What's In An Address?

When I meet a stranger that says he comes from Edina, Minnesota, I immediately think, that's the high rent district of Minneapolis. This man has done well.

In most, older cities of the U. S. the addresses with east in them, were and still may be, the high rent, more desirable districts. In the Phoenix, "Valley of the Sun", the various cities that were villages and now connect seamlessly, have distinct socio-economic reputations and within them, some addresses are perceived to be "better" than others. Perception is reality.

A speaker in a meeting I attended recently indicated that email addresses also have a perceived significance. The speaker said that addresses ending in ".com" are perceived as being used by professionals and stable businesses. This reminded me of another "expert" that, several years ago, said, ".com" at the end of your email address conveyed status, ".net" was a little lower class, ".org," ".gov," and similar endings showed you belonged or had a job. Being @aol.com and others suggested you were content to be with the masses.

When I grew up on the farm in Minnesota the number of rings you heard when you called someone carried social significance. Most of us talked on "party lines." As many as eight customers were served by the same set of wires and all of them could pick up the phone and hear everything you were saying. When you called someone, you could hear the ringing signal, if it was two rings or a combination of short and long rings, you knew the person you were calling was on a ‘party line"; only if it was one long ring would you wonder if it was a "party line" or a private line with its status and perceived economic class. Few could afford a "private line" because it required a separate twisted pair from the telephone switching location to the individual phone, and copper wire was expensive.

Perceptions are formed by little things, technology hasn't changed this.

Perception is the reality on which we make all decisions.

Labels: perception, technology

Labels: hurry

Don't Assume! Communicate

March 2007 Zinger Preview (Issue Z0307)

Perception Of A Difference Zinger Preview

In my experience, it is impossible to produce a solution to any problem that does not include some assumptions. The best one can do is to minimize their effect by testing the solution at every stage -- often by asking questions.

Asking questions is an art. On one hand, the asker has a mental image of the issue in question, and is primarily interested in fleshing out the details. Why the details? Because the asker may already have a perception of the basic structure of the deal, and, he often feels no need to ask questions to which he believes he knows the answers. . . unless there are additional people involved who do not know the answers. The classic examples of this are the prosecuting attorneys in many TV dramas, who always know the answers to the questions they ask, but ask them for the benefit of the jury.

Assumptions are a real "tar baby". The more you try to play them, the deeper you get immersed in the controversy. Often, you don't know the "real" questions that should have been asked until long after the controversy resolves itself, one way or the other. That's when we hear, "Why didn't you tell me about (...)?" "You didn't ask."

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Labels: assumptions, communication, questions, zingers

Fruitful Networking

Last evening I attended a networking mixer sponsored by an organization that is making a difference in this community. I have been attending its offerings for more than a year. I was attracted to them because they offered a nice balance of networking mixers and learning opportunities. These were forty-five minute presentations by consultants and successful business owners, including myself. They did not attract large numbers of attendees, but they were well worth giving up part of a workday and were held in excellent facilities for the purpose.

Because they take you away from your work schedule, they can create feelings of guilt because you are not in your office or making calls. For this reason, the burden of making them useful to you rests on speaker's shoulders. They must perform well and deliver valuable content.

The heavily attended evening mixers don't create guilt. They allow you to feel relaxed by including food, with wine and beer available for purchase. The burden of making them useful is on your shoulders and you better make them useful enough to justify the pain in your legs and feet from standing. I make them useful by listening, listening some more, and creating the beginning of a relationship with no more than two, new to me people, during a single Mixer. I do this by walking up to a person that knows me well and listening to his/her conversation with someone that is a stranger to me. This is my favorite method, however, sometimes I just walk up to group of total strangers and attentively listen, saying nothing until one of them brings me into the conversation.

Last evening I learned more about the skill of a fellow Kiwanian's husband. He is a painter, as in portraits, scenic vistas etc. He has unique business cards; each bear's a different one of his paintings. He doesn't hand you a card, he hands you a selection, which forces you to look at them while he says,

"Which one do you like, I will sign a limited edition print for you."

That is an effective selling approach, brief, to the point, demonstrative, and bound to start a conversation.

Next, I walked up to two women listening to a friend of mine; he noticed me, finished his thought,

"Have you two met Wes Zimmerman? He has written a wonderful book."


"Wes, you were at the same breakfast table with me at a presentation a few weeks ago. I remember you now. You gave each of us a bookmark."

"I wasn't there, what is the book about?"

