No, believe it or not,

the doctor is not God!

Having served many years counseling and consulting with doctors, and writing books for and about doctors, I was able to collect a wealth of insight about their personal lives and professional careers.

     Whether you’re a lawyer, insurance or investment broker, hospital executive, real estate agent, luxury car or boat representative, accountant, website development guru, upscale clothing marketer, hi-tech product marketer, quality restauranteur, travel agent, executive resort manager, pharmaceutical or medical product detail rep, If you market or sell to doctors, you can do a better job of it when you understand some of what I’m about to share with you. 

     Now I’m not talking about whatever you might think you know about doctors by watching ER or House or Gray’s Anatomy or old re-run episodes of Chicago Hope or Dr. Kildare for that matter. Those shows may look and feel authentic and realistic, but they’re not. They’re no more realistic than if you took your job and compressed all the highlights of the year into one maniacally-paced day!

     There’s nothing wrong with jam-packed storylines on TV as long as you don’t start believing that the other half actually lives as they’re portrayed. I mean I was a huge fan of “24” and Jack Bauer was the best, but in case you hadn’t noticed, he never slept or used the bathroom.

     No, I’m talking about down and dirty here. I’ve amassed tons of in-the-trenches input that I alone have had the unique opportunity to observe, listen, question and assimilate. Here’s some of what I learned:  

•      Most of the twelve hundred or so doctors I’ve known well and have worked closely with would rather be, or rather have been something other than a doctor. With stress driving average physician life expectancy closer to 60 than to 80, many doctors struggle with keeping their personal lives in check and their family lives in balance.
•      As definite and commited as most of us tend to think a physician’s career path might be, the truth is that many are not happy with shouldering the stressful burdens of professional medical practice. 
•      This conclusion is not to imply any lack of dedication. It is simply an indication that even those physicians who lack exceptional skills or bedside manners do not deserve to be begrudged for the money they make (and they’re making a whole lot less these days, besides).
•      So, what does this all have to do with selling to doctors? STOP thinking about selling your products and services to doctors. START thinking about how you can help doctors to save time. Time, to a physician, is money because she or he has no warehouse full of products.
•      His or her time is all there is that can be packaged with the skill, experience and training. And, right, a doctor can only sell one package at a time!
•      Having more time gives doctors more freedom to see more patients who need attention. Having more time lays the groundwork for doctors to strike a better balance with their families and gain increased control of their personal lives.
•      In the process, they become happier. Happier doctors practice better more effective healthcare. Your doctor sales assignment: Figure out how to save your doctor prospects and customers more time!  

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Bite-The-Apple Time!

     An Amazon 5-star selection book that I wrote (DOCTOR BUSINESS…How To Boost Your Practice And Build Long-Term Relationships, for physicians) presents an example of a dentist who was running an expensive series of totally ineffective newspaper sports section ads headlined: “Yes, now we have mucosal blade inserts!” (Well, at least he used the magic number of seven words you always hear me harp on!)

     When I asked him about the message, he explained that the mucosal blade inserts were mushroom-shaped devices that he surgically implanted in the jaw to anchor dentures more securely than with the use of adhesives. He said patients would have much stronger use of their teeth.

     I redirected his ad into a major senior citizen news publication (at a much lower rate than he had been paying), and revised his ad to say, “Now you can bite an apple again!” My seven words outperformed his seven words by an astronomical amount. In fact, his phones wouldn’t stop ringing. Denture-wearers were lining up to be evaluated for the procedure.

     So, yes, choosing the right audience and the right vehicle to reach that audience is half the battle, so to speak, and simplifying the message to sell the benefit is the other half.

     What are your sales messages saying right now? Are they focused on product features or customer benefits? Are they running in inappropriate print environments or inappropriate broadcast environments? Are you making the best possible use of the Internet? Website(s)? Links? Blog(s)? Emails? Webinars? Podcasts? Social networks? Business networks?

     Did you know that most of these suggested Internet vehicles can be free, and can actually have more impact than pricey traditional advertising approaches? If you’re not at least actively exploring these options, you either have very deep pockets, an influential relative in traditional media sales, no budget, or (hopefully not) you’re invested in growing yourself a reputation for reckless spending!

     If you are exploring all this, but having trouble with the confusion crunch, or with sorting out the high-priced smoke and mirror SEO specialists from the outdated email database suppliers, who are looking to rent you their email lists that include prisoners, newly-born infants and 27,000 dead people… or you’re simply not sure that your message is the best it can be… send me an email Hal@TheWriterWorks.com with “Confusion Crunch” in the subject line. I’ll respond promptly.   

