Just received what I took as a nice compliment from a client. He said “The idea of not having you as part of the team has never occurred to me.”
Just received what I took as a nice compliment from a client. He said “The idea of not having you as part of the team has never occurred to me.”
First. Kudos. It must make you feel good. I don’t know where I heard or read it but there was a quip to the the effect that “when your client doesn’t call to ask what type of equity kicker to attach to their bond offering, but what school his son or daughter should attend, you know you have a client for life.”
Your comment resonates particularly with me. Our biggest marketing tool (after my sunny disposition of course ;-> ) is our reference list. The firm is 26 years old. I’ve been there 13. We tell them “call everyone.” Period.
Its surprising how few most business owners call – maybe 3 – 10. But we had a situation a couple years ago where an owner, and his wife, called every last one. I forget exactly how many we have on the list but it goes something like this: “we called 55 people who think you guys walk on water, and 3 who have a problem.”
Naturally, those were troubled deals, where we had to make management changes. We gave our side of the story. Son of a, uh, gun, the owner and wife called them back. Then they called us.
“Those people got real quiet when we called them back.” “Let’s do the deal.” We closed in July of 2008.
You obviously run a classy and competant operation. In my experience, customers rarely lie.
Yes, it does feel good.
Over the years I’ve probably made hundreds of cold calls, run ads, made thousands of phone calls, conducted seminars, and sent tens of thousands of mailers. A dozen years or so ago I came to the conclusion that the only thing that was effective for me was indirect sales, essentially, your customers selling your services for you.
Um, sir, I ask if I may go off-topic?
I followed the recipe for your pumpkin chiffon pie.
It’s light and airy, the substance is tasty,but it is not an appetizing color. The canned pumpkin I used is lightly packed. Should I use more? Or should I buy L****’s?
I’ve never made it with anything but Libby’s. Until quite recently it was literally the only thing readily available around here.
It’s always come out a very nice pale tan color.
Mine is a pale tan, too. I plan to serve it as a mousse in a dessert glass. How to dress it up?
I was thinking a crumble of pecans roasted in brown sugar.
When I served it that way I garnished it with ginger snaps.
So be it, oh sayer of the law.
One more question: How far ahead can I prepare the dessert? A day? Two?
I wouldn’t prepare it much more than a day ahead.
Thank you, sir. Sorry for the threadjack.
Back on topic, a nice review for you. One of my brothers is a self-employed CPA. He says the difference between working for someone else and working for yourself is that in the first case you have one boss, in the other everyone is your boss.