Remove Your Limiting Factor
The majority of business owners say they believe in “customer service,” “service after the sale,” and “exceeding the customer's expectations.” But how many of them actually do it?
Your company has a mission statement. But what are the odds that your customers could pick it out from among a dozen randomly-selected others?
Worse, how many of your employees could do it?
Talk is cheap. The world doesn't want to hear what you believe. They're watching to see what you do. The limiting factor, for most of us, is that we don't really practice what we preach.
As I shared last week, America is moving into an era of authenticity in which it will become harder than ever to win new customers through advertising alone. To thrive and grow, businesses are going to have to begin delivering what they promise in their ads. Claims of “huge selection,” “friendly service,” and “low price” mean nothing when you have a friend who is telling you otherwise.
Word-of-mouth has grown into a muscular beast called Interconnectivity and it moves with lightning speed. Cell phones and email are rewriting the rules of commerce. Online chat-rooms, BLOGS, and instant messaging are insuring that – whether good or bad – “the word gets out.”
What are you doing to insure “the word” on your company is good?
At Wizard Academy, we're moving into the future by giving away the very best that we have to give. Instead of telling you about my new audiobooks, we're letting you download them for free. And I don't mean “samples.” I'm talking the whole enchilada.
Wizard Academy is in the business of knowledge and creativity. If our goal is to be known as “the people with the answers,” can you think of a better strategy than to deliver – 24 hours a day – valuable knowledge and creativity for free?
When Napster was at its zenith and America was downloading music for free, CD sales of that same music were at an all-time high through retail outlets. But when the record companies killed Napster, sales of music CDs began falling like a rock. Counter-intuitive, isn't it? But in another way, it makes sense.
We're doing an experiment and I want you to be part of it: Destinae, the 380-page trilogy of the Lawyer named Intellect and the Beagle named Intuition, is now complete and available as an audiobook on 3 amazing CDs – each one just over 70 minutes long. You can listen to all 3 CDs online, or download them in their entirety, at WizardAcademyPress.com. While you're there you may want to download the PDF manuscript of Mark Fox's new book on creative thinking techniques, Sly as a Fox. (In his youth, Mark was Chief Engineer at NASA.)
But whatever you do, listen to the astounding chapel service delivered by Dr. Richard Grant at the Sunday morning conclusion of the 2003 Wizard Academy reunion. It's titled A Jungian Look at the Bible and it's absolutely amazing.
I'm gambling that enough people will love the audio-story of Destinae that they'll want to buy the hardback book, complete with illustrations, interchaptoral comments, and debates among experts about “the true meaning of the story.” Mark Fox is gambling that people will read his book and want more. But Dr. Grant isn't gambling at all. He's just sharing the very best that he's been given, in the hope that your life will be made better. You really should take time to listen.
In a few weeks I'll tell you how the experiment is working out. In the meantime, be thinking about how you can give away the best that you have. It's a concept as old as Abraham and as powerful as the widow's mite.
Roy H. Williams