Good Analogy for new or current customers

[mikeylikesit5805]

Hey Guys,

I seem to always have a hard time up selling to clients to do it "right" I heard this analogy today from a co-worker and thought it was really good.

"Can you drive your car with low tire pressure? Sure you can. But it is going to cost you more in the long run and when it fails, its going to be bad. "

I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I think this will be gold for some of my customers.

 

[Moltuae]

I think that's a good analogy (and argument to upgrade) for systems with insufficient RAM.

 

[citizensmith]

But people do'nt understand why. They pay loads for an box that we think is underspecced. But the nice man at PCWorld etc said it could do anything \ everything - now we want more $$$

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've often done a car or truck analogy, something along the line hauling a load with a Toyota Prius or a Ford F-350 pickup every day?
Or...just the ROI points....you want a cheap computer that you'll complain will be running slow in 6 months and cost more in labor to maintain over a few years because it's slow, just has a 1 year warrant...or would you rather have a biz grade computer that will barely cost twice as much now, but will have a 3 year warranty, perform much better for you over the years, and likely last 5+ years

Another one that one of our guys uses......"You can pay me a little more now, or pay me a LOT more later and down the road!"

 

[cypress]

I often refer to car analogies as well when speaking with clients. It makes it easier for them to understand and relate to it.

 

[Mike McCall]

The analogy I like to use is to have the client picture themselves as the CPU. Next to them is a bucket with puzzle pieces. The bucket is their hard drive. The puzzle pieces are the bits of information that make a program work. They have several programs on their real computer, so they have just as many puzzles in the bucket next to them. In front of them is a TV tray. The TV tray is the system memory, or working space. Some puzzles may be small enough to fit onto the TV tray, many are too big. Adding more memory is like getting a bigger work table. Most folks seem to get that. The analogy can be expanded to things like single core/dual core - one arm/2 arms, or bucket size/hard drive size.

 

[SOHOtechRob]

Among my many analogies:
-If I ask you to go to the store and get milk, eggs and bacon, then you can remember that in your head while you're walking through the aisles so you can go get what you need (and skip what you don't need). You're probably going to forget that information after the store visit because it's no longer important. That's RAM.
-If I ask you to go to the store and get milk, eggs, bacon, turkey, steak, garlic, lemon juice, hot pockets, pain reliever tablets, shaving cream, broccoli and sour cream, then that's too much for your brain to remember, so you write it down. As you walk through the aisles, you keep checking your list to see if an item you need is in that aisle (if so, go get it). After you pay and leave, you still have the grocery list. That's your hard drive.

 

[SOHOtechRob]

Another (say it like Thor enjoys his beverage!)

Your internet connection to the house is like your water supply from the city. Sure you can wash dishes, do a load of laundry, turn on all the faucets and flush all the toilets at the same time, but if you do so then your shower is going to be a terrible experience. The same thing is happening when your entire family are all using their devices to watch YouTube cat videos, play XBox online, download the latest Windows Service Pack and Skype with friends while you're trying to watch Netflix. The pipe can carry a fixed amount of water (or bandwidth). How you divide it up once it reaches your house (or router) is up to you to maximize your enjoyment. If you're not getting enough, pay for a bigger pipe.

 

[SOHOtechRob]

And for the little old lady (or man) who wants to get an i7, 16 GB RAM super-duper video card system so they can check their AOL web-mail account and play spider solitaire, it's like owning a Ferrari but living downtown. Sure, it's got a lot of horsepower, but you're never going to have the opportunity to use it.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Put it to them this way. You go to buy a car. Do you want to buy a civic that is cheap and just gets you where you are going, or do you want a Cadillac that does the same thing but is more luxurious, has more power and features etc. You get what you pay for.

 

[brandonkick]

Put it to them this way. You go to buy a car. Do you want to buy a civic that is cheap and just gets you where you are going, or do you want a Cadillac that does the same thing but is more luxurious, has more power and features etc. You get what you pay for.

It's a hard thing to get most people to understand.

There are tools that "can do a job" and there are tools that "make the job go so much easier and smoother".

Harbor freight tools are wonderful for me, the screw drivers and wrenches and sockets and everything else I got in my tool back has served me very very well for the money spent.... but those tools don't earn my living, they aren't even getting hobbyist usage. I used them a decent bit back when I did repair on arcade machines, but lately I haven't messed with that. I'll pull them out every once in a while to do the odd job around the house.

Would I touch those things with a ten foot pole if I were swinging a wrench for a living, HELLLLLL NO!


Sure, that $249 laptop from BestBuy "works". You can get online, you can install M$ office, it's a "usable" laptop. Try streaming 1080p video on that thing, if the screen resolution even allows. Try using something like quickbooks on that. Try gaming outside of solitare and minesweeper. Even trying to multi task when doing "light" usage things will bog that system down.

Most have 2-4GB of ram, and 2GB is just plain unusable. Most of those $249 specials have pathetic processors. Can you get online with them...... sure if you have a few moments. Can you run quickbooks? If you like "slideshow" performance, I guess you can.


The real key to it is to find something the person can identify with. You have to put it into terms they can understand, often times just making that connection on a subject you both understand will make more of a difference then them actually understanding what your trying to tell them.

A car guy suddenly realizes you know a little bit about cars, and now he talks your ear off for twenty min before he agrees with what you were just trying to tell him.

 

[glennd]

My analogy goes like this: "You bought a cheap-sh** computer and now you're paying the price..."

 

[mikeylikesit5805]

Thanks Guys, I like a lot of these other ones!