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED!

     Imagine coming here for a business meeting from a small town in another country. You’re just starting to learn English. Your host picks you up at Newark Airport and–intent on getting you to her office in “The Big Apple”–heads for the New Jersey Turnpike and the Lincoln Tunnel into midtown Manhattan. Great Guggamuggah! Talk about culture shock!

     You’ve struggled with deciphering the difference between driving on the parkway and parking in the driveway. You read signs: “CASH” and “NO CASH.” You get cash at this little booth? No, it must mean you give cash. Then why go to “CASH” and pay if you can go to “NO CASH” and act broke and get by for free?

     “EXIT” or “NO EXIT” or “EXIT ONLY” present intriguing options. Then, just to screw up your brain, is “LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL” (so why not take it to avoid having to choose between “CASH” and “NO CASH”?). Aah, then there’s the whole question about whether “U TURN” or “NO U TURN” that’s just past the “CASH” “NO CASH.” 

     I mean, why would U turn and have to pay again and why would U not be allowed to turn (especially if U needed to re-turn to the little booth to use the bathroom or something)? And wouldn’t your curiosity be aroused in 90-degree July weather about “BRIDGE FREEZES BEFORE ROADWAY”?

     This doesn’t even compare to the questions the signs raise about your head.

     Uh, “CURVES AHEAD” and “STOP AHEAD” are puzzling, but you start to wonder about what kinds of animalistic creatures would urge you to “BRAKE AHEAD.” Then you see “JUGHANDLE AHEAD”…whew! And the radio blames traffic on “RUBBERNECKERS”???

     Standing still next to the “KEEP MOVING” sign in the middle of the tunnel, your host tells you how many hundred feet you are under the Hudson River and then notes how old the tunnel is and that it periodically springs a leak or two but that you’d probably only have to be there awhile. YUGZOWIE!

     So you finally get to the office. The 35th floor reception room with 4-inch thick buzzer entry glass doors next to the elevator has 6 plastic potted palms complete with strategically located yellowing leaves, a plastic-looking gum-chewing receptionist with spike heels, a 6-inch skirt and a plastic tube and a half’s worth of lipstick plastered between her nose and her chin.

     The coffee table sports three ragged copies of PEOPLE magazine from 1997, a National Geographic with the cover missing, and a few odd pages (aren’t they all?) of last week’s New York Times. The carpet has a large stain that resembles a Law & Order murder scene without chalk lines.

     There are dozens of moving black things breeding in the overhead fluorescents. Something piped out of ceiling speakers that resembles music is playing under the static. The coffee maker in the corner looks and smells like it’s been cooking for two days.

     Are you ready for your return flight yet?

     The business road to reception is filled with stuff we all take for granted. We’re used to rushing through this crummy airport route filled with confusion and traffic congestion. We’re used to rushing into office buildings and through disgusting and completely inhospitable reception areas every day without ever stopping to take inventory of what it must look like to a first time visitor.

     We KNOW there are no second first impressions, but we get ourselves in the mindset of thinking no one notices or cares about these things. They do and they do!

     When you take a customer, client, patient, prospect, associate, vendor, employee, friend or relative into your community and work environment , be sensitive to what that person is experiencing (especially someone from out of town!) and take the trouble to clean up the act before that individual’s arrival. Please note the word “before.” Thank you.   

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Who Woulda Thunk It?

I’ve been running across so many situations lately I could only categorize as unlikely business bets that I’m wondering about this economy spawning an epidemic of them, and whether I might indeed indulge the sensibilities of visitors to this blog with periodic excursions into business unliklihood. What say you?

     First, though seemingly unlikely on the surface, is the speculative category of business that I’ll simply label as a “SHORE BET” because it goes like this: You can be sure (shore?) that all the weeping and gnashing of business owner, manager and entrepreneur teeth (alotta gnashing, right!) is taking place inland. Inland? What’s that supposed to mean?

     Businesses located on coastlines— oceans, bays, lakes, rivers –are more insulated from economic downturns I am told repeatedly by coastal business owners. What? Are you sober? You have research? No. I have instincts and experience. I have ears that listen to business owners and operators who have weathered some tough financial storms.

