Taste the soup

I’m thinking about a scene from Coming to America. You know the one. It’s the bit where Eddie Murphy as Saul (the Jewish barbershop customer) tells a joke about a diner and a waiter.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Saul says to a reluctant audience.

Then, the joke begins.

A man goes into a restaurant, and he sits down. He's having a bowl of soup, and he says to the waiter, ‘Waiter, come taste the soup.’ Waiter says, ‘Is something wrong with the soup?’

He says: Taste the soup.

He says: Is there something wrong with the soup? Is the soup too hot?

He says: Will you taste the soup?

What's wrong? Is the soup too cold?

Will you just taste the soup?!?!

Alright, I'll taste the soup! Where's the spoon?

Aha! Aha!

Where’s the spoon?

How funny is that? When I first saw Coming to America a kid, I didn’t really get the joke. As an adult and a marketer, however, I so get this joke.

You have to taste the soup.

Always.

That soup could have been the best soup ever prepared. But the customer wouldn’t know it, because there’s no spoon. When you develop a promotional offer, don’t focus exclusively on the product. Pay equal attention to the delivery system.

Take your offer for a test drive.

Use it.

Get intimately familiar with it.

Taste the soup.

If you put together a white paper or eBook for prospects, take time to read it. Put your customer hat on and visualize yourself in the mindset of the reader.

Taste the soup.

If there's a discount offer on your website, call your customer service team and try to use it. Try placing an order as if you were a customer.

Taste the soup.

My mother used to say, you can't give what you don't have. It's likely that your mother also said the same thing. Correspondingly, it's difficult to sell something you don't fully believe in, or understand.

Taste the soup.

You never know when you might find a missing spoon.