Monday, May 17  

Learn something every day

Hello. I learnt a good lessson today from a guy called Tim.

You see, part of our ongoing marketing strategy is identifying poor web sites and approaching the owner with a bit of a critique and some suggestion.

We identified Tim's web site as needing some work. So I wrote him this letter (it's a pdf file).

I phoned up Tim today and his Secretary said he was on the phone. She took a message and said Tim would call back shortly. Sure, I thought.

I went out to get some lunch.

Sure enough, when I got back there was a message from Tim to return his call. So I did.

"Hello, it's Brendon Sinclair from Tailored Consulting here. I'm after Tim please."

Freeze frame!

Tim is a busy business guy. He has received a cold call letter from me trying to sell him web services. And then I'd called him and couldn't get him. This is how he spoke to me when I rang back:

"Oh Mr. Sinclair! Thank you for taking the time to return my call - I do appreciate it. Thanks so much for your letter. It was tremendous and I greatly appreciate the feedback to try and make our business even better......"

He said something after that, but by then I'd fallen off my chair!

In 5 seconds Tim had completely defined his business to me.

Just because he called me Mr. Sinclair. And thanked me for taking the time to call back. And for taking the time to assist his business.

No-one has ever called me Mr. Sinclair!

And that got me thinking......are we being too familiar in called each other by our first names. Because when you call someone Mr or Sir or Mrs or Ms, you create an enormous point of difference.

I was trying to sell Tim something and he still took time to thank me for trying (I didn't sell him anything by the way).

But Tim showed me that just the spoken word can have a tremendous impact on others in business.

Thanks Tim.

Brendon