     An increasing number of (perhaps wishful, but) confident-sounding people are of the conviction that businesses that depend on waterfront industries and (especially) tourism, are actually gathering strength in anticipation of the further collapse of inland business cousins.

     They say that when people have fewer dollars to part with for vacations, they don’t cancel vacations, they travel closer to home, and they look for self-sufficient environments where thay can pay all-inclusive fees that include meals and other amenities. They look for areas that provide inexpensive assorted entertainment and amusement choices and full range food and beverage options.

     Naturally, I think about where I live in coastal Delaware, and the magnificent seashore here that is beginning to host more and more vacationers (and year-long weekenders) from NY, NJ, PA, VA, MD, and NC than ever before. It’s almost like our coastline has been quietly waiting to be discovered by nearby state travelers who are finding vacation rewards so abundant that they wonder why they ever headed for all those crowded Florida destinations to start with.

NEXT, is baseball mud!

     As long as we have baseball, we’ll have baseball mud…highly specialized “Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud” that has been helping professional baseball pitchers get a better grip on the ball…that comes from a special secret location in a hidden New Jersey swamp!

     Now, talk about an unlikely business bet! Imagine Mr. Blackburne coming to you for startup capital in 1938.

     “Well, I got me this magic mud that professional baseball leagues will be buying from me for over 70 years. They’re going to age it for a month and a half. We’re going to sell them three-pound vats, two for each team in the majors, and that’ll hold them a full season…”

     “Yeah, right, mud, uhuh, sure, okay, well I’m not sure that’s such a good investment, Mr. B…”

     The amazing part is it’s true! And the company is highly successful. [Who woulda thunk it?]

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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SPIT: Rarely the object of

attention in a tender love story

     If we laugh out loud the first time we see a child’s bib block lettering proclaim “SPIT HAPPENS,” it may be because those of us with little kids in our lives know it does.  Or perhaps the humor surfaces as our minds flash unwittingly to the bumper stickers (with the adult version of the saying) and know instinctively for it to be true grit more often than not.  Isn’t it, after all, simply the unsophisticated, Americanized version of C’est La Vié?

     Spit.  We do it in disgust.  We do it in relief.  We watch baseball players do it on TV 14,397 times every game.  Boxers have their own buckets.  Spit conjures up thoughts of adrenaline, mucus, repulsion and sinusitis.  Sometimes we miss the spittoon, the gutter, the car window (yucht!) and end up with it on our sleeves, the fronts of our shirts, the tops of our shoes, rivuleting uncontrollably down our cleavages or hunkering down somewhere deep inside the thickest of our beards.

     Spit is swapped and mopped, and comes in all shapes and colors and levels of viscosity (yucht again!).  Then there’s the specialized version of spit we all know as flem.  Flem—having once been front and center in the embryonic form of a booger that got sniffed back—usually originates as a kind of loose stalagtite structure hanging mercilessly from the back recesses of the nasal passages. 

     Flem can be lumpy, smooth, or intricately woven into kiwi and mustard colored strands, occasionally available in nasty deep brown globs.  The thickest and most projectile-worthy of these is probably preceded by a throat ravaging clearance effort that sounds like a lot of little haagggt, haagggt, haagggt noises—or one death-rattling H-A-A-A-A-A-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-T !!!

     Tough guys spit from atop their horses, tanks, and tractors.  Adolescent boys (and some adolescent-minded men!) will dry themselves up by having distance and closest-to-the-wall contests.  But many of the winners move onward and upward to the higher challenge of launching their spittle from rooftops, movie balconies, and prime bridge locations over passing cars, boats, and trains … and unwary pedestrians.  Tomboys and other masculine females use it to draw their lines in the sand, and don’t dare step past the bubbly little puddle!

Anyway, one thing’s certain: spit has rarely been the object of attention in a tender love story. Until now. 

Stay on this site and just click here for (in the words of the immortal Paul Harvey) the rest of the story (just a few very short paragraphs!) :

http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=30  

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

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Twitter Is What It Is. Period.

     Hardly a day passes anymore when I don’t hear some business or professional practice owner or operator or manager, or an entrepreneur talk nervously about “not getting the Twitter thing.”

     Usually, the fearful comments end with some justification for not dipping a toe in the water by cavalierly tossing off a laundry list of non-business-related “Tweets” that they saw or heard about. Twitter won’t have any value to you if you start out seeking for it to BE something.

