Last year, I read a book called Ice To The Eskimos by sports marketer Jon Spoelstra. I highly recommend it, because of stories like this one:
Back in the 1990s, Spoelstra gave a talk to a bunch of basketball team owners in Spain.
Says Spoelstra, at that time, pro sports teams outside the US lacked one big thing the Americans had: marketing. The owners of such non-US teams thought that if fans wanted to come, they would come. If the fans didn’t wanna come, they wouldn’t.
Spoelstra knew better. And to make his point, he ran a little stunt during that talk to the Spanish basketball team owners.
He took out a hundred peseta bill. “Who here will give me a 10 peseta coin for this 100 peseta bill?”
The team owners murmured and looked around the room. Maybe the translator had fumbled something? Or the American was crazy?
Spoelstra repeated his offer. “Who will give me a 10 peseta coin for this 100 peseta bill?”
More murmuring. Finally one of the team owners pulled out a coin and held it up. Spolestra jumped on the coin, and gave the team owner the bill in exchange.
“Do you have another 10 peseta coin?” Spoelstra asked.
The team owner shrugged and pulled one out. Spoelstra gave him another 100 peseta bill.
They repeated the deal a few more times.
“When will you stop giving me 10 peseta coins for 100 peseta bills?” Spoelstra asked the team owner.
The team owner smirked. “Only when you run out of 100 peseta bills.”
That was Spoelstra’s point about marketing. You hire a ticket salesperson… he makes you 100 pesetas… and only keeps 10 for himself. It’s a good deal, and one you should keep making as long as you can.
“Fine fine,” I hear you saying. “Thanks for the bland insight. Do you have anything more, or are we done here?”
I do have one more thing to share with you. One year later, the organization that had hired Spoelstra to give that presentation sent him a report about the attendance figures for each team.
The team owners who still refused to hire a ticket salesperson saw the same attendance numbers as before.
The team owners who took Spoelstra’s advice and hired a ticket salesperson all had attendance increases of 50% or more.
But here’s the bit that thrilled my novelty-seeking heart:
The team owner who actually traded with Spoelstra and got a 100 peseta bill for each 10 peseta coin, didn’t end up hiring one ticket salesperson… or two… but three ticket salespeople.
I don’t know his final attendance numbers, but Spoelstra says that over the coming year, that team owner had more attendance growth and revenue growth than anyone in the room. At the end of the year, the team owner ended up sending Spoelstra a framed 100 peseta bill with an engraving that said, “I didn’t stop. Thank you.”
Maybe that “I didn’t stop” was all due to the personality of that team owner.
After all, he was active while others were passive, daring while others were hesitant, even in a controlled and safe environment of Spoelstra’s presentation. Maybe he was just a risk-taker and a leader, where others weren’t.
Maybe.
But maybe it was also due to something else. Maybe it was due to the actual physical and emotional experience that team owner had of handing over a 10 peseta coin and getting 100 pesetas in return, over and over.
That kind of real and direct experience, and the resulting neurological imprinting, even if it’s done in a joke and play context, can have wide-ranging effects.
That’s something to keep in mind if you are trying to create change in your audience, or in yourself.
And on an entirely related note, I’d like to remind you of my Most Valuable Email training.
You are likely to get benefit from this training if you simply buy it and read it. But you are likely to get 16x the value if you put it into action, however hesitatingly and jokingly at first. And same goes for your own audience.
For more info on Most Valuable Email: