My wife and I are spending some quality time in the Southwest US. Specifically, Albuquerque New Mexico. A couple days back, we went to the 10th Annual Salsa Fiesta held in Old Town, ABQ.
I’m a wimp. I was only able to make it through two of the three tents filled with contestants and their salsa samples. In one of the tents, one of the contestants was urging the public to vote for them as the winners. The staff at the booth asked, in loud voices: “Please vote for booth #18. Remember, when you vote, please vote for booth 18.”
When we got to the voting booth, ready to cast our ballots, we wandered past all the little plastic boxes where people were supposed to drop their poker chip. Many were empty, and most held just a few. The box for #18 had about twenty chips in it already, and there was approximately 2 hours to go. My wife and I both voted for booth #18.
Now let me be clear, there were other salsas where I felt I could eat a whole bottle in one sitting. #18 was a hot mango salsa, spicy and enjoyable but not overpoweringly hot (there were a number of those available, too). I felt like I could enjoy several tortilla chips covered with it. It was far from the worst salsa there, and that’s also very important!
Was it the “best” salsa? What does “best” mean, anyway? There’s no definitive explanation, no set of criteria that a salsa must meet to be “good,” “better” or “best.” It all rides on an individual’s perception and preferences.
Until you get one booth, in a crowd with 24 other booths keeping mum, asking you politely to vote for them.
Is it possible that most of the other early voters genuinely thought that particular mango salsa was the best of the lot? Sure. But once your mouth is burning, and all the taste profiles are jumbled together in your mind, you remember someone asking you politely to vote for them, and it seems quite reasonable.
So the next time you’re presenting your products or services against those of others, you can tell your prospect why yours are so much better. But try asking them politely to choose yours over all the others. If you’ve got a good product, it just may work.