     Twitter is what it is. While there appear to be some basic Twitter Etiquette guidelines, they seem to me to only be for the benefit of those who want them. And many Twitter users simply don’t care what those folks want. Other than for legal purposes, and in abiding with contractual agreements, there is no right or wrong Twitter use. The medium is free to flow as those who use it choose for it to flow for themselves.

     So, unlike any other media, Twitter has a mind all its own and those who work and play with it find it far exceeds what most people would probably define as a “social” vehicle. It is both one-way and two-way (and actually a multiple-way) form of communication.

     Many believe the whole purpose of Twitter is to acquire and constantly add as many “followers” as humanly possible so that every statement they make will be seen by 88 skillion people that they’ve attracted. Many others could care less about massive followings and are looking instead for people with similar interests. And so it goes on and on, varying according to human nature and whimsy.

     Twitter participants can be categorized (some steady and ongoing, and others changing with the wind) as sometimes or all the time or alternatingly or multiplicitingly fitting what we might characterize, in no particular order, as:

Parent~~Adult~~Child~~Crusader~~Politico~~Professor~~

Preacher~~Motivator~~Problem-Maker~~Problem-Presenter

~~Problem-Solver~~Popularity Contestant~~ Control Freak

~~Bitch~~Networker~~Tree-Hugger~~Active Adventurer~~

Business Promoter~~Teeny Bopper~~Flake~~Peacenik-Hippie (yeah, still a few of these around)

~~Animal Lover~~Mystic~~Goofball~~Irate Egotist~~Joker

~~Gay Pride Activist~~Black Rights Activist~~Womens

Rights Activist~~News Reporter~~Rhymer~~Dear Abby

~~Counselor~~Advisor~~Consultant~~Game Player~~

Headline Writer~~Cartoonist~~Recruiter~~ Solicitor~~

Salesperson~~Shrink~~Sports Fanatic~~Political Fanatic

~~Religious Fanatic~~ADD YOUR OWN 80 OR 90 MORE

TO THIS LIST!

     The point is that if you have a business or professional practice and the above cluster of characters have scared you away from making good solid business use of this social media phenomenon, you are not thinking like a true entrepreneur.

     You need to try it before deciding it’s not for you. Isn’t that what you would do with anything else? Don’t choose to feel intimidated by Twitter just because you don’t get it. It’s really quite simple. And, in fact, as I noted many months ago, it forces you to strengthen two major communication tools: Conciseness and Persuasion, plus it requires high level focus on the “here-and-now” present moment, which is also a critically strong business building block.

     There is no rule about having to get addicted to Twitter, though many apparently are (and even brag about it)! You can plug and promote business and professional practice ideas, products and services in a way that gets response– in just 10-15 minutes a day! (Yes, I’ll tell you how for free if you call me: 302.933.0116)

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Happy St. Patrick‘s Day!

What happens for you on this day every year? Do you get up and put on green clothes? Pig out on corned beef and cabbage? (This “traditional” meal is an Americanism, by the way. Like pizza not coming from Italy, the Irish eat spareribs and sauerkraut on St. Patrick’s Day!)

     Maybe you eat green bagels (ah, many of these in New York, but positively not an Irish thing!) Can you even find a florist with any green carnations left? Do you get smashed on green beer and end up with a hangover on March 18th?

Or is today just a day like any other?

     Y’know what? I think that if you think this day is just like any other, you have a problem needs fixin’ because what you’re really saying is that everyday is just like every other one, that nothing much changes and that nothing much is special, except maybe Fridays at 5pm and your birthday, right?

     Well, hopefully this isn’t you we’re talking about, but maybe you know someone who fits that description? And if you do, maybe wish her or him Happy Birthday more often!

     The secret of a prosperous business is to practice the secret of a prosperous life. The trouble is that practically no people get this until they achieve AARP status. The secret, after all, of a prosperous life only comes with the hindsight and wisdom of age and the kinds of genuine appreciation and gratefulness that only come from deep, deep inside.

     To me, it’s a lot like learning the positive and productive life changes that come from discovering the simplicity, value, consciousness and energy flow that come from deep breathing.

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Click this link for a free, 60-second, 4-step “how to” that can change your life. No sales pitch. No gimmicks. Just a valuable “how to” that you’re likely to wish you’d learned long ago!       

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     What can we do to come to realizations like this sooner in life? Maybe nothing. Maybe we just need to be grateful to have finally grabbed the brass ring (whoops! showing my merry-go-round age again!). and we should just take it and run!

