What is Your Donut on the Beach?

When I was in university, I had the opportunity to do a “practicum” in Martinique. I use the quotation marks because Martinique, if you didn’t know, is a tropical Island. I was majoring in French literature and spent my third year of University in Quebec City. One particular class studied notable French authors outside of France. And Martinique, a French colony, happened to have one of the most famous authors outside of France. Aimé Césaire was basically the Nelson Mandella of Martinique. 

Anyway, I went. (We met him! But that’s not what this post is about.)

And when we weren’t meeting cultural zeitgeists, we spent some time at the beach, as any young, self-respecting Canadian in February would do. The beach was nearly deserted. The sun, the sand, the wind, the silence were enough for me to pinch my good fortune for being there. A man came walking along the beach with a tray. Ooooh, I thought. I wonder what he has.

At first, I wasn’t clear if he was selling something or if he was simply a guy walking down the beach with a tray. Maybe he was collecting seashells, who knows. Instead, he saw our little group and started walking directly towards us.

Oh, he’s probably going to try and sell us jewelry, I thought. There were plenty of beach vendors, mostly women, selling jewelry and other souvenirs to tourists.  

Instead. What this man had on his tray were warm, fresh, sugar donuts.

I probably squealed with delight. Never in my life had I thought that what I wanted in that exact moment was a warm, fresh, sugar donut. But he anticipated a want I didn’t even know I had. I bought a donut immediately.

I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Your service offering (in my case, books), is the very same. There are three things I learned about sales from this donut beach vendor:

1.    The trick, of course, is to anticipate people’s needs before they realize what they want themselves (Was I thinking about donuts before he arrived, certainly not!) at the exact time and place where they need it.

2.    Quality is important (warm and fresh), but it’s also a given. If he had bought them at the grocery store and unpacked stale donuts, there would have bene no value proposition.  

3.    Next, be unique. What most beachgoers might expect would be ice cream, but that is not practical and would have melted. What made it so delighted was that it was unexpected.

4.    And finally, delivery. I may very well have walked by the hut where he sold his donuts and paid no mind, but the delivery to my beach towel made it special.

To this day, 24 years later, I still think about that donut vendor. Now I live in Florida, I can’t tell you the amount of times I have been at the beach and looked up, wishing to see a man walking towards me with a tray of donuts. (Missed opportunity if you ask me).  

When I coach ghostwriters and other creative service professionals, I use a similar framework to have them create a unique service offering that helps them stand apart from others in their field. If you are a ghostwriter or creative service professional and this is something you’re interested in, drop me a message.

What is your fresh, warm donut on the beach?