Ice Chip #109
This week’s Ice Chip story comes from my good friend Tom Limon, owner of in Houston, Texas. He told me a story about how sales reps for two different companies perceived handling a fairly innocuous question from a potential client.
When he finished, I knew I wanted to share it with you because it resonates with our message in the new book: Exceptional Care for your Valued Client. (Click title for pre-ordering information.)
Take a moment to go the extra mile, because you will be amazed with the potential results.
Bill, a prospective client of an office supply company called Company “A” to see if they had a maintenance program for their printers. The phone rang about 6 times before it was answered by a young man that, according to Bill, seemed to be distracted. “Hello” was followed by a pause. “Can I help you?”
“Do you have a maintenance program for your leased or purchased printers?” Bill inquired.
The voice on the other end casually answered, “No, I don’t think so.” Before he could follow up with another comment, Bill said, “Okay, thanks for your help,” and hung up.
He then called Company “B”, and was pleased to have a courteous voice answer his call on the second ring: “Exceptional Office Supplies, may I help you?”
“Do you have a maintenance program for your leased or purchased printers?” Bill inquired.
The receptionist answered, “I believe we do. Let me connect you with one of our sales representatives. May I have your name please?” “Thank you Mr. Lewis, Please hold.” She immediately transferred the call, and included that Mr. Lewis was interested in a maintenance plan for printers.
“Hello Mr. Lewis, this is Paul; I understand you have questions about our maintenance program for leased or purchased printers.”
Bill smiled to himself and began to feel good about his impending purchase of 100 printers for his growing company. “Yes, I am looking at a sizable purchase and we want to make sure the printers are well maintained. And you can call me Bill.”
“Thank you Bill. Let me tell you about our program. There are three levels of coverage available and they are matched to how you use your machines. Can you tell me more about your needs?”
Bill explained; “We are a growing firm and need 100 printers to manage our expanding business. Tell me more about the differences between the …….”
A successful transaction took place later in the week, as Paul made arrangements for the delivery of an assortment of 107 printers.
Amazing how attention to detail, and focus on providing Exceptional Care can make a significant difference in a transaction. I think Paul was quite pleased with the outcome.
Thank you Tom for sharing this story.
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Brand new Opportunity!!
Become a Remember the Ice Affiliate!
Imagine sharing the concept of eradicating “(K)notty Words” and getting paid for it!
Connect me with the content caretaker of your favorite sites, and encourage them to consider having a “not” free web site. I will proof their word choice from top to bottom, side to side, back to front—every word; and provide a thorough process of Articulation Proofing and you will get paid for making the referral. Articulation Proofing starts @ $499.00 for 25 pages of website content. (Smaller sites start @ $349.00)
For each paying referral, you will receive a bonus!
1 – 5 Referrals $25.00 each
6 – 10 Referrals $50.00 each
11 – 15 Referrals $75.00 each
16 or more Referrals $100.00 each
Yes! I want to be an Affiliate! Call me 907-862-1983 or email me your interest at: bob.nicoll@remembertheice.com
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Book Signings for Costco Members in Anchorage!
I will be signing my first book: Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts
And taking Pre-orders for: Exceptional Care for Your Valued Client
Saturday Feb 26th and Sunday Feb 27th @ Both Locations:
Special reduced pricing on both books at these signings!
4125 Debarr Rd. 330 West Dimond Blvd
(Across from Credit Union 1) (Dimond Blvd and C Street)
Have an Empowering Word Choice Week!
Ice Chip #108
Welcome to my version of a "butterfly effect."
I met Amy Kilpatrick, Executive Director in Augusta, GA in November 2008 at the BNI International Director's Conference. She spoke about her new business, Nspired Networking: "an innovative business focused on teaching high quality and high impact tools that can be used to effectively expand your sphere of influence."
Since that initial meeting Amy and her partner David Crumbaugh (BNI Managing Area Director in San Antonio, Texas) have been instrumental in helping hundreds of BNI members and small business owners understand the power of a simple concept: "Connect the Dots".
