1. Our “Gold Nugget” for December: 
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Here’s a very special “win-win” offer that may interest you!  It’s a one-time offer to book me to speak to your company or Association at a big savings, while helping a very special cause.  Here’s the scoop!

1. Quickly differentiate you from your competitors,
2. Create customer confidence,
3. Increase sales and profitability,
4. Focus every member of your staff on delivering the compelling value that you promise.

To be most effective, your guarantee must do two things…

A.    Promise an action, performance or a value that’s compelling to your target customers.
This could be a promise that something will happen if they do business with you (ie, “We guarantee that your parcels will be delivered anywhere in North America by 9:00 am tomorrow”.  …or, it could be a promise that something won’t happen (ie, “We guarantee that your car won’t rust for five years.)

B.    Be specific about what you’ll do for the customer if you fail to deliver your promise. My favorite example is, “Your pizza will be delivered in 40 minutes…or it’s FREE!”  They don’t guarantee that it’s a great tasting pizza.  No, this guarantee is for people who value “fast” more than flavor.

Years ago, as an award-winning retailer of ladies fashions and gifts, I created an outrageous and powerful guarantee that grew our business tremendously and helped make us famous!

Customers loved our store so much that they started bringing their friends to shop with us.  Some of these friends lived two or three hours away and I noticed that they kept coming back, even from that distance. So, we thought, “What could we do with that information that would be so bold, so gutsy that it would convince thousands of women to search us out?”

We came up with what we called, ”The world’s most unusual guarantee!” It went like this, “We’re so sure that you’ll love our store that if you show up and think we’re ‘for the birds’…we’ll pay your gas mileage!”

This gutsy guarantee differentiated us and gave 1000’s of new customers the confidence to travel up to three hours to try us out.  It focused our staff, every day, on delivering an amazing customer experience that was worth the drive…and in over five years, we paid out less than $200 in gas mileage!

What gutsy and powerful guarantee could you come up with in your business? What could you promise to do, or not do, that would differentiate you, create confidence, increase sales and focus your staff?

But here’s the catch! Don’t guarantee something that you can’t deliver 99.9% of the time.   A guarantee is a promise and breaking that promise will kill your business!  So, here’s how it works…perfect your delivery, then make the promise.  Don’t make the promise first, and then try to figure out how you can deliver. 

For more valuable information on the power of a great guarantee, check out our free article titled “The Amazing Value of Messing Up…and the Power of the Right Guarantee!” 

3.  Will you live to be 100? 
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A survey of people who have lived to be 100 or more shows that most of them have four things in common…

1. They were physically active,
2. They had a positive view of the world,
3. They all found ways of dealing with loss and getting on with life…and,
4. They believe that there’s still more to do.

Whatever age you’re at, right now, how would you rate yourself in these four life-extending qualities?  Will you live to be 100?

4.  Do you have "Performance Agreements" in your business?
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Earlier this month I had a pre-speech research meeting with a client who has quickly become the dominant force in their industry.  Their people are focused, committed and effective in a way that I don’t see very often…and I found out why.

Everyone in the business has a “Performance Agreement” with their boss as to exactly what they agree to deliver during the year. The “Agreement” could include sales numbers, customer or employee satisfaction scores, departmental expense controls, customer retention scores or any one of a number of other factors.  But the point is that this “management by agreement” is working. Everyone is committed to delivering what they agreed to, there’s monthly measurement, there are rewards and consequences and there’s extraordinary performance at every level of the organization!

But, perhaps you’re thinking, “Their staff probably resent such a demanding management style.”  As a matter of fact, “No!”  The CEO and Vice-Presidents each received genuine, enthusiastic standing ovations both before and after their presentations at the company’s annual Sales & Marketing Conference.  I know…I was there.

How could you use “Performance Agreements” to bring focus, commitment and accountability to every part of your business?

5.  Meeting Planners tips: 
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This one ain’t rocket science, but I see it happen over and over. When it comes to planning a Conference, let’s face it, there’s no such thing as a ten minute break!  I’ve seen so many Conferences fall way behind as the day goes on because they schedule ten minute breaks that simply aren’t going to happen.

And at the end of the day, either the whole thing drags on and the audience  tunes out, or the last speaker of the day has to cut short the presentation that they spent days putting together and perhaps flew 2000 miles to deliver. Thank God I’m usually the opening Keynote speaker!  How far behind can you be if it’s only 9:00 am?

So, when planning a Conference, let’s all agree that breaks are 20 to 30 minutes each, depending on the size of the audience, and while we’re at it, schedule at least 5 minutes between each speaker for “thanking” and “introducing”, unless there’s already a break scheduled at that point.

6. A dining experience that you'll always remember...and a customer service experience that you'll never forget!
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If you’re ever in, or close to, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, and if you appreciate wonderful food and outstanding service, do make dinner reservations at the dining room of the Queen’s Landing Hotel!  Ask for Rudy to be your waiter and order the five course tasting menu.

At $85 it’s the best value in a gourmet experience that we’ve had, by far…and being served by Rudy will remind you that we can all make a difference in people’s lives when we know our stuff and love what we do.

7. "We are what we continue to learn!"... 8 steps to creating a learning culture in your business:   
(time to read and download this article and template, about 75 seconds)

8. Have you ever thought of buying a gift for your business?  
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Last month I received one of those wonderful phone calls that make your year, never mind make your day!  I was invited to visit a business that was, according to the President, designed and run on our principles and process of Human Marketing^®. 

This business has already been honoured for being the best of its kind in all of Canada and is about to be recognized as the best in the world…and the owner wanted me to come and see what I had helped to create!

The amazing thing is that this incredibly successful business is based on and inspired by our $40 Human Marketing Audio Seminar Tapes.  So, here’s an interesting question…”Is your business worth an investment of 40 bucks?”

At this season of gift giving, perhaps your business could use a gift.  We offer our taped Seminars in two “flavors”…

1)    Our 4½  hour Human Marketing Audio Seminar for $40 plus tax and $5.00 for shipping.  Many folks who have listened to 100’s of business tapes over the years are kind enough to say that this audio seminar tape is one of the  two or three best business tapes ever produced!

2)    Our 2½  hour Human Marketing Video Seminar for $60 plus tax and $5.00  for shipping. 

This Video Seminar is particularly effective for staff training in the areas of marketing, sales and service excellence…especially when used in conjunction with our free “7 Steps To Business Success” implementation guide available on our web site when you purchase the Tapes.

To order one, or both, of these “gifts” for your business, simply visit our On-line Store or email us at info@donaldcooper.com and we’ll ship immediately!

Of course, I’m also available to speak LIVE to your company or Association. To quote Rick Spence, Editor emeritus of Profit Magazine, “A compelling bottom-line message, brilliantly delivered!”

9. Chuckles & Hugs!  
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You’ll undoubtedly be attending many parties at this time of year at which you will frequently find yourself without anything even remotely interesting to say.  But fear not…below you will find 10 fascinating facts that will make you the conversational hit of any party…