“No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives.”
~Robert Allen~
In Earl Nightingale’s The Strangest Secret, he mentions a swank department store in downtown Chicago that did swimmingly well a half-century ago.
That store had many mink stoles and the affluent clientele would regularly rummage through the very expensive furs just to find that perfect one suitable for a glamorous evening out on the town with their hubby.
They would buy the coat on credit and then the very next day after the glamorous event would return to the store and demand a refund.
One of the store clerks was on to these thieves, and went to the store manager and barked, “Mr. Green, are you blind to what these conniving women are doing? Can’t you see that they are using us?”
At that point, Mr. Green pulled out the client’s record file, flipped it onto the desk, and told the nonplussed employee to take a look. The employee reluctantly did so and was astonished to learn that that very lady he was complaining about had spent (without return) nearly $10,000 on apparel and accessories that year.
Then the manager stared at the employee with an amused grin and said, “That lady plops down a lot of cash here each year. She more than pays for your salary every year. If she wants to borrow a stole for an evening gala, so be it.”
In today’s highly competitive markets online and offline, you need an edge. You need to develop mutual trust with the people whom you want to buy your goods and services. In some cases, that might figuratively mean giving away half the store as an ethical bribe.
If all you have is all you ever intend to produce and deliver to hungry buyers, then sadly your days as a marketer or an entrepreneur are numbered.
Japanese have often played it safe. They look for the path of least resistance and greatest security. But in the modern world, the play-it- safers are going to be left behind in the planetary dumpster. The mom-and-pop shop may be quaint and sometimes can be profitable, but only if the owners have a plan rather than a “I just wanna get by” attitude.
The enemy of Excellence is always Good Enough. Give with pride, passion and excellence and know you will receive your fair share in return.
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