DW's Blog

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

by DW Green — March 9, 2016

We have a very successful retail client in the Seattle area who is wholeheartedly dedicated to the training and development of their employees. They invest heavily in programs that benefit their staff…both professionally and personally. Their commitment to employee development is a core value of their company. And their commitment to development contributes to the success of their organization and clearly differentiates their company in the marketplace.It is through our relationship with this client that our company was introduced to Gale Leadership Development in Bainbridge Washington. Over the years I have attended many of the courses offered by Amba Gale as have many of my associates. I can’t speak highly enough of the course material and the personal benefit I have received from participating in the work.Next week, Adam Zack and Judy Navarro, one of out lead designers, are attending The Heart of Leadership in Seattle. The Heart of Leadership is the foundational program of Gale Leadership courses and is the requisite course for all other offerings.As a small company investing in this training is expensive. Knowing that some employees will leave our company for other career opportunities, the communication and leadership benefit to DW Green Company is short lived, but the benefit to the employee will last a lifetime.It has been said that, “You know what you know. You know what you don’t know. But you don’t know what...

by DW Green — March 2, 2016

Adam’s blog on whether employees “like you” matters is actually a philosophy of life question that everyone needs to answer for him or herself. A question that needs to be answered whether one is in a leadership position or not. To me it’s an integrity question.If you strip away the ego B.S. that shows up everyday…power, authority, company politics, control, judgment and approval…life is about choices. On how we choose to react to what happens to us. You can choose to accept the situation, try to change it or leave. Choosing which way to respond is both simple and difficult. It is the awareness of the choice you are making that’s important. If you choose to accept an uncomfortable, difficult or demeaning situation then at least you know you are making a conscious decision to do so. When your personal integrity is at stake, you will eventually do what is best for who you are as a person.Rather than worrying yourself with how others are treating you, just be concerned with how you are treating others....

by DW Green — February 17, 2016

And in the end, the love you takeIs equal to the love you make.”—Lennon-McCartney, The End, Abby Road 1969“And in the end”, when your career has concluded, and when life on Earth is over, what truly matters, is that the love you received is equal to the love you gave. This isn’t a Pollyanna mind-set, it’s a Universal Truth.In the long run, whether you’re negotiating with vendors, or working in relationships with employees or customers you always get back what you are willing to give. In Adam’s The Pope blog, Milt Jones is remembered for his kindness, generosity and loving spirit. While a shrewd negotiator, Milt’s success was built on his compassion and commitment of service to others.Love ‘em or otherwise, the Koch family has built an incredibly successful and financially rewarding business. “As CEO of Koch Industries, Inc., I am proud to work with principled people who help themselves by helping others improve their lives. I am dedicated to pursuing only a certain kind of profit—what we call ‘good profit’. …Good profit comes from making a contribution in society—not from corporate welfare or other ways of taking advantage of people.”—Good Profit, by Charles G. Koch. It’s an excellent book, well worth your time ...

by DW Green — February 10, 2016

The following questions can assist buyers and marketing team with product storytelling by helping to identify the product stories—and selling points—that need to be communicated to your customers.How was the product developed?How did the idea for this product come about?What happened and who was involved?How is the product made today?How did the product get its name?Does this product have something special that competing products do not?Other questions:1. What methods are used to ensure freshness, quality or better tasting products?

Does the producer use any special technique (ex. air-chilling chicken, cave-aging cheese, dry-aging beef) and why does this make it better?
Is it made using a family recipe that has been passed down through generations?
Is the product handmade or hand-selected? (In this day of mass-produced products, handmade and hand-selected products say that special care was given to the product.)
Does it use natural, sustainable or environmentally friendly production methods? (Ex: Cage-free eggs, hormone and antibiotic free meat or organic produce grown without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.)
Is it baked fresh, prepared in the store or made to order?
How often is it delivered to your markets? (indicates freshness)

2. Where is the product from and why is that a benefit to the customer?

Be specific if possible....
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How Can Custom Signage Increase Super Bowl Sales?

by DW Green — January 28, 2016

What do New Year’s Eve and the Super Bowl have in common? Parties! In fact, Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest day in the United States for food consumption, right behind Thanksgiving Day! And Super Bowl Sunday is the Number 1 at-home party event of the year, even surpassing New Year’s Eve. Super Bowl is one of the five big pizza days of the year. The other four? Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Take advantage of Super Bowl sales this year while enhancing your price perception with custom designed end cap and in-line shelf signage. In addition to conventional manufacturer T.P.R allowances, create your own set of in-store specials. Consider discounting all items consumers may purchase for their Super Sunday Party and tag them with custom designed Super Bowl Savings bib tags and display signage. This sign and price strategy makes sense for every holiday. Reducing prices on holiday related items will have a huge impact on consumer confidence and price perception. Not only will a well-signed effort increase sales and penny profit but will also ensure you are getting credit for your temporary discounted pricing. The key is to develop a custom sign for the specific holiday so that it stands out from your typical day-to-day value pricing signage. There is time ...

by DW Green — January 21, 2016

Howdy Partner!