Before I could speak, my friend, Bill Austin did

"Do you have a business plan? If you haven't answered the twenty-seven questions in his book with yes, your business will fail. The first two chapters tell about how you create a positive perception in the minds of customers and how customers buy. They decide they will buy from you someday, because of that perception. The third chapter has the twenty-seven questions you must be able to answer about everything you think you want to sell. The rest of the book tells you how the first three chapters apply to real life, in a way you cannot forget."

"You are really sold on that book."

"Yes, and you should buy and read it. I learn something from it every time I open it."

In the conversation that followed I gave each of the women a bookmark and told them about my new Blog site. Needless to say, I have their business cards and will follow up with a "thank you for your time", today.



From that experience, which I obviously remember vividly, I moved on and stopped to listen to two attractive women and two men. I was not close to them or intrusive, positioned at the opening of the loose U formation they had formed as they talked. One by one three of them moved on and the third introduced him-self to me. We had a good conversation, in which we shared something of our experience and during which he respectfully asked my age and then asked something that really impressed me,

"What has motivated you, through-out life?

"Early in life I had an encounter with the Lord and felt that He wanted me to help people. I have been doing that ever since with those who come into my life in ways, and for reasons I will never know."

We talked a bit more, he asked for my card and asked if I would join him for coffee soon so we could talk more. I said yes, of course. He said he would contact me soon. Some how I am sure he will and I look forward to it. He has my bookmark, as well as my card.

When I got home Amy asked,

"Was it worth the time and effort?"

What do you think I told her?

Labels: networking

Sample Zinger - But We Don't Want To Lose Your Business.



This is a true story, not a fable. It happened before on line access to credit records and credit scores was possible, but the lessons are just as applicable to day as when it happened and many financial institutions react in the same way and do the same things, only much faster.

Like any business that starts out small and under capitalized, growth forced us to establish a line of credit. We visited our branch of the bank we had dealt with for years. That branch had our home mortgage, savings account, checking account, business savings account and checking account, and records of numerous loans paid off over two decades. The corporation had never borrowed money. Most of this time, I was well known in the branch at the teller, Manager and Assistant Manager levels.

Two years before this story took place we'd experienced an extended slump in cash flow,
I went to the then Branch Manager who knew me well, presented the financial status of our organization and sought to get a loan. He uttered those famous last words, "You should have come to me six moths ago when you had all that money in the bank and things were going great, because now I can't lend you a dime".

I left his place unhappy, but recognized that with a lot of scratch, we'd make out. However, I took the knee route as I always do, you know - bent knee in front of bed and
three weeks later the phone rang from a rival financial institution and the lady, after introducing herself, asked me if I would be interested in a line of credit. I looked at the ceiling, whispered thank you and then said, "Yes". Three weeks later we were all taken care of.

As a result of this episode, I did not bother to talk to any officers at the local branch of my bank for over two years. This changed when I attempted to deposit a large check from a Fortune 100 client and was told by a teller, I had never seen before, that the check would be on hold for at least two weeks. In our business, we normally get money in fairly large amounts but at infrequent times. Since I had been depositing checks of this size and much larger all these years, I came unglued inwardly. Through clenched teeth, I explained to the teller why I thought I should get my money immediately. The situation escalated very rapidly, and I found myself in the Branch Manager's office facing a total stranger who didn't even bother to stand up or shake hands. I stood, she sat and the interchange was "strained".

"I think we have a problem."

"Oh? Who are you?"

"A long time customer with many accounts."

"Is there anyone in the bank you know, or anyone who knows you?"

(I thought of the Executive Vice President, a dear friend who helps us make wine, but decided to save that for another day.)

"Yes, at least there are three or four tellers here that I know, but none of them are on duty today."

"Do you have a personal banker at this branch?"

"That's a joke -- they never stay here longer than a month so I've always dealt with the person in this office or next door." (The Assistant Manager.)

"Why haven't you come to see me before?"

(I was now so angry I chose to keep my mouth shut.)

"Does my Assistant Manager know you?"

"I don't know, after nineteen years with this bank I discover I am dealing with total strangers."

(She finally stood up.)

I proceeded to tell her what accounts we had in the branch, discovered that their computer systems wouldn't let them go to a terminal and see all our records at once, and finally left with the money available and a bad taste in my mouth. She never did shake hands!!!

When it became apparent four months later, that we had to have a new credit arrangement, I decided to shop around for money. I started with our local branch bank. This time I did it the right way with complete corporate and personal financial statements, a history of our company, a copy of our five year business plan, copies of our brochures and all the documents we use in selling. I asked for an appointment with the Branch Manager, who did not remember me, but was busy and said that I should go to the Assistant Manager, whom as yet, I had never met.

