How you see

your business

is not how

others see it!

We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear. We feel what we want to feel.

How others experience your business and your business message has almost nothing to do with you. It’s all about selective perception.

Pretend your business

is sponsoring a special event . . . a charity fundraising reception, for example. Your biggest customer has donated a pile of merchandise for the feature event drawing. Your assistant has done all the decorations. Your major suppliers have donated hor’ devours and beverages, the local newspaper and TV news reporters are covering the reception. The Mayor is there.

Selective perception

dictates that your biggest customer heads directly to check out the donated prizes when she comes through the door (and to make sure the reporters get the charitable company’s name and address right), your assistant will be fussing with the ribbons and streamers and balloons, your major suppliers will head straight for the bar and foodservice trays (along with the media people who are only there for the freebies), and the Mayor is working the room for votes.

Most attendees are there to be seen.

Getting people to attend an event that they’ve contributed to in some way is easy. Getting them to pay attention to your message and the reason YOU wanted them to be there is not. And the people representing the charity think every one’s there to spotlight and assist their needs. But reality is that everyone who attends, attends for their own reasons, and searches out their own payoffs.

No, it’s not being cynical; it’s being honest. Most people will never admit that they go to or participate in a charity event for any reason other than to help the charity, but the truth is there’s something more in it for them. Nothing wrong with that because –in the end– the charity benefits, but don’t kid yourself into believing that others see things the same ways you do.

The charitable event is merely an example. Others fail to see your perspective in the ways you represent your products and services. Probably 100% of customers and prospects could care less about all the great product and service features you embrace. The “What’s in it for me” benefits are all that really matter.

Are you triggering their emotional

buying motives…or yours?

In fact, NO ONE sees things the same ways you do. No ones sees and hears and processes things in exactly the same ways as anyone else. The perceptual filters in every brain vary with age, health, environment, experience, and circumstances among other factors…and they can change at the drop of a hat.

Some people still walk around blaming a bad upbringing or poor potty training as reasons for certain shortcomings or personality defects. They don’t see the world (or your business) the same way you do.

Well, that may all strike you as fairly depressing news, but there’s nothing depressing about having a heightened awareness of the fact that you need to reach customers and prospects with the sets of words that appeal most to THEM, not you. That’s important stuff!

You might want to consider having a professional experienced, sales-focused  marketing writer with strong psychology training handle the creation and production of the words that represent your business. Your business messages need to feel solid to your target market. Having that happen is not a matter of luck.

Look for someone who knows how to capture and excite a broad spectrum of selective perception filters, who can help direct attention your way, and who can create messages that will trigger emotional buying motives for you.   

Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

A Time To Yield To Experts.

There’s light at the end of the half-full glass, and no end in sight at the half-empty one! And you thought you were in a tunnel? Maybe you are. Maybe the glass is sitting empty on the shelf, or maybe it’s so full, it’s spilling over the top. Maybe that tunnel is one-way.

Confused yet?

How sure are you that your branding and marketing messages are not equally confusing to your customers and prospects? If what you are saying to your target market about your business is not transparently clear, you lose. Period.

Many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe they’re great marketers because they have a great idea. They think they can write great slogans because they’ve spent years getting back pats from warm, fuzzy, encouraging friends and family.

The problem with this is that support like that unwittingly lends credibility to the incredulous, and the entrepreneurs involved take the tacit approvals as further encouragement to pursue their hair-brained schemes and lunatic ventures. It fuels their ego fires.

And, yes, some of those ideas truly are gems–diamonds in the rough–and family and friend nurturing can lead to ill-founded yet awe-inspiring optimism that ultimately anchors many successful new businesses. 

BUT, if you’re confused about how to best express your business thoughts in a captivating manner, imagine how confused those you seek to captivate might be?

The vast majority of small business marketing messages are misdirected, convoluted, not memorable and overly braggadocio.You know the ones who thump their chests . . . 

“We’re the best, the greatest, the finest and most quality-conscious, the most economical, the most customer service conscious, the oldest, the largest, the most traditional, the most modern, the most forward-thinking. We’re the good ole boys. Our family business tradition goes back to the Ice Age (Stone Age?). We’ve been on the Internet since 1999. We support our community. We back up our promises. We guarantee our work. Count on us. We do it all!”  

