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賣拖把翻轉命運

本文總計1938字

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（英文文章在中文文章之后）

也許你看過詹妮佛 · 勞倫斯主演的 2015 年電影《喬伊的奮斗》。它基于喬伊?曼加諾的真實故事，她是一位創建自己商業帝國的女人。雖然這部電影增加了一些場景的戲劇性效果，并結合了幾個角色到同一個人，但曼加諾開創造她的事業的真實故事與電影情節是幾乎一樣的。

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島長大。曼加諾1978年畢業于佩斯大學，獲得工商管理學位。畢業后，在她的職業生涯起飛成為一名企業家之前，曼加諾擔任過女服務員，正如電影中描述的那樣，她還是一名航空公司訂票服務員。

在早年的時候，曼加諾就喜歡發明東西，讓生活更便利。十幾歲時，當她在一家動物醫院工作時，為狗和貓發明了一種顏色鮮艷的項圈，使它們在夜間更容易被汽車看到。但她從未申請過這方面的專利。（一年后，Hartz生產了類似的產品在市場銷售）

曼加諾后來因發明了一把自動拖把而成名。當時，曼加諾正為照顧三個孩子而苦惱，對她來說拖地是件苦差事。曼加諾的創造天性激勵了她，想辦法來解決這個問題。她花了幾年時間開發拖把，一種能減少拖地地板令人產生沮喪感覺的產品。她稱它為「神奇拖把」，這支搭配耐用又容易擰干水分。

1990年，曼加諾制作了一個產品原型，并制作了100個神奇拖把樣本。包括開發過程，整個費用將近10萬美元。她耗盡了積蓄，還不得不向親戚借一些錢。

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

曼加諾決定，下一個步是到家庭電視購物網QVC去推銷產品。1992年，曼加諾將她的神奇拖把介紹為QVC高管。她說服他們給她一個機會，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，在展示拖把時做得很糟糕。所以銷售成績很不理想。但曼加諾相信，由她來介紹神奇拖把，可以有更好的銷售成績。

那些看過電影《喬伊的奮斗》的人，可能還記得詹妮佛?勞倫斯扮演的拖把發明者試圖說服QVC的負責人，讓她展示她的拖把的關鍵場景；她問「誰給你看拖把的？」「誰賣給你的？」「誰教你如何使用它？」她的堅持得到了回報，因為他們同意讓她介紹她的拖把，而不是一個專業的產品演示者來介紹產品。

但那是曼加諾第一次在電視上露面，她經歷了一些舞臺上怯場了。所以顧客不會打電話來買拖把的。直到，然后她最好的朋友羅尼打電話到現場來，問她如何使用這個神奇拖把。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。之后陸續有電話打進來。QVC在不到半小時的時間內售出了超過一萬八千支拖把。但這僅僅是神奇莫普和曼加諾的第一步。她最終賣出了數百萬支神奇拖把。自從第一次成功之后，她又創造了許多其他產品，如Rolykit(可以卷起來節省空間的小物品儲物箱)、可以迭起來的衣架和易于儲放零件的小盒。

曼加諾在2017年的自傳《創造歡樂》中回憶了這次經歷。「我就像其他人一樣。我是媽媽，我要工作，我有房子要打掃，有雜物要整理。我們都有類似的需求，我想辦法解決這些問題。」

隨后，曼加諾于1999年以將她的公司「天才設計」出售給了家庭購物網絡(未披露的價格)。在曼加諾出售她的公司之前，她擁有了100多項專利，其中包括HSN最暢銷的產品——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超過1.5億美元的收入。據估計，她在此期間已經賺了大約30億美元。

對大多數企業家來說，成功從來都是得之不易。對他們中的大多數人來說，成功都是在艱難的過程之后才獲得的。當然，在兩個小時的電影中，不可能真正展現曼加諾成功道路上的所碰到的困難。電影《喬伊的奮斗》只是讓我們領略了曼加諾在創立公司時碰到的一些困難。

從曼加諾的成功中，有一件事是讓我想點出的；那就是，如果你能夠把自己當作產品消費者，那么要將產品賣給他人就容易得多了。曼加諾之所以能夠說服人們購買她的產品，是因為她是她所銷售的產品的用戶，而不僅僅是一個銷售人員。因此，她能夠與客戶連結，消費者也能與她聯系。因此，他們信任她，并愿意購買她的產品。當然，她也是她的產品的發明者，這說明她銷售它。

當然，有很多產品過于復雜，沒有辦法一個人發明。然而，如果可能，您應該嘗試成為你嘗試銷售的產品的用戶。作為使用者，你最好知道如何向他人解釋你的產品。你會了解你的產品的優點和缺點。了解產品的缺點，會讓你理解的客戶，因為你也是一個使用者。自己使用自己銷售的產品，也可以讓你提出改進產品的建議。如果你能夠解決與產品使用相關的實際問題，你的產品將在市場上具有優勢。所以，不要只是嘗試銷售你的產品。也嘗試成為你的產品的用戶。但是，如果這不可行，至少盡量的了解客戶如何使用你的產品，以及他們遇到的任何困難。只有這樣，你才能自信地銷售你的產品。

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.