Touch Points

Fire In His Eyes

Posted by Walter Koschnitzke on his blog Branding

Ad Vice 

Last week I met with the owner of a small athletic club in Oklahoma. Both he and his wife work full time at other jobs to support his 9-year old business. He has spent more money in advertising but had his worst year ever.

When I asked why he continued to run the business he began to tell me about his passion for helping people get in shape. As he talked he became animated, his eyes lit up and his voice rose. Then I asked if he'd ever put those words in his ads. The deer in the headlights look told me all I needed to know.

Why are you in business? What are your non-negotiable standards? What do your potential customers need to know about your passion that they don't? Perhaps we can find the answers together and improve the return on your advertising investment.

Success Through Discontent

Roy H. Williams -Monday Morning Memo

Success is conceived in the womb of the mind the moment you look around and say, "I don't belong here. These are not my people." And it is born when you cogently express - to yourself and to the world - who you really are.

So who are you, really, and how will you express it? Will you rise above your circumstances? Please understand I'm not talking about money...

Best of the Season!

The Rae Family is all gathered from various points across Canada, we had a snowstorm that dumped about a foot and a half of snow yesterday, so the stage is set for a wonderful and blessed Christmas. May the season of love and peace cast a spell over you that lasts all year. Whatever your faith, may you be blessed this holiday season.

Steve Rae

You make a living by what you get.  You make a life by what you give.

Sir Winston Churchill  (1874-1965)

Monday Morning Memo - Roy H. Williams

At The Heart of Romance

From Claude Monet's impressionistic portrait of his wife and son, to Sue Monk Kidd's tender book, The Secret Life of Bees, to the nosecones of bombers and the biceps of bikers, to the garish and awkward Miss America pageant, we continue to project the feminine ideal onto whatever canvas we can find to hold it.

But Don Quixote's perfect woman lived only in his mind: "Her name is Dulcinea, her kingdom, Toboso, which is in La Mancha, her condition must be that of princess, at the very least, for she is my queen and lady, and her beauty is supernatural, for in it one finds the reality of all the impossible." - from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, 1605.

From Sonja Howle

"Christmas 2004 - The Iron Horse Express (Amtrak's Southwest Chief) leaves Kansas City's Union Station.  On board will be fellow Wizard of Ads partner Sonja Howle, author of Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Southwest, The Power of Vision, reporting in on her weblog, www.IronHorses.us ... featuring the historic scenes and sites from her book along the way.

Sonja's mother, Twila Smith, will join her on the adventure west to Los Angeles.  In 1903, Twila's mother and Sonja's Grandmother, Rose (Liberto) Pfeifer, boarded a train from New York.  She was barely three years old when she traveled west into the unknown, with her little cardboard suitcase, on the Orphan Train.  In Kansas a German couple chose her to be their daughter.  Her adoptive father and his brothers worked for the Santa Fe Railway in Topeka.   

Sonja's book, Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Southwest (available from www.Amazon.com or www.wizardacademypress.com), is a tribute to the Iron Horse Spirit of the leading men and women of the Santa Fe Railway, and to their innovations in advertising, art, architecture and adventure, still at work in the West today." 

Monday Morning Memo: MIT Study Proves Us Right!

By Roy H. Williams

I've been telling you (March 25, 2002) and telling you (Feb. 10, 2003) that:

1. transactional customers are bargain hunters, and
2. brands are built on relational customers, and
3. the split between transactional and relational shoppers in most product categories is roughly 50/50, and
4. the key to successful advertising and profitable face-to-face selling is to speak to each group in their own language.

If you've heard me speak publicly, you've heard me say,...

Networking vs Selling

"Don't make the mistake of networking with people you want to do business with. That's not networking; that's selling. "The best people to keep in touch with are the ones with whom you are already doing business -- namely your customers, clients, and suppliers. If you make it a point to stay in touch with customers and clients about matters that concern them, it's almost inevitable that over time they will be curious about matters that concern you. They'll volunteer to help you. That is the essence of effective networking: People helping you out whether or not there's anything in it for them." Source: "Never Wrestle with a Pig" by Mark H. McCormack

The Paradox

This came to me in a e-mail and it is clever and also poignant. The last line is a beautiful quote unto itself and is worth getting to.  Steve

The paradox of our time in history is that we have
taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider
freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more,
but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have
bigger houses and smaller families, more
conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees
but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment,
more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but
less wellness...

The Importance Of A Personal Motivation Plan

from Kelley Robertson 

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees. He is also the author of ""Stop, Ask & Listen –– Proven sales techniques to turn browsers into buyers."" For information on his programs, visit www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com. Receive a FREE copy of "100 Ways to Increase Your Sales" by subscribing to his 59-Second Tip, a free weekly e-zine.

I recently spoke to a group of sales professionals at the end of their training conference. The attendees had participated in many learning sessions over a two day period –– most of which were product related. I was scheduled to speak after dinner and I was somewhat concerned how attentive they would be by this time.

Fortunately, in the days preceding, the company had structured the entire program to create energy, excitement and to foster a sense of team enthusiasm. They had a theme and encouraged their vendors to incorporate the theme into each of their individual presentations. They awarded prizes for the team with the most energy and highest level of participation, and by the time dinner was served, the group was pumped...

zine.