Recalling Details on National Memory Day

It’s National Memory Day

It seems like I discover a new holiday every day.  Today’s special day is promoted as a day to celebrate our memories.  As you might imagine, I have many memories.  For example, I still remember June 6, 1977.  On that fateful day, I walked into the main lobby of the Allen-Bradley building at 1202 South Second Street in Milwaukee.  

I had on a newly acquired three-piece gray suit and a conservative blue tie.  The weather was warmish, I was nervous, and I can still recall feeling a bit uncomfortable in business.

I can remember a few other important days in my career.  I won’t bore you to tears with the details, but memories, being little snapshots of life, have a way of sticking with us.  But the mind is a strange thing, while bits of minutia linger, other important points slip through the cracks disappearing forever.

 

What slips through the cracks?

Routine and often repeated activities can be the first to go.  Years ago, I wrote an article calling for distributor salespeople to log the extra things they did for their customers.  The point was if something you do makes (or saves) the customer money, it is an important event.  The customer probably won’t remember it for more than a week.  But sometime down the road, you may want to remind them.  Specific information carries more weight, especially in price negotiations. 

 

Let’s assume the customer says, “We got a quote for the same motor from an online competitor which is about 100 dollars less than your price, so we are considering them for our next project.”

 

Here are two versions of a response from the seller:

 

With no recorded data and relying on memory:

“Well Ms. Customer, over the years we have provided you with extra services tied to those motors.  We often provide services that save your company lots of money.”

With recorded data:

“You know Ms. Customer, we have provided you with extra services tied to those motors over the years.  For instance, a year ago in November, we helped your team determine the cause of early failure and recommended a different type of seal.  Now those $500 motors are running smoothly with no failures.  This has saved you over $800 in replacement costs.  But that wasn’t an isolated event, last January we made an after-hours delivery to get your plant up and running.  The maintenance team tells us your downtime is $10,000 an hour. Can the other folks provide this kind of service?”

 

 

Here is an excerpt from that article:

Now, Back to National Memory Day.

Given my choice, I would recommend a Don’t Trust Your Memory Day.  But we will stick to memories and things to remember.  As a parting thought, here are things to remember:

·       Remember to add meetings, customer appointments, and other deadlines to your calendar.

·       Remember to take notes during customer meetings.

·       Remember to log the value-creating events you and your company do for customers.

·       Remember to add family and personal events to your work calendar.

·       Remember to connect with your favorite consultant on LinkedIn.