I had some horses that I would rather have sold than my pretty pair of fire horses.  I knew that I would sell them and sell them pretty quick, and I knew that I wouldn’t get any more like them.This old man says, “What will you take for those horses?”"I will take three hundred dollars for them.”

That was two percent [meaning 200% profit] on the hundred I paid for them.  He liked to tore his pocket off getting his billfold out.  Just stripped out three one-hundred-dollar bills and handed me the three hundred dollars…

–Ray Lum in Mule Trader: Ray Lum’s Tales of Horses, Mules and Men (1998).

This book is a fun read and a fascinating history.  The expression “Liked to tore his pocket of” going for money has always been a great image of a customer ready to buy.  May you have many like the old man.

For non-essential products, customer inaction is often a bigger “competitor” than any comparable substitute.

The top three CRM products for small and medium sized businesses aren’t just competing against each other — they’re competing against you not buying any CRM software at all.

Next time your marketing and sales group sits down to size up the competition, don’t forget to put Inaction in a class by itself.

Here’s another testimonial that I produced for Red Cap Communications*. Three things to like about this testimonial from Canton Capital’s managing director, Brian Redman:

1. The “$10 to $30+ million” mention shows that Canton Capital is a serious business, which adds instant credibility to their testimonial.
2. Redman shows how Clare is better than others. “I have worked with other designers, and I’ve been frustrated when I couldn’t find anyone who really “got it” and understood what I needed…” also shows that he understands the pain of working with a lesser agency.
3. Redman tells what kind of clients would be happy to work with Clare at Red Cap, in short, quotable sentences that are easy to excerpt for a portfolio caption or proposal blurb.

Without further ado, Redman’s tight, strong testimonial for Clare at Red Cap:

When we founded Canton Capital in 2008, we began with experienced investors and a clear focus on the kinds of businesses we wanted to work with. What we didn’t have was a good “visual brand” to use in telling our story to the public.

Fortunately for us, we found Clare Dagin at Red Cap. On a remarkably right schedule, Clare helped us identify the image we wanted to project. And then she created a logo, look and feel that perfectly represent who we are.

As a business communicator — not just a graphic designer — Clare knows that creating a strong visual brand isn’t just about making something that looks good on paper. That’s why she spent a lot of time at the start learning where we’re coming from and what we’re trying to do: We invest in regional companies with $10 to $30+ million in revenue and good growth prospects. Our firm will only look to invest in a company in which a majority of the management team will remain in place post-acquisition. While we will consider all traditional businesses, we are especially interested in companies focused on health and wellness.

In the beginning, Clare asked questions about the words and language of our business, then she helped us simplify and focus our messages. She helped us brainstorm different messages and concept statements, took the ideas we liked best, and created a set of visual designs that would best express these ideas.

We loved what Clare came up with: our logo, our brochure, our presentation portfolio and our stationery. She really brought out the best for us with a look that’s strong via understatement. It’s a look that has been well-received by our target audience, and we’re very pleased. Based on her experience and her dialogue with us, Clare quickly understood our market and our need for a mature image. And she helped us realize that we didn’t have to be fancy to show our strength and stability.

At Canton Capital, we recommend Clare to any client who needs a professional image: financial or professional services, or any organization that needs to convey a sense of trust. Clare isn’t like many other designers out there. I have worked with other designers, and I’ve been frustrated when I couldn’t find anyone who really “got it” and understood what I needed. In contrast, Clare took the time to understand what we were trying to do before she started proposing her visual solutions.

We also recommend Clare to clients who really want to understand their communication needs from different angles. Clare helped us brainstorm from our point of view, and then she gave us an outsider’s point of view that we didn’t have because we’re so internally focused. She was a good sounding board for our different ideas, and she shepherded us through the process with both speed and flexibility. Clare is a communications professional we can trust.

