Excerpted from Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin
JIAN has had some big companies take a run at our products and even try to put us out of business. They failed. I think it’s because we were doing the right thing and they weren’t.
JIAN has had some big companies take a run at our products and even try to put us out of business. They failed. I think it’s because we were doing the right thing and they weren’t.
It is tempting to take shortcuts, such as making something cheaper, because they surface all the time. You think you can make a bigger profit by taking something out and people won’t notice. Big mistake. People do notice. God is in the details. I want people to say about JIAN’s products and service, “Oh, they put [x] in there—that’s good. I like these guys.
”Subtle and simple things are powerful. These are the very things that compel people to tell their friends to buy your product or use your service: The investment in quality will make your marketing efforts go 10 times farther. That experience of doing the right thing is underneath it all. I think the fact that I haven’t been blown out of the water or had things go wrong is because possibly Nature is in support of that fact.
Contrary to the cliché, genuinely nice guys always finish first or very near it.
— Malcolm Forbes, publisher
You win and you win big when you play straight. There’s always trepidation when someone buys a big ticket item like a car or a house. But if you’re the salesperson with the good reputation, people are going to buy from you. In the past, it has seemed like only the bullies and liars got ahead, but now we’re seeing that that’s not true anymore.
As a buyer at The Sharper Image, I always went with the salesperson who was straight with me even though others had what looked like better deals. When push comes to shove in a competitive field, people will go with the ones they can trust (or wish they had). There’s too much at stake.
Continue... to Part 3: Venture vendors
Continue... to Part 3: Venture vendors
Employee Stock Options
