My Morning WalkNew day, uninterrupted thoughts

Should we appreciate Santa more for what he does or the kind of person he is?  I’m not talking about Christmas as a holiday as much as referring to the spirit of the season.  What does Santa do?  He delivers gifts to all the good little girls and boys throughout the entire world.  Kids track his route on Nexrad radar, eagerly anticipating his arrival at their house no matter wher it is.  To them, he’s the hope of the season for getting “everything they always wanted”.  But is THAT what’s really important here?  Or is it the KIND of person it takes to be Santa that matters most?  What kind of person is willing to sacrifice his entire evening flying around the world with a sleigh full of toys being pulled by a bunch of reindeer?  Admittedly it would be fun to hang out with him for an hour or so, but to keep doing it year-in and year-out? 

So many people see any gathering of multiple people as an opportunity to promote what they do to others.  That’s what we’re taught in “sales school”, right?  “If someone doesn’t know what you do, how can they ever ask you for help?”  is a common argument.  Totally understandable in the old way of thinking, but what about today when there are hundreds of alternatives to the products and services we offer?  Does it really matter more than who we are as people?  And if I don’t really like you as a person, why in the world would I want to do business with you?  If you’re attending a party among friends, they already know what you do. 

Santa is certainly kind enough to give you his business card if you ask for it, but he’s not going to just hand them out without being asked first…perhaps you shouldn’t either.

Successful businesses care about every person they serve.  They wouldn’t survive if they didn’t.     Armed with infinite amounts of information, the question that now needs to be answered by customers intrinsically is:  “What and who do I care about?”  “Do I care enough to make this decision?”  “Do I care what happens to my family if anything happens to me?”  What anyone else says really doesn’t matter unless it matters to the customer first.    

There has to be a better way to help people get what they need in this business besides using scary stories of human tragedy that usually elicit a “”it won’t ever happen to me” response.  What’s the missing piece of the puzzle?

Do you ever get a voice mail with no message except “Call me”?  The person who gets this message is essentially walking into a dark room where there could be (a) a dozen roses, or (b) 4 people with baseball bats waiting to take their head off.  The person responding to the call is forced to enter into a battle of wits unarmed.  Admittedly this seems a bit unrealistic, but the service industry is known for having days filled with difficult questions.  Why can’t the person returning the call at least be prepared for the interaction?

So, how does one get their point across?  A very good way is e-mail.  It forces you to think about the problem and how to communicate it before you press “send”.  If the phone is the preferred method, the discussion tends to be improvisational unless the call is scripted in advance.  This then wastes 10 minutes on a 1-minute point.  By using e-mail, both parties also have a record of the question and the response so a printed copy is available if the response was forgotten in 6 months.