This simple yet comprehensive concept has literally transformed the way hundreds of BNI members focus on making powerful strategic alliances within both their chapters and their contacts outside of BNI.
I have experienced Connect the Dots a half dozen times and continue to be enthusiastic about the concept. Because I know it works: just like the butterfly effect.
Since that initial meeting some 27 months ago, Amy and David have been staunch supporters of Remember the Ice and often give away copies of the initial book, Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts as a door prize when they do presentations. They offer the opportunity of a 30 minute phone call with me to discuss the book and concept of empowering word choice.
I am delighted to make these calls and had the opportunity to connect with Mark Nolen on Monday the 14th. Mark is a Regional V.P. for , a Geo-technical Engineering & Materials Testing firm headquartered in Birmingham, AL.
Last week, Amy was presenting at an event in Savannah, GA during Int'l Networking Week and gave a copy of my book as a door prize. Mark was the winner of that copy and the phone call.
I was pleased to catch up with him Monday afternoon and found he had already finished about a third of the book. We visited awhile on the importance of language and how "(K)notty words" can be re-framed.
While we were talking, I had an epiphany and shared it with Mark.
"Just as you focus on the infrastructure of the soil, landscape, and buildings; Remember the Ice looks at the infrastructure of our thoughts and sentences"
How we build our communication components is as important to the quality of the message as the testing of materials, soil, structural components and overall plans are to building great structures.
Think of "(K)notty Words" as weak spots in the steel girders of conveying your marketing message or website content, or employee evaluation. They cloud the message and you end up with two messages at once.
Let's go back to the initial story. You see/hear the initial message: "Don't forget the Ice"
You know you want some ice; yet your subconscious mind overlooks the "not" and sets up a weakened message: "Forget the Ice." When it is over 100 degrees in the shade, and you are thirsty, that is less than satisfying. The weakened infrastructure of the message has you wishing for a better result.
Here is the rock-solid, strong as solid steel message you wanted: "Remember the Ice".
Mark and I will be reconvening our conversation in the coming weeks as he gets the chance to finish the book. There is a possibility of working with his company on providing some empowering word choice training in the future, and for that I am grateful.
Thank you Mark for our conversation.
Thank you Amy for your support, and sharing of the material.
And thank you for the butterfly effect. Keep flapping your wings and let's see what can take place....around the globe.
Ice Chip #107
What a week!
From February 2nd through the 8th, I had the privilege of sharing the Remember the Ice message to a number of audiences in Houston and Huntsville, Texas.
Gail Stolzenburg, Assistant Director of BNI Houston West made sure I arrived on time to speak to 5 BNI chapters in a 9 hour time span on Wednesday. What a whirlwind tour!
Mark Taylor, BNI Houston East Executive Director set up a breakfast meeting on Thursday with 4 ministers; then a haircut at the famous Fairway Barbershop in Huntsville with the owner Pete doing the cutting; then addressing 27 members of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce over a lunch of Texas barbecue with all the fixins. This was followed by a meeting with the publisher of the Huntsville Item; a meeting with a major grocery store executive; and finally a trip to the Woodlands Resort and Conference Center for the Get Connected 2011 Conference, to meet with fellow speakers and sponsors for a welcome reception.
In spite of the challenging weather in the Houston area, we had a powerful conference and yours truly had the honor of kicking off the event on Friday afternoon. A warm and heartfelt thank you to LuAnn Buechler for her inspiring and encouraging energy to bring a great conference to fruition.
Sharing Remember the Ice to over 900 people in 6 days was exciting. Numerous examples of "(K)notty words" were shared and re-framed.
To all of the new fans of Remember the Ice, a warm welcome. Hope you enjoy your new reading material. Thank you for getting copies of the first book, and for ordering the new one! Exceptional Care for Your Valued Client will shift your paradigm on how you take care of your clients. We are very excited about the project and are very pleased that Dr. Ivan Misner, NY Times Bestselling author and Founder of BNI and the Referral Institute wrote the foreword to the book.
