商業(yè)往事

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賣(mài)拖把翻轉(zhuǎn)命運(yùn)

本文總計(jì)1938字

預(yù)計(jì)閱讀8分鐘

（英文文章在中文文章之后）

也許你看過(guò)詹妮佛 · 勞倫斯主演的 2015 年電影《喬伊的奮斗》。它基于喬伊?曼加諾的真實(shí)故事，她是一位創(chuàng)建自己商業(yè)帝國(guó)的女人。雖然這部電影增加了一些場(chǎng)景的戲劇性效果，并結(jié)合了幾個(gè)角色到同一個(gè)人，但曼加諾開(kāi)創(chuàng)造她的事業(yè)的真實(shí)故事與電影情節(jié)是幾乎一樣的。

喬伊?曼加諾1956年出生于紐約布魯克林，在紐約州亨廷頓的長(zhǎng)島長(zhǎng)大。曼加諾1978年畢業(yè)于佩斯大學(xué)，獲得工商管理學(xué)位。畢業(yè)后，在她的職業(yè)生涯起飛成為一名企業(yè)家之前，曼加諾擔(dān)任過(guò)女服務(wù)員，正如電影中描述的那樣，她還是一名航空公司訂票服務(wù)員。

在早年的時(shí)候，曼加諾就喜歡發(fā)明東西，讓生活更便利。十幾歲時(shí)，當(dāng)她在一家動(dòng)物醫(yī)院工作時(shí)，為狗和貓發(fā)明了一種顏色鮮艷的項(xiàng)圈，使它們?cè)谝归g更容易被汽車(chē)看到。但她從未申請(qǐng)過(guò)這方面的專(zhuān)利。（一年后，Hartz生產(chǎn)了類(lèi)似的產(chǎn)品在市場(chǎng)銷(xiāo)售）

曼加諾后來(lái)因發(fā)明了一把自動(dòng)拖把而成名。當(dāng)時(shí)，曼加諾正為照顧三個(gè)孩子而苦惱，對(duì)她來(lái)說(shuō)拖地是件苦差事。曼加諾的創(chuàng)造天性激勵(lì)了她，想辦法來(lái)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。她花了幾年時(shí)間開(kāi)發(fā)拖把，一種能減少拖地地板令人產(chǎn)生沮喪感覺(jué)的產(chǎn)品。她稱(chēng)它為「神奇拖把」，這支搭配耐用又容易擰干水分。

1990年，曼加諾制作了一個(gè)產(chǎn)品原型，并制作了100個(gè)神奇拖把樣本。包括開(kāi)發(fā)過(guò)程，整個(gè)費(fèi)用將近10萬(wàn)美元。她耗盡了積蓄，還不得不向親戚借一些錢(qián)。

曼加諾花了一些廣告和大量的實(shí)地拜訪，在第一年就賣(mài)出了幾千只拖把。她的孩子幫她填寫(xiě)訂單，但是賺到的錢(qián)并不多。這個(gè)是水溫，只是讓她在市場(chǎng)上站穩(wěn)了腳跟。她知道她的奇跡拖把有市場(chǎng)潛力。所以，曼加諾決定把她的神奇拖把帶到一個(gè)新的階段。

曼加諾決定，下一個(gè)步是到家庭電視購(gòu)物網(wǎng)QVC去推銷(xiāo)產(chǎn)品。1992年，曼加諾將她的神奇拖把介紹為QVC高管。她說(shuō)服他們給她一個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)，讓她在電視上推廣她的神奇拖把。然而，在電視上展示她拖把的人，并不熟悉拖把的操作，在展示拖把時(shí)做得很糟糕。所以銷(xiāo)售成績(jī)很不理想。但曼加諾相信，由她來(lái)介紹神奇拖把，可以有更好的銷(xiāo)售成績(jī)。

那些看過(guò)電影《喬伊的奮斗》的人，可能還記得詹妮佛?勞倫斯扮演的拖把發(fā)明者試圖說(shuō)服QVC的負(fù)責(zé)人，讓她展示她的拖把的關(guān)鍵場(chǎng)景；她問(wèn)「誰(shuí)給你看拖把的？」「誰(shuí)賣(mài)給你的？」「誰(shuí)教你如何使用它？」她的堅(jiān)持得到了回報(bào)，因?yàn)樗麄兺庾屗榻B她的拖把，而不是一個(gè)專(zhuān)業(yè)的產(chǎn)品演示者來(lái)介紹產(chǎn)品。

