concert ticket
On July 24th, my wife and I attended a Lionel Richie concert. Lionel Richie is my all time favorite performer, singer, and songwriter. There is something about his music that truly touches my spirit. One of my life long ambitions was to see him in concert. I guess you could say that it was on my bucket list. One month prior to the concert, I was driving to the airport and noticed a billboard promoting the concert. Since I did not have time to call and buy the tickets myself, I immediately called my brother and asked him to purchase the two best seats he could buy.
For the next few weeks, I was filled with excitement and anticipation for the concert. I would play Lionel Richie songs all day, whether I was in my car or at my house. Songs like, “Sail on, Stuck on you, Three times a Lady, Hello ect”, would play in my head constantly. I could not wait for the night of the concert. However, underlying all of my excitement was one concern. Often times, artists, use concerts as a way to promote their new albums. Would Lionel do the same? Sure his new music is good, but I fell in love with his old music. That is what I wanted to hear; and that is what I paid top dollar to experience.
Concert night! The crowd was abuzz with excitement. Drinks were flowing, people were socializing, and the mood was set. The announcer spoke up and went thru Lionel’s musical achievements which read like a curriculum vitae of a Nobel Prize winner. Then he said the words that everyone wanted to hear, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lionel Richie.” The cheers were deafening. So much so that it was hard to hear the song he was singing. It sounded good but a bit unfamiliar. As the noise from the crowd subsided, the song he was singing was loud and clear. Unfortunately, it was not, “Sail On, or Hello or any of the songs I came to hear. It was one of his newer songs. Uh Oh, I thought to myself, my biggest fear is being realized, he is going to sing all of his new songs and promote his latest album. I did not pay to hear this! I sunk in my chair and mentally prepared myself to accept what was happening. I tried to psych myself out by saying that even though he is not going to sing my favorite songs; at least I can say that I saw Lionel Richie in concert. But who was I kidding, I was truly disappointed.
After he sang his first song, he walked to the edge of the stage, shook hands with people that were lucky enough to get front row seats and said the following, “I can tell that this crowd did not come to hear me sing my new music. You guys want to hear my old school music…when I was with the Commodores. You want to hear my greatest hits don’t you? I probably yelled “YES” louder than anyone in the building. “Alright,” he said, “tonight we are going to sing every single one of my greatest hits.”
The concert was absolutely amazing! He sounded just as good as he does on CDs. He was personable and even signed autographs during the show. Because I literally sang every song, it took my voice two days to recover from being so hoarse. I could not have asked for a better evening.
As salespeople, we are constantly taught the importance of uncovering needs. But often times we either tell our customers what we think they want to hear, which is truly what we think is important or we ignore them when we find out what their needs are. Could Lionel Richie have given a good performance singing his newest music? Yes. Would I have enjoyed the concert? Somewhat. But, by understanding what the people truly wanted and then giving them what they wanted, he has thousands of people saying that that was one of the best nights of their lives as opposed to it was just ok or how disappointing the performance was. The moral of the story is that if you uncover the needs of your customers and then fulfill those needs, you will have people saying how impactful you are vs. just being ok or missing the mark completely.