sell something effectively, you need to see things 
from your prospect's point of view.

What's their "pain"?

If they don't think clearly, don't realise this,  and don't perceive it as a problem, and you
tell them that they have a problem are they going to:

a) Accept your advice, or
b) Tell you to "take a hike"?

In other words, they need to realise they're in hell, before being open to stepping on 
any road to heaven.  And how do they know that your road is going to be any better 
than the one recommended by some other person?

We want people to make discerning choices, but if you are a beginner -- perhaps 
with many years of experience -- you are unlikely to be all that discerning.

* * *

Good salespeople try to engage their mark^H^H^Hprospect with a "reference story", 
engaging tales of how someone similar to you had a "pain" that you can probably 
relate to, and try to find out more about you and then hopefully relate it back to a 
compelling offering.

Relevant examples: 

* Kumon: http://www.kumon.co.uk/aboutkumon/subsection.asp?id=48
* Testimonials from Stephen Bloch's page: http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/class/hs/testimonials/

I remember somewhere a story about someone who had done an 
after-school (htdp-based?) program in high school, gone onto Harvard Law, 
been told that studying law at Harvard would "teach him to think", getting through with 
flying colors, but claiming to have learned the crux already in the after-school program.

The best of these kinds of stories could be featured more prominently, in my view.

But that's only part of it.

At least these threads provide a little guidance and some moral support for evangelists.


Cheers

Dan

