Mole End

Leo McGineva never existed: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

Theodore Levitt at least tried to give a proper attribution; too many people now attribute the remark in question to Levitt himself. What remark you ask, and whence did it come? Excellent questions that have preoccupied the Mole for many hours over many years.

The earliest version of the remark that the Mole has found is the one in the second paragraph below from Percy H. Whiting's 1947 book, "The 5 Great Rules of Selling" (pp. 39-40):

Therefore you don't sell insurance, you sell protection; you don't sell securities, you sell a means for retiring at sixty; you don't sell advertising space, you sell customers delivered at the store; you don't sell a rug, you sell a floor beautifully covered.

Leo McGivena wrote: "Last year over one million quarter-inch drills were sold -- not because people wanted quarter-inch drills but because they wanted quarter-inch holes. When you buy an automobile you buy transportation. When you buy a mattress you are buying comfortable sleep. When you buy carbon paper you are buying copies."

Note, sadly, that Whiting did not provide proper attribution despite getting McGivena's name right. He's not alone: Dr. George H. Hopson of the DeLaval Separator Company of Poughkeepsie, NY, contributed some thoughts on salesmanship to the 1958 Annual Report of the New York State Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians -- the Mole kids you not, having procured a scan of the relevant pages through the kind efforts of Ms. Amy Rhodes -- that appear to have been taken without attribution from a later edition of Whiting's book.

Why, you may ask, is the Mole fussing so? Because McGivena's reasoning about drill bits captures an essential truth that product managers should heed. It is at the root of the modern formulation known as Jobs To Be Done, and is frequently repeated. McGivena deserves credit!

The mystery of where this insight was first published remains. The Mole will continue to dig.