Michael and Phil Farrell knew how to sell steak. They didn’t do it by having an abundance of tasty cuts in their shop window to tempt strangers or passers by who might fancy a t-bone for dinner that evening. No, they did it by knowing the name of every single customer who walked through their door.

The brothers sold thousands of kilos of steak at premium prices even when times were hard, because a housewife was prepared to juggle the budget to afford them. A trade that was worth it for the amount of joy she experienced when they remembered her name and some tiny detail in her life. She was prepared to ignore the supermarket specials in lieu of the feeling she got when Michael went in the back and brought out a cut of meat he was saving just for her.

The steak was good but that’s not what the customers were there for. They were there for the whole story, not just a good product.

People don’t buy what you do. They buy how it makes them feel.

Image by yooperann.