Think about the beaver and its dam.

The beaver is strategic, analyzing every day the holes in its house and recognizing weaknesses and areas that can be built larger and stronger. The beaver is tactical by by immediately going to the woods and finding the solution to strengthen and grow its house. The beaver is fearless as it attacks big projects, trees that are thousands of times its size. The beaver is skillful at knowing how to fell a tree, get it to the river upstream so it floats to the dam, and then positions it into the right place in its house to add the needed support and safety. The beaver is hard working, waking up every day and repeating the core processes again to protect and improve its future. (although, as people we get vacations where we pre-plan to take time away from work to recharge.)

What part of your sales strategy, tactics, and fearless attack do you need to do today?

“We only deliver on Tuesday and Thursday.” As the company owner said it to me, I had to use all of my poker playing skills not to let shock take over my face. This wasn’t the milkman, fuel oil company, or a transatlantic container shipper, this was a B2B service in a highly competitive localized market with literally over 100 competitors within 20 miles. “We decided it was easier for us so we tell our customers our delivery days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. If someone wants it Wednesday, we tell them it will be Tuesday or Thursday.”

I’m all for training customers on the value of pulling off incredible feats and why such activity is worth a higher price, but I was at a loss for how to respond to such a clear disregard for customer service in an industry currently operating at less than 50% capacity.