WHOOP-EE for you, but sooo what? Nobody cares!! 

Being a positive, optimistic, and exceptional  business leader means recognizing that the customer IS always right WITHOUT– short of physical threats or violence--EXCEPTION. Successful businesses literally REVOLVE AROUND the customer.

Successful entrepreneurs are those who fully grasp and understand the need to nurture everyone (customers AND employees AND suppliers) around them in addition to their product and service ideas.

SUCCESSFUL Entrepreneuring…

• The successful business entrepreneur functions from a position of strength, but recognizes her or his limitations and takes steps to shore up those areas with other’s strengths. 

• The successful business entrepreneur sees people (as well as his or her idea) as the business’s most important asset.

• She or he makes a conscious effort to be positive, optimistic, straightforward, appreciative, and motivational in EVERY single encounter with EVERY person EVERY day. . . exercising authenticity, giving full attention, respect, empathy, and providing solution direction guidance. 

• This means understanding that being genuine 24/7 is not necessarily an easy behavior, but that behavior is a choice. 

Delivering confusing messages to a target market can be worse than delivering no message at all. People will not easily or quickly forget marketing message mistakes. So marketing is just one more place to recruit and rely on professional skills.

An experienced outsider will almost always do a better job of clarifying direction and eliminating marketing message confusion than the business creator.

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“I’m too busy for you!”

(Translated: “I’ll never be a leader because

I don’t really care about anybody else!”)

Is “I’m too busy for you!” the verbal or nonverbal message you might be putting out to others?

I just read a promotional endorsement written by someone I know who, years ago, I used to respect. He starts out his explanation of why the particular newsletter he raves about is one of a very few that he actually makes time to read. He opens his statement by saying:

“I’m busy — painfully busy, so

I’m stingy with my time…”

Pull-eease! Who cares? The source, though, may want to know that comments like this scream of the kind of personal frustration known to have led many to depression and isolation.

It would be viewed by not a few psychology professionals as the monolithic signature of an individual who has deep fears of experiencing any forms of intimacy with others.

“Intimacy,”defined by ground-breaking Gestalt Psychology authors James and Jongeward, “is free of games and free of exploitation. It occurs in those rare moments of human contact that arouse feelings of tenderness, empathy…genuine caring…and affection.” 

Businesspeople are not immune to these kinds of connections and cannot hide behind “business” as if it were a protective shield. But many don’t know that they’re doing it. It may be going on for so long, that it feels natural to be a “workaholic.”

Some may say, why interrupt my career mission to get close enough to someone who will want me to pat their hand when they have a crisis? Dealing with other people’s crises slows me down and forces me to sidetrack.

Much has been written in the literature of Gestalt and Reality Therapy about those who play the “Harried Executive” game in life and business.

These are people who define themselves as “overwhelmed” and “overloaded” and “swamped” and “up to my ears…”

They make themselves too busy to have to spend any genuine quality time relating to others.

This is not a healthy mindset, but it is often masked by offering token attentions and participating in general socializing. It frequently requires professional counseling and coaching to move this type of behavior beyond the personal relationship barricade the person has set up for her or himself.

That you might be conveying to others that you are too busy for them, means you are close to the edge of the abyss that forecloses on many of life’s most valuable opportunities.

“I’m too busy” type statements can also be taken by many to mean:

“You’re worthless to me;

  get out of my way!” 

(Can there be any more insulting an attitude to communicate?)

Can you, or anyone who works with you, actually afford to practice being too busy, never mind flaunting it as in the above example?

Time is our most precious and cherished commodity. Of course we need air and water and food and clothing and shelter, but time is what drives those needs.

One of your grandparents no doubt once told you that “Time and tide wait for no man” (a statement that predates modern English and whose authorship is ascribed to St. Marher in 1225) and that “No man is an island” (attributed to the Englishman who was proclaimed the greatest of all metaphysical poets, John Donne, 1572-1631). 

