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Have you heard the one about the guy who needed to travel across the desert?
In preparation, he went to Hertz-Rent-A-Camel and asked for a camel that would hold water for at least 10 days. Actually, most camels are good for 7 days, so this customer needed something special. The manager at Hertz told his customer that he had just the camel he needed. His client paid and left on his trip.
As you might expect, after 7 days, the camel just sat down and wouldn’t move. Of course, the guy who had rented the camel was upset, to say the least. After waiting around, he finally got a truck to take the camel back to the Rent-A-Camel dealer and proceded to scream and yell at the manager about how he misled him by renting him a camel that was just the average 7 day camel.
When the customer calmed down enough, the manager asked him what he did when he got the camel. He was told that he took the camel to the water hole, let it drink then headed off on his trip. The manager asked his customer what he did with the stick he was given, and was told that the customer just threw it away since he didn’t know he would need it.
With that, the manager asked the customer to follow him so he could show him how to turn the camel he had rented into a 10 day camel. He took the camel to the water hole and while the camel bent down to drink, the manager took the stick and whacked the camel over it’s behind. With that, the camel gasped in pain while it took a huge drink of water. About enough for 10 days on the road.
I bet I know where you think I’m going with this story. You probably think I want each of your managers to whack you when you head out in the morning… one option in the “carrot or stick” approach to management.
Actually, the moral of this story is that when you need to accomplish more than normal, it’s important to do something different and extraordinary. Find a hypothetical “stick” that will get your clients motivated to do more than they think they can… and “suck up” enough courage to do the same for yourself.
In the long run, it can only make you and your clients more money. Isn’t that what we’re all here to do?
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