Being a farm kid from rural Minnesota as I am originally (or as I sometimes say, you can take the Minnesota boy to North Carolina, but you can’t make him like the hot summers) I rather like planting and harvesting metaphors. Not only because they hearken back to the time of my childhood, but also because they nearly always hold more than a kernel of truth in them.
My friend Brian Haymond talks on his blog about some of the seeds he recently planted and how they bore a bumper crop for him. In so doing he demonstrates a couple of truly important principles.
The first of which is that being nice isn’t just nice, it’s good business.
And second, he demonstrates how a relatively modest gesture of gratitude on the part of Apple has turned him from not just a committed customer, but a raving fan … someone willing to shout his gratitude to them and admiration for them from the cyber-rooftops.
This is Twenty-First Century marketing. Brian’s demonstrating it and so is Apple.
What about you? Are you trying to sell or are you building relationships with people?
Bob, thanks for the kind comments and pointing folks to the article. It was a wonderfully affirming encounter and one that I need to remind myself of quite often. It’s easy to assert “our rights” and our point of view (albeit correct or skewed) and I was graciously reminded of how looking at the big picture and beyond myself yields a good crop.
Brian,
You’re very welcome. Thank you for the excellent and thought-provoking post.
Be well,
Bob