Old-Fashioned Goals

Watch this week's Short Attention Span Sales Tip video here.

Good morning!

Every once in a while, I take everything off my desk and simply wipe it down. I do it for two reasons. First, is hygiene. Dust and dirt and rings from coffee mugs all seem to accumulate in time.

The second reason I do it is to hit the reset button. When I go to put everything back in its place, I get the chance to sort, file, toss, or take action on the task in question.

During today's cleanup, I found a piece of paper with a few interesting scribbles. It must've been a note I took after a conversation with a customer. That's typically the source of my tips, blogs, and columns. Here's what it said:

“Amazon-level communications; Your grandfather’s Craftsman-level quality; Apple-level unexpected service; Your best friend-level count-on-it reliability.”

If I recall correctly, I was talking to someone about creating unique and meaningful goals for a business, tapping into the standards of a different era.

• Amazon-level communications — They do such a great job of letting you know where your job is, when it's coming, and that it's been delivered.
• Your grandfather’s Craftsman-level quality — For those of you who don't remember Sears in its heyday, Craftsman was the gold standard of quality for tools and power equipment. It was so good, they had a lifetime guarantee.
• Apple-level unexpected service. I had underlined the word, "Unexpected" to remind myself to go that extra mile.
• And finally, your best friend-level count-on-it reliability. That one is self-explanatory, I think.

Wouldn't you want to do business with a company that had achieved these for goals?

As you think about those four bullet points, none of them are really extraordinary. That should tell you something. Sometimes, differentiating yourself is a matter of practicing the common-sense lessons taught to you by your parents and grandparents.

Anyway, that's my tip for this week. See if you can spend the next seven days pursuing those goals. I’ll bet it will make a difference with a certain kind of customer: the kind who was raised like you were.

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