Tag: Prezi

My friend Frank Dawson in E. Liverpool, OH has created a veritable competitive fortress by leveraging a simple principle: It was Mary Kay Ash who, when asked the key to her success, said, “I reminded myself every day that EVERYONE wants to feel important.”

Frank sends personal notes, often with a photograph enclosed, on average 100 times a week. After more than 40 years everyone in his town is his personal friend. It doesn’t get much better than that. But sending 100 personal notes a week takes a lot of time…not to mention getting all those pictures developed. Today with cameras in cell phones there is a much easier and cheaper way. But it gets better, with the program I show here you can actually turn this process into a small revenue generator. Check it out here. If you want to know more just email me at alan@alancreedy.org

It is accepted wisdom that companies should have a mission statement.  In most cases this exercise produces a plain vanilla restatement of something that sounded good.

Effective mission statements connect with personal values…for both the members of the organization and those they serve.   Some are bold others are just simple statements of commitment.  But the best ones skip the self serving stuff and focus on the customer.  Does anyone care that you want to be the biggest or the best?  No, everyone wants to know “What’s In It For them.”  So Mission Statements need to be Sensory Rich. They must resonate and answer unspoken questions.

Here is a unique way of expressing a sensory rich mission to customers I found in a local parking lot.

Cremation has been growing at the rate of 1% a year for more than 30 years. Many areas are now at greater than 50% cremation. Without the sale of a casket this imposes very strong economic pressure to continue operations.

Basil Forsberg of Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Canada shared with me a way he has found to replace some or all of the lost margin on cremation sales. He worked out an arrangement with a local municipal cemetery by persuading them to install two 3 foot ribbons of concrete in an unpopular part of the cemetery. He then found a supplier of 2 to 4 private cremation niches that he installs on the concrete. The family pays the cemetery $250 for each installation.

You can talk to Basil directly (I recommend it…he’s a pretty smart guy) by calling him at (306) 862-3979 or emailing him at: basil.heritage@sasktel.net