The Assistant Manager looked over everything I had and asked me to come back in two days. When I returned, she announced that she was sorry but they couldn't meet my needs for less than 12% a year and only half of the amount of credit that we needed.
I informed her that she was completely non-competitive and walked out, as I did so she said,

"But we don't want to lose your business because you've been an excellent customer for almost nineteen years."

In the next three weeks, I lost the equivalent of six and one-half working days that I could have spent earning my full fee on billable projects, while I went through the effort of applying for the credit line we needed at four different competing establishments. One of them offered me money at 7.5%. The others settled in at 9.5%. Two of them were able and willing to support us with the size credit line we really needed. After all of the paperwork had been done, each of them had to check our credit, check the value of our assets, send out appraisers, etc. This took a lot of calendar time. (It was useful however, since we got copies of the credit reports and appraisals, and discovered that we were a pretty good credit risk.)

While we were waiting for these various deals to come to fruition, so we could make a final choice, the Assistant Manager of our bank branch called and asked us to please come over. She surprised me with more money than we were going to get anywhere else, and the rate had dropped to 9.5%. The payment arrangements and the means of utilizing the credit line were simpler than anyone else's. She wanted my permission to send in the appraisers and do all the things that everyone else was doing. I informed her of my decision deadline, which was tight. I then discovered that all of the other establishments had contacted her to get information about us. She knew exactly how many of her competitors I was talking with and what their names were. She asked if her new proposal was competitive and I said, "Well frankly, yes it is."

She had my signature and we had money before any of her competitors came through. Two of them called with papers ready to sign the day after I had accomplished this with her.

When we were closing the deal, I commented that I hadn't really expected her to be able to do anything for us. She said, "I worked at this almost full time for the last week and a half to get it through." She also explained that I was the first recipient of a new product that had been designed to meet competitive pressures and that it had been designed because they didn't want to lose my business.

Ironically, the institution that had called me three years before with a line of credit that had been entirely satisfactory, lost my business, whereas the bank that I was very willing to leave got it - why?

In my original shopping around, I did not go to that institution because they were charging me through the schnoz. The credit line had a variable interest rate tied to the prime rate. They had not bothered to lower the interest for a year after the prime had dropped. Their District Manager, from a different state, called me in the evening, four days before we closed the deal with the bank and said, "Look, we know you're shopping, I want to talk with you." I tried to get off the phone but he was persistent, as a good salesperson is, and kept me on the earpiece for forty-five minutes. I went to see him the next day with my whole package of information. He explained that the best he could do was 11.5% and I informed him that, of course, it was unacceptable.

He had made the comment in the previous evening's phone conversation, that he was put out with his local branch people, particularly the Branch Manager, because they had not automatically offered me the new rates and double the credit line four months previously, when the corporation changed its guidelines. As we talked that day in his office, I told him that I really had lost a little trust after realizing that they were not adjusting the rate when prime changed. He said,

"I know, I don't blame you. What would you have done if we had sent this through for your signature four months ago? Would you have gone out looking and shopping around?"

"No, after your call yesterday evening I told my wife that if you had adjusted the rate on a timely basis we would never have looked elsewhere."

"Why not?"

"The cost to us of the difference in interest rates would have taken two and one half years to equal what we lost in billings lining up a new credit line."

His reaction reminded me of a Bible verse describing a man's sorrow; He tore his garments and wept bitterly!

Both he and the bank had forgotten the Second Eternal Law of Sales Success . I would have purchased from either one and did purchase from the bank, because of the First Eternal Law of Sales Success . If both of them had practiced the Fourth Eternal Law of Sales Success , I would have saved a lot of money and an awful lot of time. Quite frankly, I was very troubled by the fact that the Branch Manager and the Assistant Manager at the bank both:

- said that I should keep in touch with them.

- said that I should have done it in the past.

- said that I should be sure to do it in the future.

- thought that I should come to them.


Baloney! WHY SHOULD I BE THE PERSON WHO SHOULD COME IN AND KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THEM?!!!!!!!!


I don't do that with any supplier or sales person who never contacts me or shows any interest in our company.


Nuff said!!!




1. Your present customer is your best prospect! - copyrighted 1986 by WZA Inc. All rights reserved.
2. People buy from people they like and trust! - copyrighted 1986 by WZA Inc. All rights reserved.
3. Systematic, consistent effort assures that you will be in the right place, at the right time more often than your competitor!

- copyrighted 1986 by WZA Inc. All rights reserved.


Zingers is a monthly newsletter subscription that includes the first two issues free. You may purchase this month's newsletter individually for $5.47 without subscribing to the monthly newsletter subscription.

Labels: zingers