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March 26, 2013 at 11:10 PM
The ’60s were a decade filled with new opportunities for teenagers. Dances were common, and disc jockeys were popular. The local skating rink would have a special dance night and occasionally invite a famous band. Since I lived in a college town, the place was packed for the dance. The band was Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Their biggest hit was “Wooly Bully.”
They were giving a prize for the best couple, so I grabbed a girl who I knew had plenty of energy. She was amazing. After several elimination dances, we were the only couple left. We won the prize. At the next dance, she found another partner, and we both lost. We should have stayed together.
Creating excellent working relationships is not easy in our crazy world, but keeping them is even more difficult. A lost character trait is loyalty. But loyalty is a two-way street. When a marketing organization or wholesaler overlooks customer service and loyalty to that customer, it’s not difficult to understand why that customer goes away.
See also: What top producers want from the home office
The marketing organization I started with in 2002 was owned by a very unusual fellow. We took him a new marketing idea. After careful consideration, he decided it would work for his producers. We shook hands on the idea and never drew up a contract. He paid us consistently and loyally for more than a year until we both felt the value had run its course. We again shook hands and ended the agreement.
That’s integrity. We did our part, and he fulfilled his part. I love doing business with someone who will say clearly what they will do and then do what they say.
There are some great ideas that are offered through various marketing organizations on marketing and prospecting. There are so many, in fact, that it may be difficult to separate the good ones from the bad ones. When we do find something that works well, we may have a tendency to modify the idea and take it elsewhere. That causes marketing organizations to be a little skittish about their relationships — and protective of their ideas.
Since I create seminars for producers to use, they have continued access to them. I don’t charge for the use of the PowerPoint presentations as long as the producer uses my production services. I discovered an agent had taken one of my PowerPoint presentations and posted the entire thing on his website, effectively negating the purpose of the PowerPoint. He seemed impervious to the fact that he misused the privilege for his own purpose.
