Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 02/26/2024

We were in a hotel in Miami this past week, and the first morning after check in the night prior I was about to shave when I realized there was no hot water. I ran the water in both sinks and the shower for 15 minutes, no change, so I called the front desk.

They sent up an engineer who had no tools, no work belt, no flashlight. He felt the water in all three areas, left it on, and told me he’d be right back, he could fix it. Twenty minutes later, he hadn’t returned and I asked to speak to a manager. The manager told me he was sending up the “chief engineer.”

He arrived promptly, with an entire cart of equipment from which a lunar lander could have been assembled. He, too, tested all three water sources, left them on, and removed towels and panels under the sink (with tools from his cart). He then told me all was fine there, he’d have to go up to the roof. (I thought of the old Drifters’ song.)

“Can you fix it up there?” I asked.

“I have my cart,” he loftily informed me, with some kind of exotic accent.

He returned  in just 10 minutes, and told me the problem was fixed. He walked over to the two sinks and turned the single handles in the opposite direction, and then did the same for the shower. Hot water immediately cascaded.

“You had the handles turned the wrong way,” he said, apparently figuring that out on the roof and not indicating why his colleague and he hadn’t tried that to begin with while in my bathroom.

At one of my conventions, my wife led a concurrent session offering “Stupid Alan Stories.” It sold out immediately for a couple of hundred dollars per person.

“Are you upset about that?” she asked. “Yes,” I said, “you should have charged more.”

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space

(Carole King & Gerry Gofin)

Just Created: Using Contemporary Events to Generate Uniqueness and Extreme Value to Buyers  

One day I was forced by my buyer at a St. Louis hospital to attend a board reception before my speech. I simply could not get out of it, so I began to “mingle.” I met a man who owned the largest trucking firm in Missouri and the eighth largest in the nation. I said to him, “How does the bankruptcy of Consolidate Freight affect you?” (I had read that in the Wall Street Journal on the plane.) He spoke for 15 minutes and asked if we could talk again later. He became a client.

Are you aware that supply chains are being “shrunk” in order to be less dependent on foreign sources and intervention? Do you appreciate the fact that use of telehealth has increased by a factor of 38 since the pandemic and is expected to grow almost 25% annually from its current $100 billion in revenues? There are 32 million small businesses in the US, small businesses comprise 99.9% of all global businesses, and 50% of all of them fail in the first five years due to clearly preventable factors.

Two bad service experiences prompt about half of your customers to quit the brand.

This session will run on March 4 at 10:30 US eastern time, on Zoom, and will be recorded for distribution later. My birthday is the prior day, Sunday, March 3, and so your gift to me is $900.  Includes recording  Bring your own coffee. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/using-contemporary-events/

In the Buyer’s Office

I’ve been asked to elaborate on the extremely popular “In the Buyer’s Office” videos on a regular basis. So I’m going to stop whining about doing it, and do it. I’m offering a 1.5-day, live session in Rhode Island during which everyone will get the chance to sell to the buyer and to be the buyer. You may record this if you like. You’ll learn how to, and apply how to:

• Open the meeting gracefully and move quickly to your objective.
• Handle distractions.
• Overcome objections.
• Reframe and pivot the conversation.
• Create trust, find key issues, create conceptual agreement, and “pour cement.”
• Create a resultant proposal with over an 80% probability of acceptance of options 2 or 3.

For those of you who can’t travel or are afraid of TSA, I’m offering the same experience (as much as possible) virtually over the course of three mornings. All of this will be recorded for distribution. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/in-the-buyers-office/

Million Dollar Consulting® for the World: I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 47 countries. https://milliondollarconsultingcourse.com

Million Dollar Consulting® for the World ADVANCED: The new program contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/advanced-global-learning-program/

Sentient Strategy Certification: My new book on the topic (above) has been released, so this is an ideal time to market Sentient Strategy. Write me to apply, join over 70 people certified in six countries. One-time fee of $12,000, includes 90 days of my support, free admission to all future certifications, and admission to a private web board with other Sentient facilitators.  alan@summitconsulting.com In a recent program a participant sold a $100,000 strategy program within 48 hours. Write me at [email protected]