Zeroing in on Business Problems with the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76
I’m a sucker for the classic Saturday Night Live sketches from the original cast. With clever creative assistance from Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol, the so-called "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" – John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and Gilda Radner – created a sketch comedy template that hasn’t been matched in any other season of the show, in my not-so-humble opinion.
One of my favorites from that era is Dan Aykroyd’s surprisingly brief commercial spoof for the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76. I could describe it in lurid detail, but instead, let’s just take a look at it. Go ahead. It’ll only take a minute and a half. Tell your boss I said it was OK.
Click for Bass-O-Matic link.
Now, if you have any sense at all, you’re probably wondering what the heck that has to do with solving business problems, adding value for customers and partners, and selling more. And I don’t blame you. Bear with me.
If you remember our last conversation, we talked about using a fishbone diagram to brainstorm the causes of your customers’ (or your own) business problems. And if you did your homework, you probably realized pretty quickly that it can be a bit overwhelming. Even when you’ve already grouped the causes into categories – like Materials, Methods, Machinery/Equipment and People – the meat on your fishbone diagram points in dozens of different directions. It doesn’t tell you where to start solving.
At this point, there are two things you could do. First, you could try to chew up all that fish meat – to address every possible cause. In the ever-evolving world of information technology, you could probably find a product or service that would touch every single one. In fact, it’s tempting, isn’t it? Don’t we just love to solve every single problem our customers bring us?
Unfortunately, that approach just won’t work. For one thing, it’s going to be prohibitively expensive for your customer to buy all those, um, solutions, and logistically tricky for you to deliver them.
More importantly, not all causes are created equal. For example, if you look back at the problem of my shoes always coming untied, the fact that my laces are too short (materials) might have a greater impact than the fact that my fingernails are too long (machinery/equipment). I could go get a manicure for 30 bucks and not get the awesome results I’d get for two dollars’ worth of new shoelaces.
In other words, you have to prioritize. If you walk into a sales meeting with the idea that you’re going to solve every possible cause of your customer’s biggest problem, they’re probably going to laugh you right out of the boardroom. If, on the other hand, you can help your customer (or prospective customer) identify and solve the root causes of real business problems, you’ll be the hero. You’ll become a trusted advisor and valued partner. Your problem-solving process has to include finding the greatest leverage points – the places where the right solution, skillfully applied, will get the best results.
That’s why we all need the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76.
But that will have to wait until next time. I don’t mean to tease you, but I’ve already talked your eyes off plenty for this time around. Next time we meet, I promise to reveal the Bass-O-Matic.
In the meantime, pull out that fishbone diagram you made after reading the last installment and give some thought to what you might do with all that fish meat. If your first instinct is to start mapping every potential cause to a feature of something you sell, you’re in trouble. If, on the other hand, you’re wondering how you might identify the points of greatest leverage, then you’ll want to tune right back in next time. You’re about to be a hero.
Eryc Eyl / Freelance Writer and Business Consultant
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