You Do The Math

“I have to go now. I have other calls to make.”

Famous last words from the General Motors dealer I have a leased car with. They were calling because they had recently fixed an air conditioning problem and wanted to make sure that it was working properly.

The car had come off of warranty a few months ago and it would have to be fixed on my dime. Given the car was only 3 years old, just off of warranty, the very low miles for the age of the car and that they had fixed an air conditioning problem about a year earlier, I told them to either fix it at their expense or I would take it to another dealership for the work. They agreed and said that GM would fix it under “good will”.

Well at least she called. A little too late though. In three years that I have had the car, no one in the dealership has bothered to call after a service call. What a shame when you consider what a dealership spends in advertising to get a new customer.

How about what an existing customer is worth? At my rate and trading in my car every four years, I could conceivably lease another 4 cars over the next 16 years before I retire. At an average of $400 a month for 16 years that works out to $76,800 in lost revenue.

Do you still have to go now and make more phone calls?

If I were you, my next call is to the guy whose name is on the dealership.

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Whose Answering Your Phone

Is it me or is it funny to call the telephone company and get a busy signal.

Or that all their operators are busy? And you are put on hold to a call that may be monitored for training purposes.

I follow your rules when you give me a hundred menu items to choose from. I punch until I believe I have the right department only to be told, "that's not my department". And the odyssey begins all over again. Okay I get that maybe I did press the wrong number from your menu. My bad.

Just do me one favor. If I get, "press 1 for English, 2 for this language, 3 for this language", and I press 1, then I expect to have that conversation with someone who can speak English.

If you would just listen to those calls you record for educational purposes you would know what I mean.

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Where Have All The Writers Gone

They say (whoever "they" are) that we are exposed to about 3000 advertising messages a day. You wake up to your Chass alarm clock, drink your Starbucks coffee made in your Braun coffee maker while listening to your Sony radio or catching CNN on your Hitachi Big Screen TV.

Then its a Irish Spring Shower with Baby Shampoo drying yourself with Martha Stewart towels. 8 messages and your about 15 minutes into a new day. My problem isn't the amount of messages we are exposed to. My problem is the schlock thats passed off as advertisements.

Seems like the ad agencies and broadcast outlets just want the revenue and who cares about how good the ad is. It seems that there is a lot of very bad ads. Whats happened to the copy writer's profession? Where have they gone and whose fault is this?

I blame Dan O'Day for the bad radio and tv commercials. For the record, Dan O' Day is an advertising guru (so his website says so).

Check Dan's blog, http://www.danoday.blogspot.com/ and look for

"theamazingbadcommercialgenerator"?

That little tool has made copywriters obselete. Why pay someone to write ads when we can use theamazingbadcommercialgenerator! Ad agencies can save money on the writer and still charge the client more.

If you think I am kidding, try theamazingbadcommercialgenerator out. Then next time you see or hear a lousy ad you decide, computer or person.

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Press Any Number You Want For Service...We Don't Care

I called Telus, my cell phone provider with a hardware issue. Press 1 for English, press 2 for French (I’m a Canadian eh!)

Welcome to the main menu. Laundry list to choose from. Oh that might be the right department so I press 3. More laundry, with 6 options. Not sure. Ah 6 a customer service rep. So 6 it is.

On hold. Not to worry, I am in Priority Sequence. Jimmy Buffett is wasting away in Margaretville. Ringing, here we go. Ring Ring Ring for about 35 seconds. Recorded message in first in English and then French telling me that my party cannot be reached and my call is going to end. There goes 10 minutes.

Let’s try this again. Press 1 for English. Just noticed that I can either choose from the laundry list or say in a word or two what my problem is to help speed up the search. I try "time is wrong on my pda". Recorded voice say something , "Let's see if we can narrow this down". Oh this is working really well.

News flash, this phone system sucks! 48 minutes later and no help.

So to save yourself $8 an hour for an operator, you went out and bought yourself a fancy shmancy automated phone system that makes me the customer jump through hoops.

Here is a newsflash. Shaw Cable Systems from Alberta Canada. When you call them up, yes you get an automated system. But they give you the choice to wait for the next operator or leave your phone number for the next available representative to call you back. And by leaving a message you don't lose your place in line.

Imagine that, a company that understands why they are in business.

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How Much Is A New Sales Rep Costing You

Do some quick calculations. How many new sales reps have you hired in the last 2 years. What did you pay them as a guaranteed salary and include all the benefits. Now how much time and money did you invest in training? How much time was spent teaching them the internal workings of the entire operation?

What did their potential account list look like? C accounts and all the new business they could find? How many of those C accounts have moved to B or possibly A accounts?

Now compare revenue to salary. Are you ahead? How many of those reps are still around? Why did they either move on or did you have to cut them loose?

How does the picture look? Better yet what does the picture look like from all those C accounts that have a new rep from your company every 6 months?

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The Best Ten Bucks You Can Invest

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
4. Become genuinely interested in other people
5. Smile
6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
7. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves
8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests
9. Make the other person feel important-and do it sincerely
10. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it
11. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
12. If you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically
13. Begin in a friendly way
14. Get the other person saying, “yes, yes” immediately
15. Let the other person do a great deal of talking
16. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers
17. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view
18. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires
19. Appeal to the nobler motives
20. Dramatize your ideas
21. Throw down a challenge
22. Begin with praise and honest appreciation
23. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly
24. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
25. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders
26. Let the other person save face
27. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise”
28. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
29. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct
30. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest

That took about 3 minutes and 10 seconds of your time starved life. What you read is the principles of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends & Influence People”.

You would think a book that has sold 15,000,000 copies and been in print for 70 years wouldn’t apply today. Then why do most self help and sales books you pick up today quote this book.

The soft cover sells for $10.00. To bad its not mandatory reading in schools.

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Whats On Your Bookshelve?

Harvard Business Review says that 10% of the population has the "learning mindset". What was the last book you read on your profession. Have you enrolled in automobile University? Thats listening to teachers on cds in your automobile.

What are you doing to make yourself better at your profession? If you were to ask some of the greatest teachers how many books a month they read and how many teaching cds they listen to every month, chances are the numbers would be staggering. Thats what makes the Jeffrey Gitomers, Zig Ziglar, Chris Lytles, Jom Rohns, Dennis Waitley, Harvey Mackays the best at what they do. They make up the 10%.

Start with a book a month, teaching cds in your car and begin to learn like the pros. Want to make more money and be successful in your work, relationships and families? The 10% seems like a good place to be. Do you think you'll find your competition there?

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