     Well, breathing and running can get us nowhere if we’re living on a treadmill and afraid to step off. Breathing and running won’t take us where we want to go if we don’t believe in ourselves. and believe that we have the ability to get there, wherever “there” is for each of us.      

The point is that EVERY day –St. Patrick’s Day and the day after St. Patrick’s Day included— is a new opportunity to be the best that we can be, to do the best that we can do!

It’s a new opportunity to move another step closer to the “there” that we want to get to, the “difference” we want to make.

     Making your life happen the way that you want it to happen is 100% in your mind. It is your CHOICE! When you find your brain falling out and weakening and upset feelings coming in, STOP! Take a deep breath, focus your mind on where you are and what you want and start going there.

     Dump the upset baggage and go forward. Make today and tomorrow and the next day, and the next, EACH the special day that you deserve to have. Choose it! Use it! STOP with the excuses! Do it!

God Bless You and

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

EVERY DAY! 

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Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.

OH?

…time to examine both the cause of business failures and the solution.

The cause is something like a one-two punch:

1) For the past 18 months, mainstream media have been delivering a staggering succession of doom and gloom jabs to keep professional practices and businesses off balance by focusing one of every three headlines on how bad things are, and then beating the economic woes into the ground. 

[And guess what, mainstream media? — Professional practice and business owners and  operators and managers, are sick of your negativity! We have stopped buying your poor excuses for print and broadcast news, and many of us have withdrawn our advertising dollars. And so now you are starting to suffer. Time magazine’s list of top ten newspapers that are about to go under is startling to say the least, but, unfortunately, well deserved.]

2) The federal government‘s pitifully naive and sorely misdirected “bailouts” and “stimulous package” reactions (note “reactions” not “responses”) that actually fail to bail out or stimulate anything of any consequence in the direction of economic revitalization, have done their damnedest to deliver the knockout punch!

     Only trouble is that the entrepreneurial spirit lives on, and will never be destroyed wherever free-thinking people exist. Small business people know that it’s small business people who produce the vast majority of jobs in America. And small business people know that the ONLY way the economy gets stimulated is with incentives for small business to create jobs. And small business people know that there’s not a single penny allocated for this purpose in government’s (almost laughable were it not for the fact it’s our taxes being fed to those who choose not to work!) stimulus guise.

So here’s the 2-way solution:

1) Mainstream media pulls itself up and starts pounding our ears and eyes with positive, inspirational, motivational messages, and

2) The federal government hires a team of independent small business management consultants and proven entrepreneurs to show the corporate giants how it’s done (economic survival) with no cash and no bailouts and no stimulus, and how to take that survive mode into a thrive mode with 6-7 days-a-week of hard “lean and mean” work, networking, some reasonable risk-taking, some tough ROI due-dated venture capital, and the rallying support of familiy and friends.

Yeah, right. And how sick is it that reality renders this solution not even worthy of dreaming about? Oh, right, I almost forgot, times have changed.

Besides, who needs dreams now that we’re up to our ears in “hope”?       

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It’s really okay to provide

customers with service!

      A town, the town I live in, that I transplanted to from a lifetime of neurotic urban sprawl, is–will wonders never cease– a town where total strangers smile and wave to you as you drive by at 25mph. People actually talk with you in stores, on line at the bank or post office (there are no elevators in this town, but if there were, I’m sure no one would be staring vacantly at the floor numbers).

     Other towns I’ve been in (try the lower half of New York, and virtually anyplace in New Jersey, for example), when you stop your car for a railroad crossing train to go through, the first move is to close your windows and lock your doors; the second is to watch nervously in your side and rearview mirrors. You know, for the boogyman!

     In my town, passing trains actually prompt people to get out of their cars and walk around and say “Howdy! How you likin’ this weather?” or if your plates are from out-of-state, “Just passing through, are you? Need any help gettin’ where you’re goin’?” or if there’re kids in your car, “There’s a great hot dog place up ahead, near the ocean; kids all like goin’ there.”

     Here is a town where people hold doors open for other people behind them, even if they’re 10-15 feet back! In this town, when you dial a wrong number, the person answering is likely to say, well it’s nice talkin’ with you anyway, and you have a nice day now, y’hear?”

     Neighbors make time to stop and chat, but respect your schedule if you look like you’re in a rush. And none of this matters, by the way, whether you’re old, young, black, white, or purple with yellow polka-dots. By the way, we’re not totally in the sticks; we do have three traffic lights, and we are only half an hour from one of the biggest tourist cities in the U.S.

