*Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*No person was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*The PC Police had now taken away,*
*The true meaning of Christmas - but no-one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt some feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just ' Holiday '.*
*Yet shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks to the floor just to find gifts of merit!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, and an I-pod*
*And something was changing - yes, something quite odd! *
*Retailers advertised Ramadan, Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Al Franken & Fonda.*
*As Target was hanging its trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - would nowhere be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You wouldn’t hear “Christmas” in anyone’s ears.*
*Inclusive, and Sensitive, and Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that are used to discourage me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!*
*From the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*”Eliminate Christmas, in all public matter!*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took back the space*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The Season’s reason had been disregarded.*
*So as you enjoy 'Winter Break' by your Tree'*
*Sipping your Starbucks, just listen to me. *
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
And not Seasons Greetings !*
And make someone’s day!
Please, join all together and wish those you meet
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Remember the Reason for the Christmas Season!
We just sent out a newsletter to our customers, featuring the words "Merry Christmas" and received a few compliments that we weren't bowing to political correctness. I don't approve of rewriting history...
Have a great time with your family if you can...
Thank You to all our faithful customers.
Thank You to for my employees, who have shared with me that working here is the best job with the best atmosphere they've ever had.
Thank You for the suppliers of the quality products we sell.
The E-Myth website www.e-myth.org suggests that:
“when you deliver your product or service "on time, every time exactly as promised" you create a customer experience that can turn a one-time customer into a life-long advocate. In short, you've nurtured a customer's gratitude ...” - that's one way of thanking customers: deliver quality products on-time, with friendly and helpful personal support.
This month's Reader's Digest had an article about someone who said Hi to literally everyone he met for a whole month. It made an amazing, positive difference in his world.
Maybe a great New Year Resolution would be to live in an Attitude of Gratitude....
Thank You!
Clarify your position. "The first step to building brand equity is to define your positioning," - the single thing your company stands for to your customers".
We like to be known for bringing unique OEM products to the attention of our customers (principally American engineers) - with excellent technical support and ethical business practices. To our vendors, we like to be known as part of their home team, with extremely effective market-creating abilities.
Tell your story. Give your position an external expression through your best corporate stories—an insight that led to the company's inception, the extraordinary measures you took to satisfy a customer or how your big breakthrough happened.
Saelig was created by an engineer for engineers - but we need to do a better job of telling the stories of how we frequently go "the extra mile" for our customers.
Bring it to life. "Make sure that the way your company looks and feels to the outside world matches that truth," he says.
We have to make sure that we operate with our customers' interests in mind at all times, while also satisfying our suppliers' needs.
Build the brand. You can make an impression before your customer ever initiates a transaction. O'Toole cites a naming consultancy called Igor that publishes at its Web site a free 100-page guide on its methodology.
We've had some nice feedback from engineers who like our innovative newsletters and interesting product mix. We trust that we're becoming known as a company that wants to make our customers "happy, prosperous and blessed".
The Po!nt: "These are practices you don't need a billion dollar marketing budget to emulate - you can start today."
Could we be doing more to build our image? Sure, but I'm encouraged when we get emails, or comments at shows, from customers who've followed our progress from the early days of 1988 when we just sold one product - a Forth-based controller board.
The Power of Forgiveness Posted by Clint Greenleaf at 5:14 PM
http://blog.inc.com/by-the-book/2008/08/the_power_of_forgiveness.html#comments
"I recently received a phone call from Tony Alessandra, the author of The Platinum Rule. Tony is a hall of fame professional speaker, a bestselling author, and is close friends with many of my friends. The first time we met was over the phone, when he called to let me know that I had quoted his book without his permission. Yikes. I own a publishing company -- I should know better.
A bit of history. In 2000, I wrote a book called A Gentleman’s Guide to Etiquette. The book was published by Adams Media in Boston, and it was a moderate success. Since the book went out of print in 2005, I have reacquired the rights and plan to republish the book on my own next year. Anyway, in the book I mentioned “The Platinum Rule,” which is a smarter take on the Golden Rule. While the Golden Rule has us treating others how we want to be treated, “The Platinum Rule” gets us past our own ego and taste and has us “do unto others as they would have you do unto them.” It’s a brilliant concept that works.
