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I have the permission of Sandeep Mohal, Principal of Confidental in Sandhurst – permission to bust him. There I was today for a management meeting and I asked him where his lovely business cards were. The cards tick most of my boxes – especially a delightful photograph of the man himself (sorry I cannot reproduce the card here as I’m travelling). So – where were the business cards? Can you guess? Yes – they were in their boxes, at the back of the cupboard – over his sink. Hence the title of this post. To his credit, Sandeep didn’t give me some BS excuse about the people of Sandhurst not liking to be asked. He just confessed that he keeps forgetting. Why? Because his unique ability is dentistry – not relationship marketing – and its easy for us to forget the things we are not so good at – even easier the things that take us out of our comfort zone. I have a spare desk in The Bunker due to be assembled since September 2011 – I hate self-assembly furniture – go figure. The difference is that my business will not suffer if I don’t build a desk (or take it to the tip/give it away) – but Sandeep’s business will not grow so quickly and cost-effectively if he doesn’t develop robust Word of Mouth systems. In other words – handing out those cards is mission critical to the development of his profits. He – is suitably admonished – and agreed to this public ritual to provide even more incentive to extract his digit. In reality – the lesson with the stuff you don’t want to do is either to:
do it – HAND THE BLOODY CARDS OUT or
delegate it – ask your TCO or reception to hand the cards out
but never
to abdicate
If you have cards, brochures, offers, incentives, ideas – that are sat in the back of cupboards or “roundtuit” piles then please, please, please – deploy them. And don’t waste valuable resources when you have invested so much time and trouble in your other marketing initiatives.