Here is an excerpt of his comments:
Bob, LuAnn, and Bronwyn are committed to one main objective: Shifting the concept of Customer Service to Providing Exceptional Care. Providing Exceptional Care means that when our customers and clients call our business with questions or assistance needs, we can rest assured that they are in good hands because we know they are being connected with a member of our Exceptional Care Team.
The three co-authors of this book are a truly dynamic team who combine their unique individual skills, backgrounds, and expert knowledge to provide a smorgasbord of fresh, cutting-edge, powerfully-effective concepts that will help any business, large or small, provide Exceptional Care to customers and clients. LuAnn brings an extensive background of hospitality and event planning to the table. Bob's training in Counseling, Rational Behavior Therapy, Neuro-Associative Conditioning Systems, and the Psychophysiology of Words (I admit, I had to ask Bob to enlighten me on that one); is thorough and extensive. Finally, Bronwyn has a gift for bringing a voice to life on paper that mirrors the speaker's mindset, and it shows.
Thank you Dr. Misner for your kind words.
And thank you to my loyal readers for indulging with me on a review of the last 9 days.
The second book in the Remember the Ice series is now available for Pre-Order!
You can place your Pre-order here.
Expected Release in Mid April
Ice Chip #106
Big Announcement!
The second book in the Remember the Ice series is now available for Pre-Order!
Exceptional Care for Your Valued Client is the second book from Bob Nicoll, creator of the empowering word choice concept: Remember the Ice. As with his first book, Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts, he has teamed up once again with Bronwyn Emery Ashbaker, an extraordinarily gifted developmental editor.
Exceptional Care is about providing just that—Exceptional Care. So Bob sought out LuAnn Buechler, an insightful, delightful lady with 30 years experience in creating exceptional care for her valued clients via her hospitality and event planning skills.
“While playing a round of golf during the 2009 Get Connected Conference in St. Petersburg, FL, we had a conversation about how the “(K)notty Words” continue to display themselves in various customer service experiences.
They ooze and spread like “going bad” cream cheese covering a stale bagel. LuAnn says, “There is no room for ‘(K)notty Words’ in customer service.” And I agree with her wholeheartedly. While driving the cart down the third fairway following a couple of stellar tee shots, we realized we had a message to convey, and decided right then to deliver it to you.”
You can place your Pre-order .
Expected Release in Mid April
"Exceptional Care for Your Valued Client raises the bar when it comes to current thinking and ideals regarding customer service. With just one read-through it will shift your paradigms in a way that will proactively position you and your business for success."
Ivan Misner, NY Times Bestselling author and Founder of BNI and Referral Institute
Empowering Regards,
Bob
Ice Chip #105
State of the “Onion”
Gestalt psychotherapy was developed in the early 1950s by the physician Fritz Perls (1893-1970), One of the main techniques adopted by this approach, aimed at increasing the patient’s self knowledge and knowledge of the outer world in every sense, is the so-called ‘awareness’ technique.
There are five classical questions a Gestalt therapist will put to his patients so as to facilitate the process of becoming more aware of reality. These are:
- "What do you do?"
- "What do you feel?"
- "What do you want?"
- "What do you avoid?"
- "What do you expect?"
The work on a subjects’ awareness involves various levels of examination, and, in fact, in this regard Perls ‘peeling-an-onion’ metaphor is quite apt".
The work starts at the surface and then one begins to peel off the various layers, passing from more easily observable behavior (cfr. What do you do?) to the sensations and emotions (cfr. What do you feel?) and finally the cognitive and volitional processes (cfr. What do you want?; What are you avoiding?; What do you expect from life?).
The therapist also places importance on non-verbal responses of the subject as, while language is potentially insincere, the body is [quite sincere], and will often reveal when and how a patient implements his or her self-manipulative and defensive strategies.