So, Tony calls me and says that I’ve made a mistake. But the way that Tony told me about it was wonderful. He started by introducing himself and saying that he needed some of my help. He was aware of my book and that it made no mention of him or his book, website, etc. He then asked me how we could best solve this error.
Now let’s be clear -- I’m in the wrong here. No question. Tony had a ton of options at his disposal. He could have sent a harsh letter or had a lawyer send a harsher letter. He could have called and shouted at me. But his choice was not to cause drama and stress, but to find a winning solution. He was sure that there was a way we could fix this omission without too much trouble.
After a few minutes of discussing our options, we came to the conclusion that since the book was out of print, and that I wasn’t currently promoting the book, we didn’t have many options. I admitted my fault and Tony was very forgiving. That Tony was content with that was incredible -- I made a mistake and he was willing to let it go. And his great attitude made it that much easier for me to find a way to make it right. That day, I decided to re-release the book and give him the credit he deserves in the new printing. I think he’ll find out about my plan when he reads this. Thanks, Tony, for being so understanding.
So, when you have an opportunity to call someone on a mistake, remember Tony’s method. He didn’t pound his chest and tell me how great he is -- he worked with me to find a good solution. Now I’m spending my time telling everyone how great he is. If you can do the same when you’re right, you’ll probably find that people will bend over backwards to do right by you."
Reminds me of Mat. 6:12-14
A blog I respect and regularly read is by John Jantsch of
Duct Tape Marketing (http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/).
This month he's offering great advice on how to create
word of mouth as an experiment for how to create word of
mouth - the best form of advertising. Dave Balter, creator
of BuzzAgent, wrote a book called The Word of
Mouth Manual: Volume II, price it at $45 on Amazon,
but it is available as a free copy by download.
http://www.bzzagent.com/downloads/wom2.jsp?src=duct_tape_marketing
The book is a valuable explanation of the art of word of
mouth with helpful examples.
Go get your copy to help in selling your products
- and thanks for reading my blog!
Well not quite, but it makes for a good title, doesn’t it?
Here are my thoughts, gathered from various sources and in no particular order:
1) Be a distinctive individual.
2) Be relentlessly optimistic, completely present and entirely without falsehood.
3) Ensure that what you see is definitely what you get.
4) Be a great listener.
5) Always put forth your best effort, and happily and breathlessly run until you can run no more.
7) Never hold a grudge, and always be willing to lick (be appreciative of) the hand that feeds you.
9) Don’t pace about worrying when the food will come or if it will be enough.
10) If the food is not there, ask for it! Communicate!
11) When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
12) Take naps and stretch before rising.
13) Play daily.
14) Be loyal.
15) Get help from others to look your best.
16) Accept input from others to be your best.
17) Never pretend to be something you're not.
18) Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Drink more water.
19) If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
20) When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
21) Spread affection.
22) Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
23) Make new friends when you’re out. When you leave your yard, make it an adventure.
24) Bond with your pack.
25) On cold nights, curl up in front of a crackling fire.
26) When you're excited, speak up.
27) When you're happy, let everyone know.
28) Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
29) Warn others if you see danger or problems.
30) Don't hesitate to throw up if something is definitely unacceptable.
Thanks for the great newsletters! This helps us stay on top of our competitors and have a leading edge on new technology for our customers.
JM
---------------------------
Hey there,
I want to tell you that your products have always been unique and reliable. I'm glad you're doing what you're doing. Thanks.
Cal
Seems to me that business success – or any success – is determined principally by one thing – your attitude to what is happening around you. Life is, after all, what happens while you’re making other plans. I clearly remember seeing the following on someone’s cubicle wall, which captured exactly what I thought:
ATTITUDE
by: Charles Swindoll (www.insightforliving.org)
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.
1 A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
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