One of the only contests I have ever won was a regional resume writing contest my English professor required us to enter. I was badly in need of a boost to my English grade so I decided that if I was going to enter this contest, I would do my best to win. As the resumes were turned in that day, I could see that there were many adept graphic designers and many excellent writers in my class. I could also see that I would have had little chance of winning the contest had I not figured out a unique way to differentiate my resume from all the rest. You see, all of the other resumes were printed on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, the virtually required standard in the resume world. Mine, however, was printed on 14″ legal size paper and cut down to 11  1/32 long. Only 1/32 of an inch longer than all the others. An imperceptible difference you would think. I saw my professor flip through the stack of resumes and watched her stop on mine, for just an instant, as her finger moved across that extra 32nd of an inch. I knew at that moment I had won. Sure enough, I did – first place!

It is interesting to note that the judges stated the reason for my winning as: clean format, well written with clearly defined categories, but I know the real reason. Out of thousands of resumes they picked mine, not because it was written better, neater, or more graphically appealing, but because I had differentiated it from all the rest, in a way the judges didn’t even realize. That was the day I learned that you don’t have to beat your competitors by much.

Our decisions are not made in our brain. We think they are, we get a headache from thinking too much, but in the final analysis, even for the most left-brain autocrat you know, our decisions are made elsewhere. Whether we are selling our product, negotiating with a child, or trying to get our way, a conscious awareness of this will be infinitely valuable. First off, we have been taught that our thinking cells are all inside our cranium, but we now know that this is simply not the case. Our thinking cells are everywhere, all of our cells participate in the process. Not only that, but consider the possibility that our brain is not a reservoir of accumulated knowledge, but a communication device, not a hard drive, but a modem (with a processor).  In Mac terms, its an airport express (hard drive & hot spot). Then we really start to wonder where the thinking process is taking place.

So, we go to a restaurant and have a delightful experience

My son and I went to a pizza restaurant last year. They brought us the wrong meal and forgot our drinks, then, to make matters worse, we couldn’t find a waiter, for a long time. We finally got ourselves water and ate the unordered food. When our waiter finally showed up we explained our displeasure. He apologized profusely and when her returned told us that our meal was on the restaurant and gave us each a coupon for another free meal.

MAKING IT RIGHT WITH YOUR CUSTOMER