     The two square-block downtown is a hodgepodge of dilapidated remnant buildings, left over from zero variance days, so it’s not the manicured, symmetrical, organized, architectured, yuppy storefront suburb town with coordinated brick and mortar and smoked glass windows that mark increasing numbers of American towns. But you know what? It doesn’t matter because no one who lives here cares. And there’s only one “For Rent” sign.

     Folks still shop at Joe’s Hardware, creaking their way down wood-floored aisles hunting for a 19-cent cotter pin, and the local “dollar store” for bargains. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we all love the new BJ’s discount shopping club because prices are better and our friends all work there, but there are no chain restaurants unless you count a couple of fastfood stops on the outskirts.

     People here work hard, many on some kind of farm or in some farm or (being 15-20 minutes from the ocean) tourist-related business. And the bottom line is that businesses here are not suffering as much as most other places around the country.

     Why? A few hundred reasons. Here are two: 

1) People at work charge forward with their heads down and their eyes and minds focused on what’s in front of them doing the best they can “here and now” and doing what needs to be done, instead of dwelling on past upsets and injustices or worrying about working 30 seconds past 5pm, or tomorrow’s chores. And when they’re not at work, they’re busy being kind to one another.

2) People support one another in business and in life, even those they compete with in the marketplace. They share news, weather reports, births, deaths, celebrations and meals together. Businesses support the community and the community supports the businesses. Now, there’s a notion!

Need I say more? What could your business and your customer service efforts learn from this lifestyle, and this town? Give it a couple of minutes thought. You might surprise yourself!     God Bless You and Good Night!    halalpiar     

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Aloha Hal!

What better way can I say thank you for such an earnest and thoughtful response to my 3/11/09 blog post criticizing the U.S. Postal Service, than to reproduce the complete (as received, with no editing) comment… and extend my heartfelt appreciation to Postmaster Tom McCarthy? THANK YOU, TOM!

(Special thanks too to my good friend Judy Vorfeld for facilitating this exchange.)

Oh, if only our government could practice this kind of give and take which helps achieve both improved productivity and improved customer relations!    

Well, It’s good to see we have customers who care enough about the Postal Service to offer their ideas on how we can become better. [RESPONSE AND REFERENCE IS TO 3/11/09 BLOG POST BELOW, OR IN MAR ’09 ARCHIVES ON THIS SITE]

Here’s my spin—point by point.

