Nathan for You: Slingshot principles cloaked in humor

There is nothing quite like humor to illustrate points you want to make.  In his show on Comedy Central, comedian Nathan Fielder seeks out entrepreneurs and gives them absurd sounding ideas to galvanize their businesses. It just happens that many of his schemes perfectly capture the 3 key principles of The Slingshot Framework. Here is one humorous example.

In this particular episode, Nathan sets out to help a pest exterminator attempting to win new contracts from hotels.  His outrageous plan encapsulates the 3 key Slingshot principles in the following way:

1) Turn Customer ‘Pain Point into ‘Point of Infatuation’. The biggest turn-off for hotels is that they don’t want the stigma of exterminators being seen coming to their properties. So Nathan makes the visit appear as the delivery of an award for excellence instead.

2) Stretch the value proposition you offer. Instead of just concentrating on the effectiveness of the pest extermination itself, Nathan’s plan also helps to make the overall interaction with hotel staff & guests pleasant and entertaining.

3) Embrace the ‘Innovation Shortcut’. Nathan combines two previously separate, seemingly unrelated services into a new offering of heightened value: Overt delivery of an excellence award combined seamlessly with covert pest control.

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