I had begun my marketing journey 5-6 years ago.  I started by reading books, articles, attending seminars and just trying to hang out with people who understood marketing.  Like most everything in which I have immersed myself, I quickly realized that the more I learned about marketing, the less I really knew about it.

Still a relative novice, I now define marketing as knowing our customers extremely well… understanding their problems, challenges and pain… figuring out how and if we even can help them… and always trying to see the world through their eyes.  I know that if their problems become our problems, we will always be a valuable resource.

I am thrilled to report that after a year I couldn’t be more pleased with my new role.  I love being drawn into our customers’ businesses.  When asked, I try very hard to use everything I have learned as a business person working with manufacturing companies for over 40 years, manager, mentor, family man and Christian to assist.

When I was responsible for the day to day issues, I used to dread customer problems.  I always tried to do my best, but I must confess many times I considered those calls a distraction.  They took me off my planned schedule and kept me from doing what I knew I had to get done.

Today my desk is cleared.  I now look forward to those calls (not because I want our customers to have problems, but because I enjoy helping).  Not only do I consider them a challenge but I’m really delighted to be able to help without looking for the next "deal."  And, for someone who got an "F" on my first college English theme, I’m having fun writing and publishing customer case studies for our customers. My biggest surprise in writing those articles was how little our customers knew about their strengths.  I quickly realized that’s probably the case with most of us. We take our strengths for granted and don’t put high value on them.  I have become that outsider it sometimes takes to help our customers recognize what they do better than anyone else.  I firmly believe that every business surviving and prospering today does something better than anyone else.  I love helping our customers identify their special niche!

Another pleasant surprise is how open our customers are to my questions.  I am filled with questions these days, but there are two that I wouldn’t have had the courage to ask just five years ago.  I ask them to describe their best supplier, and then to rate us using the criteria they just identified.  This has been quite enlightening.  Our customers have told me that we are "responsive, our people are very talented and we sell high quality products and services."

Since it’s our goal to be all these things and more, we still have some work to do.  While a number of our customers have recognized us as problem solvers, not all of them have.  We want to make sure that we understand our customers’ problems and then help them look for solutions to those problems.

And finally, in my reduced work role, I’ve managed to take Fridays off and have enjoyed doing things like getting a hair cut, visiting garden nurseries without the weekend rush, and spending the afternoons with Ryan, our oldest grandson (4 years).  Ryan loves to work in our garden with me and loves to take road trips with his "papa."  A road trip is going to True Value, Home Depot, get the car washed, gassed up and maybe even a trip to the library.  We’ve had wonderful spring and summer Fridays together.

Thanks for making me feel needed.  I encourage you to leverage my strengths to help our customers. Let me know as soon as you see a way for me to serve our customers.  Please look to me as a resource.