1. Wasting time and money on surveys? Totally agree. We spend an enormous amount of money on surveys. However, the real problem is that we do not act on customers’ comments, or for that matter, lack of comments. For example: We have a Voice of the Employee survey that goes to each of our 650,000 employees every year. Although employees are paid on the clock to take the survey, I believe our response rate has never gone over 72%. Non-response says a lot.
2. Because most district managers have little-to-no background in sales and marketing, they fail to realize the other side of the budget equation—revenue generation. Most managers were promoted because of their ability to cut workhours. They really haven’t a clue about sales and marketing. Fortunately that mind-set changing. But we are so far behind that it’s going to be hard to catch up.
3. I’m not exactly sure what you are referring to about bad products. There are some products that not very popular, and the Postal Service is constantly evaluating them. Some customers feel we shouldn’t sell retail merchandise, that it’s a waste of time, and we should concentrate on selling stamps. But in 2007, Official Licensed Retail Products generated over $70 million. However, I will agree that often we fail to take innovation to completion.
4. I don’t know any FedX or UPS driver that has the time to market and sell. They constantly under the microscope. FedX even has wireless video tracking their drivers and making sure they are under a strict time schedule. A few years ago the Postal Service initiated Carrier Connect, Business Connect and Carrier Pickup. These programs encourage city and rural carriers notice what businesses use our competitors and then forward those leads to our Business Development Team, who will then contact customers to sell our products and services. A few years ago the Postal Service created the Postal Ambassador program. In each of our 80 districts across the nation, a select team of city carriers, clerks, and postmasters were sent to Chicago for intensive training in media, marketing and sales. I was fortunate to be selected as the Hawaii district Postmaster Postal Ambassador. The idea was to have districts take advantage of Postal Ambassadors to market and sell products and services to businesses, train clerks, and act as a public relations person for the media. But as you stated in #3, we failed to take it to completion and as a result, the program fizzled, mostly due to managers who could only see value in cutting costs.
5. Email delivery service sounds something like a service we offered years ago with fax. A customer could fax a letter to a post office, and then the letter would be placed in the customer’s mailbox. It didn’t do well, so the service got axed. But I certainly would like to hear your idea.
6. Social media is powerful but I can tell you this: Most postmasters are fried by the end of the day. We are micromanaged to the tenth degree. There is little room for innovation or creativity, and many must endure 2, 3, and 4 hour telecoms that are unbearable.
7. Customer service training is where we really fail. We desperately need sales training. But the powers that be see it as a huge expenditure. We actually have a number of web-based training, but for the most part, I feel they are useless. There is nothing that compares to real-life class situation with interaction and Q & As.
8. PO box in every box? Hmmmm do we charge double???
9. Recruiting community groups to garden and landscape sounds great until the lawyers look at liability issues that come with it—not to mention contract issues with employee unions. However, here in Hawaii we have had a post office on Kauai have a grammar school paint a beautiful mural on the post wall. But we needed all sorts of approval from higher sources.
10. I’m all with you on community events. It is one of the best ways to network and connect with customers. And here in Hawaii we do those type or activities. Many postmasters across the nation are involved in community events such as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, Marrow Donor program, and many, many other events, including community fairs, parades, and business expos. I personally have manned marketing booths at conventions, Kona coffee festivals, Ironman World Triathlon Championship in Kona, and given workshops to coffee and mac nut farmers here on the Big Island of Hawaii. I know of many other postmasters who do similar kinds of sales and marketing in their communities.
11. Most of us would love to sell advertising space—especially on postage stamps, but we are regulated by the Postal Rate Commission, Postal Board of Governors, Congress, and some very limiting laws—lobbied no less by our competitors.
12. Same as above.
13. Every office should have some type of table for customers to rest their heavy parcels on. If your office doesn’t have one, I suggest you request the postmaster to install one. Tell your post office that if they can’t afford one, you’ll go to the competition—if nothing happens, write to the district manager. .
14. Music? Don’t you love hearing the clerks singing their song: Is there anything fragile, liquid, or perishable? Would you like to send it Express? Would you like insurance or delivery confirmation? etc, etc. Did you know that some offices have a television set to keep customers mind off the wait time in line. Many offices do have music but I’ve experienced situations where the customer complained about the music. Maybe we should hand out iPods while waiting in line to listen to your preferred music?
15. Our goal is to make it a positive experience. That’s why we hire Mystery shoppers and put a huge amount of pressure on offices who do not achieved the 5 minute wait time in line goal. There are all sorts of other things that an office is evaluated on, too.
16. A little note slipped into a mail box? I’ll tell you a story. One of my carriers had slipped a letter into a customer’s mailbox and the customer complained because there was no postage stamp on it. They said we were violating our own law—that anything in a mailbox must have postage on it. Strange but true. However, we have many carriers who very much care about their customers. I had a rural carrier who would deliver mail to one of her customers, and then after work go shopping for groceries for her, because the customer was elderly and could not drive or go outside. If you only knew the good and heartwarming stories, you’re thoughts would surely change.
17. Barter? That could become dangerous. Besides, we’ve got rules and regulations regulated by red tape regulators.
18. We do direct mail training workshops. You can also go online to our website and practically get a masters degree in mailing. We also have a small business development team in each district. Ask your postmaster for more information or go on usps.com website and search for direct mail….coffee not included.
19. We have over 7 million customers visiting our retail outlets every day. That’s real-time blog. And if you consider we have something in the neighborhood of a million hits a day on our usps.com website, that would be one big blog.
20. USPS.com has the whole spiel. If you want more information, ask your postmaster to give you the phone number for the business development team in their district. They’d be more than happy to help.
21. We have publications with direct mail information, rates, and tips on how to use direct mail to grow your business. I regularly order these pamphlets and place them in our business customers’ mailboxes.
22. For years Congress and postal laws had our hands tied. We could not give discounts. Fortunately, a few years ago, congress passed the Postal Reform bill. We now have more freedom to offer discounts and make special deals. Unfortunately, we are not moving fast enough.
23. This could possibly be under consideration. We do offer discounts for business customers who prepare their mail properly and comply with automation requirements.

Well, there it is. And I agree. It would be a terrible waste of assets, resources, and some super-nice people if we don’t listen to our customers and become better at what we do.

Thanks again for your thoughts.
Tom McCarthy tmpm@mac.com
Postmaster
Holualoa HI 96725

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