A Surplus Of Service
Today Jim and I went on a wild goose chase for bright orange flight suits.
I know, I know - that seems like a strange thing to search for. But we're strange people.
You see, this weekend we're headed up to Atlanta for a marketing boot camp (it's part of our ongoing commitment to learning as much as we can about our craft).
At this boot camp will be some of the nation's foremost marketers - some of whose attention we would like to capture - for the purposes of networking and joint venturing.
We began our planning admittedly late. We asked ourselves,
"How are we going to stand out from the crowd this weekend? If we just show up and stand around like everyone else, we'll leave like everyone else - with pages full of notes, a handful of great ideas, and that's it. But we're after something bigger. We need to catch the eye of biggest fish in the room."
Well, we know very well that in order to get noticed, you have to take a few risks. That means that in order to be loved by some, you may be disliked by others. Our experience has shown that is a much better option than being ignored by all.
Our personal brand of risk is outlandish and off-the-wall - thus the orange flight suits. Yes - we're going to wear them in the boot camp - patches, boots and all. One things is for sure - we will not go unnoticed.
So we began calling around. There was nothing locally. We looked online and found a few options. We began calling. Just about every company we called made excuses about why they couldn't get the flight suits out for overnight shipping today. Everyone wanted to send the suits tomorrow. But that would be too late for us. And come on - it was noon. That leaves plenty of time for a package to be taped up and readied for shipping.
To make matters more complicated, we wanted to find some patches - like flags, space shuttles, nasa stuff - to sew onto the suits. But we needed to get them next day also - and we just couldn't pull it off. We called around locally - with no luck. We even considered driving out the the Space Center.
Then we called Command Post Army Surplus World in Houston. We ended up speaking with one of the owners. Turns out, they had the suits we were looking for, in the sizes we needed. Overnight today, no problem. Then, I ask if they have patches. Yep. Space patches? You betchya.
Kim, the owner, even offered to use her heat press to put the patches onto the flight suits before she sent them!! What a MIRACLE?
So in one felt swoop, we got the suits and the patches, on time, and were able to avoid having to find someone to sew the patches on. This was incredible!!
So kudos to the folks at Command Post for bailing us out - and for offering extreme customer service - without excuses!
As for the marketing side, consider taking a few risks in your business. The rewards are high, and there really isn't much to lose.
