Casting and Reeling

The earliest known fishing reels date back to the Song Dynasty in China (circa 1200 AD). Unlike the modern reels used today, the early origins of the fishing reel was a rudimentary reel made from bamboo and used for handline fishing. It consisted of a spool and a handle made of wood for retrieving the line after it was thrown into the water.

England gets credit for the modernization of the rod and reel as we know it today. People started “angling” as a recreational activity as early as the 15^th Century AD, with the first fishing reels appearing in the mid-17th Century. The next improvement was the move from horse hair fishing line to silk, which allowed much greater casting distance.

But as it always does, innovation creates a whole new set of challenges. With the ability to cast father, fishermen needed more line on the reel. This led to constant tangling of the fishing line, frustrating anglers in the process. Improvements were needed so the line would evenly spool out without tangling.

While Charles Ovis (from the U.S.) invented the first fully modern fly wheel in 1874, Albert Holden Illingworth, an English textile magnate, is credited with patenting the first modern form of the fixed-spool spinning reel in 1905. His innovative design incorporated a line pickup that rewound the line when it was cast.

This was a revolution in the fishing industry, as it allowed for much lighter lures to be cast because the fishing line didn’t pull against a rotating spool.

The first commercial spincast reels were introduced in 1949 by Denison-Johnson Reel Company and the Zero Hour Bomb Company, commonly known as ZEBCO. The spincast reel was designed to avoid the backlash issues of traditional bait cast reels as well as the line twist and snares of traditional spinning wheels.

My first introduction to the world of fishing was with a ZEBCO rod and reel. My parent’s next-door neighbors owned farmland in McAlister OK, and I was invited to visit the farm on numerous occasions by my “adoptive” aunt and uncle. It was there, in a stock pond, I learned how to bait a hook, cast a line, and watch for the bobber’s tale-tell sign that a fish was ready to be hooked and reeled to the bank.

While I wasn’t an avid fisherman, I did (over time) acquire a few rods and reels, a tacklebox full of lures, weights, hooks, and bobbers, and a stringer to keep what I caught from escaping. It became a ritual part of camping and exploring in rural Arkansas.

This was a tradition I passed down to several of my kids when they were young. My wife and I had purchased a 15-acre tract of land in the country with a 1-acre pond full of brim and perch. A few times a month, I’d drive the kids out to our property with a container of crickets and teach them how to fish.

Kids being kids, it almost always turned into a competition to see who would catch the most fish on any given day. The evening was often the best time to go fishing, as the fish would often go for the bait as soon as it hit the water. I believe the standing record, before we sold the property and moved to Hot Springs, was 15 fish in about a 90-minute time frame.

The process of casting with a spincast reel is pretty simple. You press and hold down the button at the back of the reel, bringing the rod up and over the back of your head or shoulder, then releasing the button as you quickly snap the rod out and down toward the water. If you saw that your bait was traveling farther than intended, you could press the button on the reel again with your thumb, stopping the line from spooling from the reel.

You would turn the handle until it clicked, locking the spooler back in place, so as you cranked the handle, the fishing line would smoothly be spooled back into the reel so you could repeat the process again and again.

The goal is to cast the bait where you believe the fish are congregating, in hopes a fish will take notice of the bait. Fish are wary animals, so they will often poke, prod, and pull at the bait before they take it into their mouth.

But when they do, the fight is on.

For a small animal, fish can put up quite a battle as they struggle to free themselves from the hook. These small put powerful animals thrash, twist, and sometimes jump out of the water in an effort to expel the hook from their mouths. Often, they are successful.

But if you’re patient, and don’t rush the process, it can be quite an adventure.

Casting and reeling.

You guessed it, there’s a valuable lesson here, especially for those of you who either own a business, or you work in a business.

In fishing, the goal is simple. It’s the use of a lure to attract a fish, to hook the fish (and keep it hooked) while it’s attempting to escape, and ultimately get the fish to the shoreline or the boat.

But there are a few things you’ve got to know to be successful as a fisherman.

1. What is the best bait to attract a specific type of fish you’d like to catch?

2. Where are the best places to find the type of fish you want to catch congregating?

3. When is the best time of the day to attract the type of fish you’d like to catch?

4. Are there things we need to do (or not do) to improve our odds of catching a fish?

Now let’s apply this to your business.

