I recently discovered Jobs To Be Done from a colleague and she subsequently sent me about 100 videos, blog posts, books, and tutorials about it. You know those people? Well I’m also those people so I understand haha.

One of the stories she shared with me was about McDonald’s milkshakes — and as a Chicago native, I’m familiar with McDonald’s (HQ was in Oakbrook, IL). And through research and analytics, they discovered that the majority of the milkshakes being sold were between 6 and 10am. How weird. So then they went through the process of talking to people during this time window to discover why they were buying a milkshake at that time.

They asked questions like, “What made you decide to purchase that milkshake this morning? What problem were you trying to solve?” And “The last time you were making this decision or solving this problem, what did you purchase? How did that work out?”

And they got responses like “Well last time I purchased a banana. But i finished it before I got out my driveway and I was starving by the time I got to the office.” Or “One time I hired a bagel and cream cheese, but it was so messy while I was driving.”

Initially McDonald’s focused on its obvious competitors — Burger King, Dairy Queen, Blizzards, Ice cream, sherbet. But the reality was the milkshake competition looked more like a banana and a bagel than extra toppings or a sundae. Can you imagine how much that would dramatically change the marketing allocation?

Do you know why people hire you? Do you know what people do instead of hiring you?

If you’re in the fitness industry, clients may hire you for accountability or confidence. And so when they don’t hire you, who do they purchase from? A running group they go to once, a gym membership, a salad for lunch, a goal dress, a dress that looks amazing on them, a phone call with a friend to hype them up, a life coach, a therapist, a doctor’s appointment.

But do you know what YOUR clients have done? Do you know what’s worked to pull customers out of what they were doing before and into your sphere? If not, the Jobs to Be Done process could be the answer for you.

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