I have always believed in satisfaction guarantees. I believe companies are wise to stand behind the products and services they provide their customers. Personally, I have always been loyal to companies who take care of me and financially back their work when problems arise with product or service deficiencies. There are five reasons why a guarantee is a powerful tool, both for marketing product and service quality and for achieving it. First, it pushes the entire company to focus on the customers’ definition of good products and services, not an executive’s assumption. Second, it sets clear performance standards, which boost employee performance and morale. Third, it generates reliable data (through payouts) when performance is poor. Fourth, it forces an organization to examine its entire service-delivery system for possible failure points. Last, it builds customer loyalty, sales and market share. What makes a good guarantee? It is unconditional, easy to understand and communicate, meaningful, easy and painless to invoke, and easy and quick to collect on. Unfortunately, fear of customers cheating is a big hurdle for some when considering offering guarantees. Sure, there will be cheaters—maybe 1% of customers who take advantage...

by DW Green — January 6, 2016

dwcrop I resolve to do whatever is put in front of me with all my heart and soul without regard for personal results. I will do the work as though it were given to me by the universe itself—because it was....

by DW Green — December 16, 2015

Every single being has an amazing, unfathomable gift that only meeting life head-on and heart-on will reveal. And we can’t fully know our gift alone. We need each other to discover the gift, to believe in the gift. And then, to learn how to use it. The challenge for each of us is not to discount our gift because of the indifference of others, and not to abdicate our gift because of the various weights we’re forced to carry.What does it mean to have a gift? For the lamp, the light it was shaped to carry is its gift. Without a light, a lamp has no purpose. For a person, we are shaped by experience to reveal the light we carry. For a person, how that light comes through us is its gift. And a life cut off from the work of its heart has no purpose. Our call in the midst of our days is to discover the gift that connects our heart with our hands, to discover the light that fills the lamp of life we are given. Once discovered, our work is to never let the light of our gift go outA lamp can light any patch of ground, the hand filled with heart can light anything it touches. The various skills of the world are how the gifted hand moves.Through our gift, we bring our portion of life-force back into the world. Each of us is born a heart’s length from everything that ever lived and from everything yet to be. Every being on Earth is created to be a conduit between the Universal Life-Force and the moment coming alive. Being such a conduit is our birthright. Whe...

by DW Green — December 9, 2015

This is an excerpt from Marc Gobe’s excellent book Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People. I highly recommend reading this book. It presents a new marketing perspective that may very well help you differentiate your company in the market place.“In A Wall Street Journal article entitled “So long Supply and Demand” the conclusion reached is “The bottom line. Creativity is overtaking capital as the principal elixir of growth. And creativity, although precious, shares few of the constraints that limit the range and availability of capital and physical goods.” In this new business atmosphere, ideas are money. Ideas, in fact, are a new kind of currency altogether—more powerful than money. One single idea—especially if it involves a brand concept—can change a company’s entire future.But what exactly constitutes a great brand concept today? In this hypercompetitive marketplace where goods or services alone are no longer enough to attract a new market or even to maintain existing markets, I believe that it is the emotional aspects of products and their distribution systems that will be the key difference between consumers’ ultimate choice and the price that they will pay. By emotional I mean how a brand engages consumers on the level of the senses and emotions; how a brand comes to life for people and forges a deeper, lasting connection.Brand Identity Starts at HomeA brand is brought to life fo...

by DW Green — November 25, 2015

A Prayer for Gratitude“Today, Lord, I want to express my gratitude for everything I receive from you. Today, I will express all the love and happiness that exist in my heart. I will love your creations, I will love myself, and I will love the people who live with me. I will enjoy the presence of the people I love, respecting their choices in life as I respect my own.Today, I will graciously receive your gifts by enjoying your gifts, by enjoying the beauty of all your creation. Help me to be as generous as you are, to share what I have with generosity, just as you share your gifts so generously. Help me to become a master of gratitude, generosity, and love so that I can enjoy all of your creations.Today, Lord, help me manifest my creation as you manifest the universe, to express the beauty of my spirit in the supreme art of the human: the art of dreaming my life. Today, Lord, I give you all my gratitude and love because you have given me life. Amen.”—Don Miguel RuizThank you all....