Surely you’ve heard those statements somewhere? Maybe they are worthy of re-considering from time to time.

What kinds of nonverbal “I’m too busy” messages could you be sending out? Arms and/or legs crossed defensively in meetings? Parentally looking over the tops of your glasses at other’s suggestions that seem too time-consuming?

You keep checking your watch, the clock on the wall? You keep checking for text messages? You keep reading emails while someone is speaking with you? Do you walk ahead of others you’re speaking with, or shoulder to shoulder?

Do you pick up the phone and dial when someone approaches you? Do you put off invitations to family gatherings and neighborhood events, or show up to smile and handshake a few people and then slide out the side door when others seem preoccupied?                                                                    

You may want to listen to yourself more…and, hey, check out that great smile of yours in the mirror once in awhile!

 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“BARNEGAT GIRL”

10/15/97 – 9/1/10   R.I.P.

We are in deep sadness for having lost a dear family member and great friend and companion today.

It’s never a good time for letting go. This is especially true for the one who’s been the loyalest, sweetest, and most fun-loving guardian of our lives for 13 years. But today, Barnegat was called to a higher place. Her body simply couldn’t survive her permanent puppy mindset any longer.

She was a trooper through and through. No animal on earth could possibly have had more heart than Barnegat Girl. She protected. She inspired. She mended fences. She stood tall in troubled waters. Her smile was real and contagious.

She loved the cold weather and making “dog-angel” imprints in the snow. When we brought her home, it was in one hand; she was the size of a football. Today, as she left us, her 95 pounds of upbeat spirit will live on.

Barnegat had taken us through three moves to three different homes in two different states and she outlived two wonderful male cocker spaniels “Sam” and “Tuckerton” who each thought she was their big sister.

Barnegat loved chasing baseballs and tennis balls and swimming in the ocean –even in the winter ice and snow.

She bounded at the slightest beckoning. And would rise to any occasion regardless of the circumstances.

The proof of her disposition was proven by hundreds of tugging, pulling children over the years that she would reward with licks again and again. 

Her travels took her to the mountains and the ocean coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and the mountains of Vermont, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, plus the coast and farmlands of Delaware . . . and –of course– untold lakes, rivers, streams, lagoons, and creeks all along the way. 

Yes, she was a “privileged child,” but never failed to earn her keep, or be loving and attentive to all who entered her life.

God Bless You, Barnegat Girl, and thank you for 13 years of unsolicited love and trust and the kind of friendship that all on Earth should strive to equal.

It’s lonesome under my desk . . . but YOU, sweet girl, will never be forgotten.    

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Feuding Families,

Combative Couples,

Peeved Partners  and

Belligerent Boards

Constant arguing, bitter and mean-spirited discussions, “business infidelity,” resentment, continuous bickering and back-biting, breaking trust and undermining confidences, changing changes.

. . . I want out and it’s time to go!

Or, as the renown Scottish farmer/poet Robert Burns’ prophesied in 1786 with his “Ode To A Wee Mouse” in what may be the world’s most quoted and paraphrased bits of advice: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (often go awry, or wrong)   

                                                        

How can you continue with the financial problems? The Mission and Vision disagreements? Operational differences? Business expansion and “parenting” plans vs. consolidation?

Do your business and business relationships look increasingly fragile? Are partners distancing themselves? Does collapse seem imminent?

Divorce between married couples is now in the mainstream of American life, and unfortunately serves to set the table for acceptance at a business level. What else is a business partnership besides a marriage? And family business upheavals can be the worst of all because they frequently involve or contaminate marriage relationships that are the very underpinning of a business structure.   

And those who are caught in the middle typically suffer the most. In a couple marriage relationship, it’s the children. In a business partnership it’s the partner families, employees, employee families, investors, suppliers and vendors and last, but not least, the customers! Nor does the damage line always stop there. In many instances, a neighborhood, community, town, region, industry or profession can also be negatively affected.

Ways to patch things up:

Start with giving the other person or people involved the benefit of doubt. You got into this relationship because something was extremely positive. By re-focusing on whatever that was, you may find that existing differences can be easily reconciled. Isn’t it worth a try? Don’t you have a lot invested in each other? Wouldn’t it be easier to move the business forward if differences could be worked out than to simply part ways and have to start all over again?    

