Entries from September 1, 2007 - October 1, 2007
What’s Next, Smoke Signals?
I just had my umpteenth experience with dealing with a company that (apparently) has no telephones.
The company I am talking about is a start-up airline that claims to have the “lowest cost” of any airline in the history of mankind. Apparently, one of the ways they accomplished this is by cutting out administrative personnel and telephones altogether!
Why, you ask? Excellent question. I can tell you that there is no greater frustration than trying to reach a company executive only to find out that your only recourse is email. Those of you who know me well know how I feel about email. It’s time-consuming, often it causes more confusion than it creates, and words themselves are simply inadequate to express certain points.
I’m specifically trying to reach this company so that I can get their CEO to be a guest on my talk show. When we found out that we could not reach him by telephone we sent him an email explaining our market ... the vast majority of whom own their own business. (I didn’t think it would be necessary to point out to him that business travelers are a coveted marketplace.)
This was maybe a month ago. Since then, we have regularly sent emails, only to learn that they fall into “black-holes,” never to be seen (or heard!) from again.
Ron Morris
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Of Boats, Barnacles and Bucks
I'd like to relate a story that happened some time ago that I was thinking about the other day.
I was talking to an old pal of mine and he happened to remind me of the fact that he was a sailing aficionado. “Sailing”, I thought, “what a waste of a beautiful day in the sun - pulling on ropes and moving masts and letting out nylon … give me a powerboat any time.”
But he went on to mention that he was very excited about putting his boat in the water this spring because he “just had the barnacles scraped and the hull completely repainted” … and apparently he used some new type of paint that “minimizes friction and keeps the barnacles from re-attaching.”
He really had a problem with those barnacles. They made for some pretty rotten handling characteristics. “They just flat-out slow you down. You really can’t maneuver or cut through the water,” he complained.
“CUSTOMERS!” I virtually screamed. You are describing customers!
Inalienable Rights
How many of you have ever received an email such as the following:
THE HIGHEST-PAID PLAYERS
I don’t know about you, but the “Highest-Paid Players” in any of my (now sixteen or seventeen) companies have always been salesmen.
Why?
Because the salesman has, by far, THE toughest job in the company. Period.
Think about it. The salesman is required to be on the front lines (and Lord, do I hate this next phrase!) “24/7”. He is often dis-included (my own new word) from strategy sessions and office politics and he can never take a play off. (And ladies, I use the masculine pronouns merely as a shortcut. Successful salesmen and entrepreneurs are blind to gender. - credit to Guy Kawasaki)
Think about that ladies and gentlemen … your salespeople are forced to wear that sappy smile every minute of every day as they move from prospect to prospect to customer. Ugh! That alone should be worth fifty grand a year.
Salesmen are also part psychiatrist and part social worker. They must deal with whatever trauma their customer is involved in that day, be it the teen-aged son with the black fingernails or the fact that the prospect’s big boss is an arrogant S.O.B. who should be arrested. No wait … convicted.