From the Noanxiety.com newsletter. (Also known as: Nienteansia.it)
In putting together this Ice Chip my comments are about the choice of words used to convey the message; and the manner in which it was delivered.
When attending graduate school in the early 70’s I learned about Gestalt Therapy and Dr. Fritz Perls’ metaphor of “peeling an onion” to demonstrate how to get at the core of the issue. In Remember the Ice, it is about getting to the core of your message, and conveying it in the clearest, most concise manner; and doing so without using “(K)notty Words”. (Not, don’t, can’t, won’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, try, but, should… and any other word ending in “n’t”)
With that in mind, this Ice Chip is focused on the juxtaposition of words used by President Obama, with some thoughts on how some of the sentences could be reconstructed. The original verbatim comment from his speech will be followed by the statement with the “(K)notty Word” removed. Then a Re-Framed message will follow.
In the interest of peeling the onion and heading for the core, here is what I observed and heard. Take a look:
Original: At stake right now is not who wins the next election.
“(K)not” removed: At stake right now is who wins the next election.
Re-Framed message: There is so much more at stake than who wins the next election.
Original: It’s whether we sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map…
“(K)not” removed: It’s whether we sustain the leadership that has made America just a place on a map…
Re-Framed message: It’s whether we sustain the leadership that has made America much more than just a place on a map…
Original: We’re not just handing out money.
“(K)not” removed: We’re just handing out money.
Re-Framed message: We are more than just handing out money. We offer opportunity.
Original: That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities.
“(K)not” removed: That responsibility begins in our classrooms. What follows but is disregarded.
Re-Framed message: That responsibility begins in our homes and communities.
Original: We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair. We need to teach them that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.
“(K)not” removed: We need to teach our kids that it’s just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated. We need to teach them that success is a function of fame or PR.
Re-Framed message: We need to teach our children, that winning the science fair is as big as winning the Super Bowl; that success is a function of hard work and discipline.
Original: But I will not hesitate to create or enforce common-sense safeguards to protect the American people.
“(K)not” removed: I will hesitate to create or enforce common-sense safeguards to protect the American people.
Re-Framed message: We will create and implement common-sense safeguards to protect the American People.
Original: Now, the final critical step in winning the future is to make sure we aren’t buried under a mountain of debt.
“(K)not” removed: Now, the final critical step in winning the future is to make sure we are buried under a mountain of debt.
Re-Framed message: Now, the final critical step in winning the future is to make sure we are handling our finances responsibly and with accountability, and within our budget.
Original: But now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more that it takes in. That is not sustainable.
“(K)not” removed: Initial comment after the But is negated… We have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is sustainable.
Re-Framed message: As we move forward with responsible, balanced accounting for our spending, we must stop spending more than we take in – and sustain it.
Interesting food for thought; would you agree?
President Obama’s speech contained 170 “(K)notty Words” in 61 minutes of oratory. The main culprits were: “but”– 53; “not”- 32; “should” – 10; “don’t” – 7; “didn’t” – 5; and “can’t” – 4. Always, never, every, all, try and several other “n’t” words were present as well.
From a word choice point of view, the overall message could have been articulated with more clarity and congruency. That is my opinion.
The website has created an amazing collection of the Presidential Papers. Gerhard Peters has done a great service to bring this information to the web.
I reviewed the following addresses and found “(K)notty Words” in each. The total is after the year of the address, and the overall length (# of words) follows:
George Washington (1790) 15 (only 1,088 words)
Abraham Lincoln (1861) 121 (6,986 words)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1939) 62 (3,768 words)
John F. Kennedy (1961) 59 (5,256words)
Ronald Reagan (1982) 63 (5180 words)
William J. Clinton (1997) 163 (6,752 words)
Barak Obama (2011) 170 (6,940 words)
My goal was to raise your awareness of how the words we use to convey our message can, and do, make the difference in how our message is received.
Thank you for your indulgence,