So here’s the plan:                             

• If you can get past that first step of thinking, sit down and write out on paper with a pen, a statement of agreement to seek to resolve differences. Each principal involved in the dissension climate must be willing to do this.

• Exchange copies of these statements without commenting or responding.

• Plan a follow-up Q&A clarification discussion the next day (no rebuttals permitted) to review one another’s comments.

• Plan an open discussion of the Q&A clarification discussion a week or so later.                                    

• Next, and again something all involved must be willing to do: write out one sentence on paper that identifies exactly what you identify as the most critical problem.

• Then each needs to write out clear specific improvements desired in the form of a goal statement that is specific, flexible, realistic, and has a due date. 

Or get professional counseling:

An “outside” consultant who is experienced and skilled in both business management and human relations can help each individual involved put her/his differences in writing, channel productive exchanges, and foster committed attitudes aimed toward working through the differences.

A professional can help set up a recovery path with a schedule for renewable  efforts, and a contingency exit plan that can serve to strike a balance and encourage renewed efforts to make things work. Many leadership training-based organizations can provide assistance in identifying and retaining qualified coach/counselors.

This is always a better solution-approach than slamming the door and walking out! And it just might work! 

 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Do You Hate

What You Love?

 NOTE: This blog article was originally posted two years ago in August, 2008. I have elected to repeat it here today because it touches on some sensitive leadership issues that have surfaced for a number of small business owners I’ve heard from recently.

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business media coverage

doesn’t start and stop

  with a news release! 

If your business isn’t getting the kind of news coverage you would like, maybe you’re giving too much attention to what your news release says and not enough to those who decide its newsworthiness.

Whether or not your news release prompts media coverage has first to do with how newsworthy (and UN-self-serving) it is. Second, it will only get meaningful placement attention when you (or whomever you designate) give(s) meaningful appreciation attention. This doesn’t mean fawning over or patronizing reporters and editors. It means appreciating their situations and responsibilities.

In the past 90 days, over 30,000 journalists have changed their jobs, their “beats” or their places of work.

 (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com)

So regardless of how stellar and airtight your perfectly worded and formatted presentation may be, this is an industry where writers and editors may have other things on their minds besides your news release.

                                                                             

In most cases, you will not break through the clutter with an email or printed page and a half of sensational news about your company’s products, services, activities, or ideas. It will take more than that. The word here is empathy — putting yourself in other’s shoes. Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to do that as a matter of business practice.

But consider that media people (as much as we may justifiably bash the network TV anchors and often extremist editorial board behaviors) tend to be sensitive beasts. They are caught in the middle of the need to balance legitimate value stories with the illegitimate ones that will sell more newspapers and magazines and more broadcast airtime to keep enough revenues flowing to pay their salaries.

Yes, of course there are always online avenues of news exposure. Some of these — for example, www.PRWeb.com and online granddaddy, www.PRNewsWire.com, charge exorbitant fees by comparison with www.MarketersMedia.com, but they have higher “Reach” capabilities. If you don’t need to connect the world, consider MarketersMedia.

Combined with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other less significant players, these news release outlets can be highly productive channels.

In fact, most traditional journalists now use Twitter on a regular basis. (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com) But, still, for really big news coverage, many continue to look to major media coverage as the difference between news and N E W S.

Okay, so do you think a single news release delivered to the Wall Street Journal from any lower level name awareness than Mr. Goldman or Mr. Sachs is going to get your new Whiz Bang Production Facility on the front page? On ANY page?

Public Relations requires Media Relations.

The best business coverage only happens 999,999 times out of a million because relationships are established and nurtured.

Like every other industry and profession, there are “tricks of the trade” you need to know in order to make your efforts pay off.

It cost money to learn and apply these secrets. Many PR firms charge $10,000 to $30,000 a month to play the PR game for you, but a good PR Coach (who will help you play the game yourself) shouldn’t be more than $1,500 to $3,500 a month (including writing a monthly release or two!).