但那是曼加諾第一次在電視上露面，她經(jīng)歷了一些舞臺(tái)上怯場(chǎng)了。所以顧客不會(huì)打電話來(lái)買(mǎi)拖把的。直到，然后她最好的朋友羅尼打電話到現(xiàn)場(chǎng)來(lái)，問(wèn)她如何使用這個(gè)神奇拖把。這下子，曼加諾變得非常自信，并能夠清楚的解釋拖把的操作和好處。之后陸續(xù)有電話打進(jìn)來(lái)。QVC在不到半小時(shí)的時(shí)間內(nèi)售出了超過(guò)一萬(wàn)八千支拖把。但這僅僅是神奇莫普和曼加諾的第一步。她最終賣(mài)出了數(shù)百萬(wàn)支神奇拖把。自從第一次成功之后，她又創(chuàng)造了許多其他產(chǎn)品，如Rolykit(可以卷起來(lái)節(jié)省空間的小物品儲(chǔ)物箱)、可以迭起來(lái)的衣架和易于儲(chǔ)放零件的小盒。

曼加諾在2017年的自傳《創(chuàng)造歡樂(lè)》中回憶了這次經(jīng)歷。「我就像其他人一樣。我是媽媽?zhuān)乙ぷ鳎矣蟹孔右驋撸须s物要整理。我們都有類(lèi)似的需求，我想辦法解決這些問(wèn)題。」

隨后，曼加諾于1999年以將她的公司「天才設(shè)計(jì)」出售給了家庭購(gòu)物網(wǎng)絡(luò)(未披露的價(jià)格)。在曼加諾出售她的公司之前，她擁有了100多項(xiàng)專(zhuān)利，其中包括HSN最暢銷(xiāo)的產(chǎn)品——可堆棧的衣架。在曼加諾的25年期間，她的公司每年能夠帶來(lái)超過(guò)1.5億美元的收入。據(jù)估計(jì)，她在此期間已經(jīng)賺了大約30億美元。

對(duì)大多數(shù)企業(yè)家來(lái)說(shuō)，成功從來(lái)都是得之不易。對(duì)他們中的大多數(shù)人來(lái)說(shuō)，成功都是在艱難的過(guò)程之后才獲得的。當(dāng)然，在兩個(gè)小時(shí)的電影中，不可能真正展現(xiàn)曼加諾成功道路上的所碰到的困難。電影《喬伊的奮斗》只是讓我們領(lǐng)略了曼加諾在創(chuàng)立公司時(shí)碰到的一些困難。

從曼加諾的成功中，有一件事是讓我想點(diǎn)出的；那就是，如果你能夠把自己當(dāng)作產(chǎn)品消費(fèi)者，那么要將產(chǎn)品賣(mài)給他人就容易得多了。曼加諾之所以能夠說(shuō)服人們購(gòu)買(mǎi)她的產(chǎn)品，是因?yàn)樗撬N(xiāo)售的產(chǎn)品的用戶，而不僅僅是一個(gè)銷(xiāo)售人員。因此，她能夠與客戶連結(jié)，消費(fèi)者也能與她聯(lián)系。因此，他們信任她，并愿意購(gòu)買(mǎi)她的產(chǎn)品。當(dāng)然，她也是她的產(chǎn)品的發(fā)明者，這說(shuō)明她銷(xiāo)售它。

當(dāng)然，有很多產(chǎn)品過(guò)于復(fù)雜，沒(méi)有辦法一個(gè)人發(fā)明。然而，如果可能，您應(yīng)該嘗試成為你嘗試銷(xiāo)售的產(chǎn)品的用戶。作為使用者，你最好知道如何向他人解釋你的產(chǎn)品。你會(huì)了解你的產(chǎn)品的優(yōu)點(diǎn)和缺點(diǎn)。了解產(chǎn)品的缺點(diǎn)，會(huì)讓你理解的客戶，因?yàn)槟阋彩且粋€(gè)使用者。自己使用自己銷(xiāo)售的產(chǎn)品，也可以讓你提出改進(jìn)產(chǎn)品的建議。如果你能夠解決與產(chǎn)品使用相關(guān)的實(shí)際問(wèn)題，你的產(chǎn)品將在市場(chǎng)上具有優(yōu)勢(shì)。所以，不要只是嘗試銷(xiāo)售你的產(chǎn)品。也嘗試成為你的產(chǎn)品的用戶。但是，如果這不可行，至少盡量的了解客戶如何使用你的產(chǎn)品，以及他們遇到的任何困難。只有這樣，你才能自信地銷(xiāo)售你的產(chǎn)品。

Showing Empathy is the Best Strategy for Selling Products

Perhaps you have seen the 2015 movie “Joy” starring Jennifer Lawrence. It is based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a woman who created her own business empire. Although the movie added some scenes for dramatic effect and combined several roles into the same character, the actual story of how Mangano created her business is pretty similar.

