Blood

Blood sus­tains human life.  Oxy­genated, healthy, red blood.  With­out it we die.  Yet, oddly enough many peo­ple pass out at the site of it.  They are ter­ri­fied of the very thing that sus­tains them.  Even the thought of it makes some queasy.  But, afraid of it or not, blood is vital.

Cus­tomers are like blood.  I have even heard it said that cus­tomers are the lifeblood of an orga­ni­za­tion.  With­out them, and the money they spend, a com­pany will die.  Yet many employ­ees and entire com­pa­nies are afraid of blood — afraid and resis­tant to really talk and lis­ten to their cus­tomers.  Afraid to see the blood that sus­tains them.

When some­thing goes poorly and things devi­ate from the plan, blood is spilled.  What hap­pens next is vitally impor­tant to mar­ket­ing.  The cut may be a minor scrape or a gap­ing wound, but both reveal blood.   If the response is to “look away” the wound will fes­ter.  It may con­tinue to bleed out over time, sap­ping the life of a com­pany with it.  It may heal up, only to become infected because no rem­edy was sought.  It is not a good idea to be afraid of blood if you hope to stay in business.

If the response is to care­fully cleanse the wound, tak­ing every effort to heal it and tak­ing steps to avoid another cut,  blood will con­tinue to prop­erly flow and life will likely be sustained.

Things go wrong from time to time.  Cuts and scrapes hap­pen.   Don’t let the fear of a lit­tle blood keep you from improv­ing what you do.  Your life depends on it.