Jim Sellers’ Chronicle Chamber Article for 07-10-08
What a Grand week around the Pond!
Old Man Weather gave us just the right breaks so everyone could enjoy the long week of activities. If you did not find plenty to do all around the lake your imagination needs support.
Joe Harwood took a chance on a new fireworks company from Italy and what a good selection he made. Grand Lakers got to see displays that have not been shown in this part of the country. I have been getting emails of photos taken by friends during the Grand display.
Now, for those of you who didn’t get out to the South Grand Lake Airport, you missed a wonderful opportunity to see the War Birds up close and personal. We also had a chance to talk with many of the pilots and see their excitement about being able to bring their planes to Grand Lake. There is a passion in this group that they will fly here and just ask for some gas. What a great show they put on!
Thanks to Brent Howard and the board of trustees of the airport for getting the money raised for the fuel and getting the planes to be part of our celebration of our nation’s birth. Brent tells me some 871 gallons of fuel were dispensed to the War Birds, and these were the first to get fuel from the airport. Pilots are coming in every week to check out the services and we had a half dozen planes spend the week.
It is time to make plans to attend our next luncheon meeting, July 24th at Arrowhead Yacht Club. Our program will be presented by Lynn Wilson from Roger State University’s Innovation Center. She will be giving us great ideas on promoting our businesses with projects we can put to work immediately. Call the office for reservations so we can make sure the chef has your meal ready for you.
CALL TO ACTION:
Contact your Senators about Medicare Ambulance Relief This Week. The U.S. senate is expected to once again consider a physician fix package. That package includes Medicare relief for ambulance services. Please continue to contact your Senators in support of passing the package which contains Medicare Ambulance relief right away.
This package will give both urban and rural a percent increase to cover expenses of our ambulance providers. We have come a long way around Grand with our services, and we must get them the dollars they need to provide these services. To access draft letters, talking points and the phone numbers of your senators, please go to: http//capwiz.com/the-aaa/home/
MARKETING TIP OF THE WEEK:
Learning from mistakes: - Underestimating the competition.
We allow our subjective, generally negative feelings about them to drive our analysis and fail to measure or hear the perceptions of the competition from your target customer. Too often we either ignore a strong competitor, or attempt a product comparison that sounds good to us. Even in most research projects, attention is paid only to our (Customers Satisfaction Index)… and too little to our non-customers, or customers in our target that buy elsewhere. Also, we often identify a competitor who has caught our eye and ear, and can miss a “real” competitor because we fail to get this information from ideal target customers. Sears thought Penny’s, Wards and other “department stores” were their greater threat in 1985, and overlooked the values shoppers found at Wal*Mart.