The Story of The Professional Beggar

I came out of Maoye with my newly purchased Levi's and stood at the door waiting for a friend. A professional beggar spotted me and stopped right in front of me in a very professional way.

This stop led to a story that shocked me deeply. It was like a vivid case lesson in market research. To be true to the beggar's original intention, I repeated his original words as best I could from memory.

"Miss... Do me a favor and give me some." In a moment of boredom, I found a coin in my pocket, threw it to him, and began to talk to him.

Beggars are talkative. "... I only beg around Huaqiang North, you know? I saw you as soon as I looked. If you buy Levi's in May, you must be willing to spend money..."

"Oh? You know a lot!" I was surprised.

"To be a beggar, we should also use scientific methods." He said.

I was stunned and asked with great interest "What scientific method?"

"Do you see any difference between me and other beggars?" I looked at him carefully. His hair was untidy, his clothes were torn, and his hands were thin, but none of them were dirty.

He interrupted me and said, "People are disgusted with beggars, but I believe you are not disgusted with me, I can see that. That's what makes me different from other beggars."

I nodded acquiesce, really do not dislike, otherwise I how to talk with a beggar.

"I understand SWOT analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. My advantage over my competitors is that I am not offensive. Opportunities and threats are external factors, nothing more than the large population of Shenzhen and Shenzhen will be improved, etc."

"I have done precise calculations. There are tens of thousands of people here every day, many poor, many rich. In theory, if I begged everyone for $1 a day, I would earn $300,000 a month. However, not everyone will give, and also every day can not beg so many people. So I have to analyze who are the target customers and who are the potential customers."

He moistened his voice and continued, "In the Huaqiang North area, my target customers are 30 percent of the total traffic, and the success rate is 70 percent. Potential customers account for 20%, the success rate is 50%; With 50 percent left, I chose to give up because I didn't have enough time to try my luck with them."

"How do you define your customer?" I asked.

"First, target customers. A young gentleman like you, with a financial foundation, and a generous hand. Then there are the couples who are also my target customers, and they will be generous in order not to lose face in front of the opposite sex. Second, I see pretty girls on their own as potential clients because they are afraid of being pestered, so most of them will pay to get out of trouble. In both groups, the age was controlled in the 20s and 30s. They are too young to have any economic foundation; If you are too old, you may be married, and your wife holds the purse strings. Such people, who have no chance, want to come back to me for money."

"How much money can you ask for every day?" 'I continued.

"Monday to Friday, business almost, 200 yuan or so. On weekends, I can even get four or five hundred."

"That much?"

Seeing that I was doubtful, he calculated me. "Like you, I work eight hours a day, 11 am to 7 pm, and on weekends. My begging time is about 5 seconds per time. After deducting the time spent walking back and forth and searching for the target, I get 1 yuan per begging in about 1 minute, which is 480 yuan in 8 hours. Multiply that by 60%[(70%+50%)÷2] to get close to 300 yuan."

"Don't chase customers all over the street. If I can't beg, I won't be badgered. Because if he would have given money, he would have given it, so even if bashful, the chance of success is still very small. You can't waste your limited time with clients who don't want to give. You can move on to the next target."

Strong! The beggar sounded rather like a senior marketing director.

"You go on." I'm more interested. Looks like I'll learn something new today.

"Some people say being a beggar depends on luck, but I don't agree. Give you an example, at the gate of women's world, a handsome boy, a beautiful girl, which one do you choose to beg?"

I thought about it and said I didn't know.

"You should go to the men. He was too embarrassed not to give it to a beautiful woman. But when you go to the woman's side, she can pretend to be afraid of you and stay away."

"Let me give you another example. At the door of the Cocopark, a young girl, carrying a shopping bag, had just finished shopping; A young man and a young woman eating ice cream; The third was a well-dressed young man with a laptop bag. I look at a person for as long as 3 seconds, I did not hesitate to go up to the girl begging. The girl took out two coins in the bag and threw them at me, wondering why I only asked her to beg. I replied that the couple, who were eating, could not afford to pay; That man is a senior white-collar, the body may not have changed; You've just bought something from the supermarket. You must have some change on you."

Good point! The more I hear, the more interesting it gets.

"So I say, knowledge is everything!" I've heard this from a dozen CEOs and the first time I've heard it from a beggar.

"Beg scientifically. How can you beg for money lying on an overpass? Walk bridge is in a hurry of passers-by, who have nothing to do walk bridge to play, climb up and down more tired. To arm themselves with knowledge, learning knowledge can make a person very smart, smart people who continue to learn knowledge can become talented. What does the 21st century need most? It's the talent."

"Once, a man gave me 50 yuan and asked me to shout 'Anhong, I miss you for him downstairs 100 times. When I calculated that it would take me five seconds to do so, which was as long as it took me to beg, and for fifty cents, I refused him."

"In Shenzhen, a typical beggar can get $1,000 a month. Maybe a little over 2,000 on a good day. Of the 100,000 beggars in Shenzhen, there are only about 10 beggars, who can get more than 10,000 per month. I'm one of that one in a million. And it's very stable, there are no big fluctuations."

Too strong! I admire the beggar all the more.

"I often say I am a happy beggar. Other beggars say that because I beg for more money, so happy. And I said to them, you're just wrong. It is because I have a happy, positive attitude that I ask for more money."

How well said!

"Begging is my job, and to appreciate the joy of it. On rainy days when the crowds are scarce, other beggars complain or sleep. Don't do that. Feel the beauty of the city. After work in the evening, I take my wife and children to go shopping, play, and watch the night scene, a family of three is happy and harmonious, and not waste my life. When I met my fellow travelers, I would toss a coin and watch them happily thank me and walk away, just as if I saw myself."

"You have a wife and children?" I can't help but shout in admiration, drawing passers-by to look askance.

"My wife is a stay-at-home wife and my kids are in elementary school. I have a house mortgage in Futian District, ten years installments, and still, need six years to pay off. I'm going to work hard to earn enough money to send my son to college to study marketing, and then follow in my father's footsteps as a better beggar than I am."

"Five years ago, I worked as a marketing planner in China. Two years ago, I was promoted to marketing manager with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. At that time mortgage a 10 thousand more IBM notebook, every month repayment 2 thousand, die to live. Then I thought it would never work out, so I quit and went into the sea to be a beggar. I would like to be a high-quality beggar."

After listening to this, I said excitedly, "Are you interested in accepting me as an apprentice?"

Reflections on the Story:

After reading the beggar's story and the beggar's marketing strategy, I deeply feel that talent is not necessarily in the office, in the talent market website, if it is a talent, then no matter what environment, what position, can through their efforts to become an expert! So brothers and sisters now stop complaining about the bad environment, bad job, and low income! Think about the adjustment.