Joy Mangano was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1956, and raised in Huntington, New York on Long Island. Mangano graduated from Pace University with a degree in business administration in 1978. Following school, Mangano worked as a waitress and, as depicted in the movie, an airline reservations specialist, before her career as an entrepreneur took off.

Magano liked to invent things to make life easier from an early age. While working at an animal hospital as a teenager, she invented a brightly-colored flea collar for dogs and cats that would make them more visible to cars at night. But she never applied for a patent on the idea. (Hartz put a similar product on the market a year later)

Mangano became known as an inventor due to her invention of a self-wringing mop. At that time, Mangano was struggling with taking care of three kids, and mopping the floor was a chore. Mangano’s inventive nature inspired her to try to solve this problem. She spent a couple of years developing a product that would make mopping floors easier, or at least less frustrating. She called it the Miracle Mop, which paired good durability with easy wringing.

In 1990, Mangano created a prototype and made 100 samples of her Miracle Mop. The cost was almost $100,000, including the development process. She depleted her savings and had to borrow some money from relatives.

Mangano sold a few thousand mops in the first year with a little advertising and a lot of knocking on doors. Her children helped her fill the orders. She made little money, but she gained a small foothold in the market. This allowed her to test the waters, and let her know that her Miracle Mop had market potential. So, at that point, Mangano decided to take her Miracle Mop to the next level.

Mangano decided that the next level was QVC, the home-shopping TV network. Mangano promoted her Miracle Mop to QVC executives in 1992. She convinced them to give her mop a chance on TV. However, the person who demonstrated her mop was not familiar with its operation and did a poor job of presenting it. So sales were poor. But Mangano believed that introducing the mop herself would move more mops.

Those who have seen the movie “Joy” may recall a pivotal scene in which the inventor of the mop, played by Jennifer Lawrence, tries to persuade the head of QVC to let her demonstrate her mop. "Who showed you the mop?" she asks. "Who sold it to you? Who taught you how to use it?" And her insistence paid off, as he agreed to let her introduce her mop rather than a professional product presenter.

But that was the first appearance for Mangano on TV, and she experienced some stage fright. So customers weren’t calling in to buy the mop. But then her best friend Ronnie called in during the live presentation and asked how to use the mop. Then Mangano became more confident and was able to explain the mop’s operation and benefits. Then the calls started to come in. And QVC sold more than 18,000 mops in less than a half hour. But that was just the beginning for both the Miracle Mop and for Mangano. She ended up selling millions of Miracle Mops. And since this first success, she went on to create scores of other products, such as Rolykit, Huggable Hangers and the Piatto Bakery Box.

Mangano recalled this experience in her autobiographical, ”Inventing Joy,” in 2017. “I'm just like everybody else out there. I'm a mom, I work, I have a house to clean, things to organize. We all have similar needs, and I address them.”

Subsequently, Mangano sold her company, Ingenious Designs, to the Home Shopping Network in 1999 for an undisclosed amount. Before Mangano sold her company, she had more than 100 patents, including one for HSN’s best-selling product of all time, Huggable Hangers. During that 25-year period for Mangano, her company was able to bring in over $150 million each year. And she is estimated to have earned about $3 billion during this timespan.

For most entrepreneurs, success doesn't come easily. For most of them, success only comes after a difficult journey. Of course, it’s not really possible to show all of the difficulties on the road to success in a two-hour movie. And the movie “Joy” only gives us a taste of some of the difficulties that Mangano experienced in creating her company.

One thing that really stands out for me from Mangano’s success is that it is far easier to sell your product to others if you are able to put yourself in their place as a user of your product. The reason that Mangano was able to persuade people to buy her products so well was because she was a user of the products she was selling, not just a salesperson. As such, she was able to relate to customers, and they were able to relate to her. As a result, they trusted her and were willing to buy her products. Of course, she was also the inventor of her products, which helped her sell them.

Most products, however, are too complex for a single person to invent. Nevertheless, where possible, you should try to be a user of the products that you are trying to sell. As a user, you will better know how to explain your products to others. You will know your products’ strengths and also their weaknesses. The latter will allow you to have empathy for your customers because you are also a user. And such usage can also help you make suggestions to improve your products. And if you are able to solve practical problems related to the use of your products, your products will have an edge in the marketplace. So don’t just try to sell your products. Also, try to be a direct user of your products. But if that’s not feasible, at least try to learn as much as you can about how your customers use your products and any difficulties they encounter. Only then will you be able to sell your products with confidence.