Archives for Creativity

All of my heart loved Olive My Heart

December 15, 2012

The only thing missing is a French accent. It was a Friday night and my wife and I and our master chef friend, Judes Smith (Judes Foods) went into the Olive My Heart store in Stow, Ohio.  This is a mini version of the exquisite Olive Oil boutiques found in Nice, or Paris.  They have various “flavored” olive oils and exotic vinegars on shelf after shelf.  It takes just a few minutes to start tasting the possibilities of taking something that is a item and turning it into an experience.  It had all of the experience building blocks down –
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Creating Ardent Customer Fans . . . lessons learned from a Coke Machine, Trader Joes, and Frequent Flyers

November 9, 2012

Are your customer’s ardent fans?   Do they tell others about your offerings without your prompting? Consider a recent trip I made to a local hamburger place.  These GUYS (5 of them) recently switched their soft drink dispensing machine to a high tech, complex juggernaut.  You put your glass into one slot and then, by pushing various buttons on a screen, get your drink. After inserting my paper cup, I studied the screen, which  is covered with images of choices.  Water, flavored water, the cola and diet cola offerings along with the various lime, cherry additives and on and on and
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You Are Talking BUT They Are Not Listening . . . Understanding and Connecting with the Three Levels of Business Leaders

June 27, 2012

There are three “languages” in business, which change as you move up and down the organization chart.  Unless you are aware of these, you might be talking, but they may not be listening. To illustrate, let’s make a visit to Ye Olde Table Factory. The Table Builder (the worker) Our first contact is with one of the people who are hammering away at building.  A conversation with this person is about materials and the processes in putting together raw parts to make the finished product.  This person represents the day-to-day tactical work.  They are interested in: Getting things done now
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David fights Goliath VIA the Detroit Automotive Show – a lesson in Contrarianism and Synergy

January 12, 2012

The Detroit International Automobile Show 2012.   Among the hundred thousand square feet vendor booths, and the multimillion dollar backdrops complete with state of the art multimedia, and eye candy models . . . both male and beautifully coiffed women;  sits the center of attention. It is all about the cars.  There are cars.  Each collection is often changed out each day for maximum exposure.  Audi might have a new metallic paint the invites you to touch it’s too-strange-too-be-true finish.  That is OK because some t-shirted youth, armed with polishing rags and dust wands wander incessantly to make sure nary a
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Carbon . . . when average is for pencils but with Synergy it becomes diamonds – a sales pitch on the Synergy Selling System

November 16, 2011

Do you want high performance sales people? In it’s simple form carbon makes every pencil useful.  But take the same carbon and add additional forces and then polish . . . and the average becomes extraordinary. Are you sales reps average?  Would you like to develop some diamonds? Our Synergy Selling System© gets your sales people to: Increase Sales with skills that create customer experiences! Develop prospecting plans for explosive sales Move away from “price” and improve margins (teach your people how to differentiate your brand/value) Learn how to leverage time and resources to multiply sales Connect with customers as
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Why Your Customers Want YOU Sneaky

October 6, 2011

In the case are four Apple fritters sequestered amongst powdered, Halloween sprinkles, and beautiful glazed doughnuts. I have heard about these legendary treats for years but have never been able to be here on Wednesday, the only day that they are made, to claim one for myself. Because George sells out of doughnuts, all of his inventory, every day by noon… You have to time your arrival on the exact date to get into Apple heaven.
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When shear smarts is Engaging

September 14, 2011

Sage Lewis is a awesome. The Cleveland Consultants SIG (a group of training and development consultants in NorthEast Ohio) meet this week and the speaker was Sage. He is the only non-professional speaker that I had speak to the Ohio Chapter of the National Speakers Association the year I was president.  So I knew he could connect with a group. He arrived early to set up a projector and computer.   When that didn’t work, we used the large sheet of paper (the screen) instead to graphically record his comments. Energy, enthusiasm and pure subject mater expertise on marketing and the
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