# # #

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Female Business Owners

Excel Over Men

 in All But Logic

and Hardsell!

(Yes, this is an “opinion piece,”

but it’s based on 35 years of experience!)

Let’s face up to it, guys! Women are better at almost every part of owning and running a business than we are. They are generally more creative, better money managers, and more personable and charming.

These last two attributes of course give them — if you’ll pardon the expression — a leg up on us with respect to customer service and employee relations . . . not to mention investor solicitations!

Bottom line is that, unlike men (thankfully), women business owners don’t typically put their egos on the line with every decision they make. Every business deal does not have life-threatening implications and repercussions.

Female business owners and managers (as opposed to probably 99% of their male counterparts) don’t analyze issues to death.

They take things in stride. They may cry more. And perhaps they can’t lift as many heavy cartons as some men, but they are more inclined to take action than talk about it.

 Men: If you’re married more than 20 years,

you know what it’s like to work for a woman.

And some of us have actually had female employers. I’ve had a few. One was the shining star of the New York Madison Avenue advertising agency world, and she commandeered respect with every workday breath. Her self-discipline, creative spirit, and enthusiasm were contagious.

Do women make better salespeople? I think that depends on the products or services being sold. Women, it seems to me, have a tendency to not go for the jugular in making whatever might constitute a hard-nosed sales approach. Is that a plus? I guess it depends on how hard your nose is. Q. Are women sometimes illogical? A. Does a bear…? 

Okay, so yes, they might have a couple of faults . . . uh, compared maybe with a few dozen faults chalked up on the macho side of the scale? Right. I do in fact know about the Men are from Mars stuff, but I’ve learned that while women may cross up other women on occasion, they tend to be much more authentic human beings than men most of the time.

If the way one man treats another is consistently honest and straightforward, there’s a good chance at some point the the good guy will get screwed in some business deal.

If that same Boy Scout-type dude treats a woman in business with honesty and straightforwardness, he’s likely to be treated with consistent respect in return.

I might add here that most men in business impress me as not knowing how to express empathy (or care much about it) because they are consumed with acting strong and tough and making sales and making operations work. “Your 15 year-old dog died this morning? Sorry about that. Would you please be sure to get that report on my desk by noon?”

Women, on the other hand, I believe, unhesitatingly put themselves in other’s shoes, and aren’t afraid to interrupt plans and schedules to offer counsel as needed. (I’m not talking about holding hands and spending the day with a troubled employee, watching TV and eating bonbons).  I’m talking here about taking some time out to help make a difference for someone.

Does empathy make women better businesspeople? Probably, because it undoubtedly makes them better leaders. And:

 Business success is all about successful leadership,

regardless of how you’re packaged!

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Businesses balanced on

the brink of  bankruptcy

have only truth to sell! 

Regardless of how you explain it or how you think you got there, businesses that teeter-totter, balanced on the brink of bankruptcy got there through poor management.

Not enough capital, not enough sales, the wrong personnel, the underestimated expenses, the increased cost of raw materials, the lack of bank loan support, weak operational planning, bad press . . . it’s ALL poor management!

But no need to bury your head about that. 

• First: You have company. 9 out of 11 new businesses reportedly fail within the first five years, and a best guess is that probably half that many fail after the first five years.
• Second: Every (Right, “Every”) highly successful venture of the many thousands I am keenly aware of has its success roots traced back to major failure. Forest fires create new and stronger trees.

Not unlike cutting and running on the battlefield or in the sports arena, the choice to fold up the tent is of course always available and, for some, it can gallop into position rather abruptly and become a choice that is no longer a choice.

For many, however, the moment of truth can breed heroics! It has a lot to do with courage, gumption, spunk, resilience, stick-to-it-iveness, passion, and drive.

It also has more to do with common sense and authenticity than most who face the threatening storm typically would care to admit. But facing the consequences with your business on the line — especially where the increasingly common issue of bad press is involved –requires more of one ingredient applied thoroughly and consistently than any other: truth.

Recent bad examples abound on the big business side of the coin with brokerages, mortgage companies, automakers, and scores of big-name corporate product recalls, with the over-exaggerated media hyperbole in oil leak containment effort reports.

