February 5, 2012

Save Those Dying Fires

On this day in business history, 1750…

“Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to Dispatch than Method.”  –Lord Chesterfield, English statesman and diplomat, in a letter to his son, Philip Stanhope.

Today, this is easily applicable to service industries, even if intelligence is your asset in commerce.  Consider both efficiency and effectiveness at the tail of your purchase funnel, which may require unique methods of dispatch as you segment your customer personas into levels of required detail (data vs charts), responsiveness (on demand self service vs weekly reporting),  and platform (print vs web vs mobile app vs etc…).

If you are delivering coal, then you might not need a mobile app.  Oh wait … yes you do.  Don’t forget the QR codes, Facebook fan gates, and Pinterest pics of customers enjoying the benefits of your product.

Here are a few more useful quotes from Lord Chesterfield:

“Observe carefully what pleases you in others, and probably the same thing in you will please others. If you are pleased with the complaisance and attention of others to your humors, your tastes, or your weaknesses, depend upon it the same complaisance and attention, on your part to theirs, will equally please them. ”

“Take the tone of the company that you are in, and do not pretend to give it; be serious, gay, or even trifling, as you find the present humor of the company; this is an attention due from every individual to the majority. ”

“Do not tell stories in company; there is nothing more tedious and disagreeable; if by chance you know a very short story, and exceedingly applicable to the present subject of conversation, tell it in as few words as possible; and even then, throw out that you do not love to tell stories; but that the shortness of it tempted you. ”

Of all things, banish the egotism out of your conversation, and never think of entertaining people with your own personal concerns, or private, affairs; though they are interesting to you, they are tedious and impertinent to everybody else; besides that, one cannot keep one’s own private affairs too secret.”

“Whatever you think your own excellencies may be, do not affectedly display them in company; nor labor, as many people do, to give that turn to the conversation, which may supply you with an opportunity of exhibiting them. If they are real, they will infallibly be discovered, without your pointing them out yourself, and with much more advantage. ”

“Never maintain an argument with heat and clamor, though you think or know yourself to be in the right: but give your opinion modestly and coolly, which is the only way to convince; and, if that does not do, try to change the conversation, by saying, with good humor, ‘We shall hardly convince one another, nor is it necessary that we should, so let us talk of something else.’ “

 

 

 

 

 

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