Canton Capital
Brian Reading, Managing Director

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*names changed to make sure that web searchers don’t come to this site when they should be going to my clients’! Ping me for the real names of Red Cap Communications and Clare Dagin. I’ll be glad to let you know.

There is never a good sale for Neiman-Marcus unless it’s a good buy for the customer.

–Herbert Marcus, cofounder of Neiman Marcus, speaking to his son in 1926, quoted by Stanley Marcus in Minding the Store (1974), quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations.

See also Selling is Serving.

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

– C. Northcote Parkinson, in Economist, 19 Nov 1955, quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations.

In this business, you can never wash the dinner dishes and say they are done.  You have to keep doing them constantly.

– Mary Wells Lawrence, advertising executive, on the need for fresh approaches. Time 3 Oct 66, quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations

Greetings today from Las Vegas, where I didn’t expect to be.  Las Vegas was supposed to be an overnight stop during my road trip from Denver to San Francisco, but that was before I found out that I had a broken windshield and that my insurance company had no idea I was driving my current car, but thought I was still driving my last car which I sold more than a year ago.

Many phone calls ensued, and I think all will be well after tomorrow when I (a) get a new windshield and (b) roll by a Las Vegas Nationwide for their inspection so that they can call my North Carolina Nationwide and say, “OK, this car qualifies for collision insurance.”

A bit freakish, frightening (I have no insurance?!) and frustrating, as you can imagine.

Point is, though: if I didn’t have a few dollars in the bank, a non-hurried schedule for getting to CA, and a good night’s sleep last night — I could have easily blown a fuse.  Fortunately, I had the emotional, physical, and practical buffers that I needed to deal with this unexpected stress.

Writ larger and more corporately — our businesses also need buffers.  Buffers of money, time, and calm to absorb the inevitable surprises.  Sure, we want to run our businesses “lean”.  But “lean” doesn’t mean “emaciated.”  I read one time that elite distance runners sometimes have compromised immune systems because they have no fat reserves.  Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but you get the idea.

If the person is over 40 years old, I tell him he should do something because it is first good for Japan, good for the company, good for his family and finally good for him.  If the person is under 40, I tell him he should do it because first it is good for him, good for his family, good for the company and finally good for Japan.

– Ken Hayashibara, Japanese manufacturer, “on social changes introduced during US military occupation of Japan”, NY Times 9 May 1984, quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations.

I got a chuckle when someone referred to today as “September Fool’s Day.”  I suspect he repeats this gag every first of the month.

We did a big of pranking at my first job — anything from spraying paper-punch holes all over someone’s office, to tweaking computer screens so that the (DOS) menu items would send the user somewhere unexpected — “6″ would take them to WordPerfect instead of Lotus 1-2-3, etc.

Now, I don’t know that I’d encourage pranking in an office that I owned, myself.   I love humor and laughter, but worry that when staff make a habit out of ten-minute efforts to elicit a ten-second laugh, productivity suffers to everyone’s detriment.  Or maybe I’ve gotten old and crusty at 40.

We don’t need a silver bullet. We need silver buckshot.– Md. State Delegate Sue Kullen.

Through lucky circumstance, I happened to meet Delegate Kullen over lunch, soon after she had been talking with some of the nation’s leading Democrats about health care. The gist of her comment is that the health care system is too large and complex for any one idea to fix it all, and that it would be foolish to try designing a single solution for fixing the whole thing.

Sue Kullen is a distinctive politician: a health-care advocate Democrat who also received endorsements from the National Rifle Association and the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association. Thus her ability to create the bullet/buckshot analogy without the help of any political consultant or marketing guy like me [grin].

In any case, hang onto Sue’s quote for the next time you need to argue with someone who’s looking for a silver bullet that you know doesn’t exist.

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Note: the Maryland “House of Delegates” is analogous to the “House of Representatives” in most other States and Commonwealths.  According to the Wikipedia, Maryland, Virginia an West Virginia are the only three who refer to their lower as house as “Delegates.”