… everything looks like a nail.
A friend of mine when asked a question about solving a certain content management system problem came back with a very detailed, quite concise way that the problem might be solved using a customized script snip to reach a solution.
I’d not want to bore you too much with the technical details, but his follow-up to the question his response sparked started with this statement: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
The question of course was “Doesn’t that seem like overkill?” 🙂
What does that have to do with marketing? Success? Getting what you want?
Well, as always, I’m so glad you asked . . .
First, my friend is a programmer, and pretty serious about it. What he does, he does like you and I breathe. Kind of like the folks who still hand code html in a text reader, like Textpad, or Notepad.
How many times have you asked a question, especially a solution based question, and their response revolved around what they knew best?
Of course, it happens all of the time.
What this means for us, is that if we’re looking for a programming solution for our problems, ask a programmer, sales copy solution, ask a writer.
If you ask a programmer about fixing a problem with visitors hitting your order page but not following through I can guarantee you that his (or her 🙂 solution is going to be something script based.
If you like surprises, then ask the sales copy guy how to solve your Linux server issues.
If not, and you’re really looking for a way to handle the nail, ask the guy with the hammer.