The truth is, no one wants to give you money. In fact, no one wants to do anything that isn’t fun, exciting, or motivating. The faster you come to that realization, the faster you can move on to selling whatever it is you’re trying to sell.

To highlight what I mean by this, let me share a quick story. The second job I had straight out of college was for a chemical manufacturer that was privately held, not traded on the market, and actually run by the sons of the engineer who owned the entire business. The son who ran the plant I was working at was a very open and honest individual, and I’m not saying that as a compliment. One day he was talking to me about his ultimate dream for the company.

He said, “I want this company to be like a big giant black box, where I put a little money into one side of the box and out comes a whole lot of money on the other side of the box.”

Years later, when I set aside how I felt about this person, I realized that’s exactly what everyone wants. I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners, and they all essentially want the same thing as my previous boss. They want their business to work, operate, and produce surplus revenue with very few hiccups along the way. If they could do it without the involvement of people who tend to mess things up, they would prefer that. If they could do that without giving anyone any of their money, they would also prefer that.

Those acknowledgements have allowed my company to help the business owners we work with sell their widgets and services. To do that though we have to keep in mind that the buyers we sell to also want the same thing.

To paraphrase a bit, buyers want solutions to their problems that cost less than the dividends the solution will pay back to them.

You might be thinking that’s easier said than done, and you’d be absolutely correct. Because even if you did have a precise solution you could sell to someone, which could be their "black box," you have to make them see it operating in their mind before they even buy it. If it’s a complex solution that requires management, then they also need to believe that it will take up little of their time and brain power, because if it takes up lots of time and brain power, then they would need a solution to the new problem you just gave them.

Remember, no one wants to give you money!

They just want to buy solutions to their problems. They don’t even care how the solution works most of the time, i.e., any big black box will suffice.

In the marketing world, the creation of these “big black boxes” is more of a scientific process than it is a creative one. The process involves testing iteration after iteration of changes to variables until you’re satisfied with the dividends you’re getting from the built system.