Chip On The Shoulder Marketing

How do you take a generic model and adapt it to a specific market?

If you’ve seen how people market to dentists and you want to sell to massage therapists, how do you make the switch?

Answer: 80% of the job is understanding exactly what THEIR chip on the shoulder is.

How do you that?

Ask these questions:

1. In what way do you not feel respected?
2. Who doesn’t respect you?
3. What does it feel like to not be respected?
4. What do they do that feels disrespectful to you?
5. When they add insult to injury – when they pile more disrespect on top of disrespect, what is it they actually do?
6. What do you really secretly wish you could say to them?
7. What achievement would vindicate you forever?
It’s not like this stuff is hard to find. An hour and a beer with the right person could supply months of material. I typed “what I hate about being a massage therapist” into Google and this little story came up #3:

I hate my job. I hate being a massage therapist. Why you may ask? After all, I’m my own boss, I only work four days a week and only for six hours shifts. Why would I hate my job SO much? Well, let me sum it up for you.

Today I had another male client who makes me thoroughly uncomfortable. He is constantly telling me that he’d be comfortable completely naked and undraped on the table. Yeah, you might not mind but I sure as hell do! Today he seemed to try extra hard to get me to see him naked. The door to my treatment room has a window that’s all blurry and makes everything look like colorful blobs. Having given my client plenty of time to get situated on the table I came and knocked on the door to see if he was ready.

I could see from the window that he was standing completely naked (due to the vertical, human skinned shape) and he told me to come in. I told him that I would wait for him to get on the table and he kept calling that he didn’t mind. Again, you might not mind but I sure as hell do! He got himself up on the table but refused to cover himself. I know what you’re thinking, I should have thrown him out right there but sadly it’s not that simple. I entered the room, immediately covered him with the sheet and did the massage without incident.

The worst part was the smell. The man bathes in cologne. It’s so strong I can feel it burning in my nose. The entire hour was spent mouth breathing and fighting back a sneeze. So very unpleasant.

That is why I hate my job, because of the clients.

_{(Source: http://thelifeandtimesofawannabewriter.blogspot.com/)}

Everybody has peeves about what they do. Most folks aren’t actually willing to do anything about it, but a few are. Something tipped them over the edge and all you have to do is prove to them that you understand the conversation inside their head and they’ll be lined up ready to do business with you.

You may not even have to prove that your product is superior.

If this massage therapist has any brains, she probably fantasizes about firing her unruly client and maybe even having the courage to threaten legal action. She hates this because she feels powerless.

The chip on the shoulder is all about powerlessness.

You make her feel powerful, you become her friend.

That’s Chip On The Shoulder Marketing.

_{Photo by Yasser Alghofily cc by-sa}

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world’s best selling book on Google advertising. And he’s driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by The New York Times, The Washington Post, INC and Forbes Magazine.