Many see the same kinds of mismanaged and basically DIShonest accountings of activities surrounding sinking hospitals, banks, the post office and, sadly, many small business ventures.

There lies deep within these complex business failings a desire to save face at all costs, to cover one’s butt — a desire that is actually stronger than the desire to succeed. 

A sizeable hospital has disavowed it’s attachment to an affiliated and approved and endorsed physician who is alleged to have literally destroyed a community that the hospital has thrived in and nurtured its whole life.

Instead of going to the great lengths and expense and repeated hand-wringing it did to deny a relationship with the person in question (a tragically mentally sick doctor is the only way to describe what the evidence appears to point to), the hospital needed only to:  

• Step up

• Own up

• Tell all

• Admit past screw-ups and negligence

• Ask forgiveness, and

• Act immediately to bring the public to the truth of it.

Resistance to speak the truth in trying circumstances because the consequences are imagined to be humiliating, inevitably ends up making the dynamics and repercussions of the act itself far worse than when it started out.

Toyota’s response to failure was to smother it with marketing dollars. But peoples’ memories can’t be bought off! The hospital referenced will likely fold or be bought out for a monumental financial loss – all because the administration lacks backbone!

When the going gets tough, speak the truth. Sweeping the mess under the carpet only makes cleaning harder.       

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and Our Troops.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

When did you last deliver

more than you promised?

…and threw in a “Thank You For The Opportunity!”?

This is indeed customer service coming in the back door and, hopefully, your answers to the questions above are: “Yes.” “Today!” and “Yes.” 

Like the family that prays and plays together stays together, the business with a consistent gratitude attitude wins a multitude of latitude from customers, prospects and the industries, professions and communities it serves.

“yeah, yeah, yeah!” you already know all that, and “so what?” you reply. Here’s what: succeeding in business today reduces itself to the simplest –and probably oldest– positive practice on Earth: GRATITUDE.

If you think otherwise, you are not a realist. If you and your people are so tangled up in CRM hardware, software, and underwear that you are missing the daily, hourly, opportunities to build and boost genuine customer service bases of operation, you are taking two steps backward to go one step forward. That isn’t going to cut the mustard in this economy.

Thanking people is not a complicated practice. Oh, and it’s free!

“Yeah, well my staff and I always say thank you to customers and it doesn’t do squat!” 

Hey, that’s a good start, but if you’re not seeing increased loyalty, repeat sales, and steady increases in revenues, you might want to take a closer look at HOW you and your people are saying thank you.

I walked into a failing grocery store this week and had checkers, baggers, shelf stockers, front door greeters and department managers falling all over themselves trying to make my celery purchase be the most memorable experience of my life. They did everything but drool with trying to make sure my celery was spectacular and that I truly had everything I wanted and needed from their store.

Yucht! Finger down my throat. A quick trip for the missing chicken salad ingredient and you’d have thought I was Justin Bieber’s father, or the inventor of Silly Bands. Here’s the deal. The overkill was obnoxious. It was insincere, and I didn’t appreciate being the target of some mismanaged customer service training program.

A pleasant smile and genuine thank you at the cash register would have been more than sufficient. Instead, I was ogled, called “Darlin'” got a 20-cent discount at checkout for having not bothered to bring my little marketing research discount tag, “awarded” a scratch-off ticket to win $1, and had someone actually offer to carry my celery to the car! 

Okay, they got me laughing, but I’m not going back there. 

Next, give a little thought to the idea that since anybody can be connected to anybody these days, it is essential that small businesses act neighborly but think globally.

Anyone is capable of giving or sending you business. That certainly includes your inner circles of family and friends, but it also extends outward to employees, suppliers and vendors, geographic and industry neighbors, service professionals you engage, and all the communities you serve.

In other words, do you say thank you every day to customers, but not employees? Do you thank sales reps for visiting you? Do you thank delivery people and public service people who visit or make regular or special calls on you? Do you thank people for complaining? (“Thank you for calling this issue to our attention. What can we do to make it right for you?” goes a very long way!)

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

God Bless America and God Bless America’s Troops.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!