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.It takes a thick-skinnedindividual to resist the pressure of his peers to work things out.Despite this good advice, many people find it hard to admit some people feel negatively aboutthem.A four-year-old friend, Joshua, has a philosophy that may be helpful in encouraging you to dothis exercise.One day Joshua came home from pre-school and told his parents about a kid whohad called him a series of truly ugly names.The parents, who were themselves somewhat upset,were surprised when Joshua indicated very little concern.When the parents questioned him abouthis feelings, Joshua replied,  He just needed someone to pick on.He really doesn t know me.We also like the approach of Virginia Simons, an independent paralegal in Bakersfield, California,who has had a lot of experience dealing with attacks from bar associations.She was sued by abankruptcy trustee in federal court, charged with practicing law without a license because she hadhelped customers prepare their own bankruptcy forms.She told each of her customers what wasgoing on and that the suit was being brought in a effort to put her out of business, not because ofincompetence on her part.Several of her colleagues, who were also targeted by the local bar,joined forces with Simons.They got their clients to sign petitions on their behalf.They went tobankruptcy court when it was in session and took notes as to any unequal treatment given to non-lawyers representing themselves.Twenty-five people from all over California showed up in court tosupport them, and they won their case.Instead of gloating or spreading negative word of mouth about the bar association, they decided toopen up the lines of communication with their opponents and convince individual lawyers that manypeople couldn t afford them and needed the services of paralegals.They contacted the DistrictAttorney and judges in their county and even the lawyers who had sued them.Simons and hercolleagues invited one of the lawyers to the local meetings of the California Association ofIndependent Paralegals.They had him to lunch.They invited him to speak at their meetings.Heinvited them to speak to a bar association lunch.They told him that if he thought they were doing abad job that they were open to having him teach them to do better.The District Attorney s Office isnow a member of their advisory committee.Your Behavior in PublicTwo people were sitting behind us on an airplane talking about a client in very negative terms.Theconversation was so vitriolic that our ears perked up.When they mentioned the name of the clientand the name of their own firm (a national accounting organization), we were shocked.It didn tspeak very well of their own company to be so negative about a client in a public place, and someof the mud they were slinging stuck to their company.A far more blatant example of how important our public behavior can be to our business successoccurred during a San Francisco restaurant strike, when a psychotherapist punched a picket.Aprominent newspaper columnist picked up the item.It certainly wasn t good for his word of mouth inthe psychotherapy business.It s often difficult to think of ourselves in a public sense, always being a representative of ourbusiness; to know that our language, appearance and personal dealings shape our customersattitudes.But it s true, from small town America to the largest city.A businessperson must always be  on, to a certain extent.For example, if when making copies atthe local self-serve copy shop, you lose 50 cents in the coin slot and respond by beating up theoffending machine, anyone present who recognizes you will probably view you as a highly volatileperson.(This, of course, is unfortunate, we hasten to add, because kicking a machine that hasdone you wrong can sometimes feel very good.) In the back of their mind they may hold this imageof you for a long time, and it may shape their future dealings with you.Chapter 6: Openness The Basis of TrustOverviewOpenness in business is definitely not a strategy taught in business school.Sadly, the currentlyprevailing view is that it s best to  play your cards close to your chest about almost everything fromthe way a product is made or a service delivered to profits to pay scales to who qualifies for whatbusiness perks.This is a serious mistake.Openness builds customer trust, which, as you shouldknow by now, is the prime requisite of any marketing without advertising campaign.If you doubt that openness leads to trust, consider the public sector.These days we require publicofficials to report their campaign finances and top officers in publicly held corporations to reporttheir salaries and stock transactions.Similarly, nonprofit organizations that receive tax subsidiesmust file a public financial statement; and even private corporations that seek to raise funds in thefinancial markets must publish much of their financial data and supply the Securities and ExchangeCommission with even more.In short, openness in financial dealings is fast becoming afundamental legal requirement in all sorts of contexts.Despite this powerful trend, and despite the fact that openness obviously contributes to buildingcustomer trust, many small businesspeople still try to hide as much as they can about their financialand operating affairs.This is a miserable policy, especially from a marketing perspective.Nothingdestroys trust as fast as an atmosphere of secrecy.On the other hand, a business that is obviouslyopen with its customers is so refreshing that this policy itself stimulates positive recommendations.Promoting openness in your business counters the accurate public perception that most businesseswatch out for their own interests while often ignoring those of their customers.For many years, thistradition found support in our law under the doctrine of caveat emptor, or  let the buyer beware.These days, courts and legislatures have shifted much of the responsibility for selling safe productsto business, but there is still a widespread feeling in the business community that if consumersaren t canny enough to watch out for their own interests, they deserve to be taken advantage of.As a result, customers tend to be wary both when dealing with individual businesses and thebusiness community generally.For example, these days, someone who reads in the newspaperthat a local Merchants Association favors a particular political position is likely to conclude that theposition promotes the merchants  not the public interest [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]