The lifeblood of any organization is its customers. Without customers to buy your products or services, your business won’t be in business for very long. The customers you serve are the ones who write your paycheck, so if you want to be successful in business, you need to find a way to attract more paying customers to your doors.

What’s the bait you’ll use to attract them to find you?

I recently spoke at a conference full of financial professionals on the topic of “Attractional Selling” and I asked a simple question of the group. “When you got your insurance license, did throngs of people come running to seek you out? Did the masses come clamoring to get in the door and do business with you?”

Of course, the answer was NO.

For the next 45 minutes, I talked about the process of attracting prospective buyers into their business model and the psychology behind it. What these men and women quickly came to realize is that their clients didn’t come to them to purchase life insurance, an annuity, a long-term care policy, home or auto insurance, or some other form of coverage.

They came for the benefits of what that insurance policy provided for them and those they loved. Replacement income for their family if they died early. A guaranteed paycheck in retirement, no matter how long they lived. Money to remodel their home so they could continue to live there if they experienced a chronic health care event. Money to repair or replace a home or automobile in the event of an accident.

The bait, the lure that attracts them, is not your product or service. It’s what your product or service does to them or for them that causes them to pay attention to you.

Your messaging is what either attracts or repels prospective customers to your business.

It’s not about your product or service, it’s about how IT, whatever your IT is, benefits your customer.

Once they start paying attention to your message (your bait), now you’ve got to show them how your product or service specifically solves their problem or helps them achieve a goal, dream, or objective. This is a process of asking questions to learn what is important to them, and then explaining how your product or service uniquely satisfies that want or need.

In sales, this is known as the hook.

Here’s the example I shared with the financial advisors at the conference.

A prospective client approaches you and says she’s worried that she hasn’t saved enough money to comfortably retire. You ask her how much money she believes she’s going to need in retirement, and she says she needs at least $3,000 a month to retire comfortably. You find out she’s going to be receiving $1,800 a month from Social Security, so she needs an additional $1,200 a month to meet her income goal.

She shares with you how much she has saved in her 401k. After doing some homework, you discover she can purchase an annuity that will generate $1,600 a month, guaranteed for the rest of her life. You’ve solved her money problem.

When you meet with the prospective client you tell her that she has not only saved enough to retire, but she can retire with $400 a month more than she currently needs, and she’ll be receiving that guaranteed paycheck in retirement for the rest of her life. Then you ask one simple question: “Is that what you want?”

The minute she says YES to this offer, she’s bought the benefits of the annuity you can then explain to her. The annuity became the tool to solve the problem that was keeping her awake at night, and she’s now more receptive to the mechanics of how this product will produce the financial outcome she desires.

This is casting and reeling.

It doesn’t matter the product or service that you offer to the public. The same principles I shared with this group of financial professionals also apply to your line of business.

If you’re a beautician or barber, people don’t come to you so you can cut their hair. They come to you so you can make them look younger, more handsome, more attractive, or more stylish. If you’re selling cosmetics, the same thing applies.

If you’re a plumber or electrician, customers don’t call you so you can repair a toilet or fix a broken light switch in the dining room. They are attracted to you so they can flush their toilet again or not have to sit in the dark to eat dinner.

If you’re a CPA or Tax Preparer, customers don’t come to you to get their taxes done. They come to you so you can help them get as much money back from Uncle Sam as possible. You are there to help them keep more of what they have earned and saved.

Regardless of your business, it’s about casting a message that attracts people to your place of business so you can reel them in by identifying and meeting their wants and needs.

It’s about creating a compelling message that attracts more of the specific clients and customers you want to attract to your business, telling them what you do and how it uniquely and specifically benefits them.

It’s then about reeling them in by identifying what they specifically want or need and then showing them how your product or service actually helps them accomplish that.

Once they see that the solution you bring to the table satisfies their want or need, you can then introduce them to the product or service you offer that makes this possible.

This process, Attractional Selling, can attract more of the type of people you want to serve to our business – setting you up for even more success.

There are more “Casting and Reeling” lessons to glean from this story, but that’s for another day.

Here’s my question as we wrap up today’s teaching:

Are you attracting and catching all the fish you want, or do you need to change the way you are casting and reeling?

Want to learn more about Attractonal Selling? Visit the COURSES section of my website and check out “Master the Art of Sales and Selling” where I cover this topic in more detail.