Puppies and Pilates

Happy Monday! Enough with the small talk, I got a puppy this weekend! My family and I went down to Tennessee for a wedding and brought back the cutest little red-yellow lab. He's eight weeks old and nine lb and his name is Oliver Kipling Lane and I am in love with him. Seriously, look at him.

No, you can’t have him because he is mine. We have an eleven-year-old black lab as well. He doesn’t usually pay any attention to other dogs but he adores Kip and the two are so adorable together. Dogs are so cool. I’m reading a book about how their minds work and it’s really interesting. If you were to take two bodies of water, each the size of two Olympic swimming pools, and identical except that you dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in one, a dog would be able to tell the difference between the two. Amazing.

I forgot to write a blog post last Wednesday and that was because I went on a sales call! Ron, Rebecca, and I went to a pilates studio in Watertown. The place was so cool; if I lived closer I would take some classes there myself. I was so happy to get to see a real sales pitch. Ron went into the place and immediately evaluated his surroundings, adjusting his pitch content and even just his tone and rhythm of voice in a way that appealed to the buyers. He used a lot of effective metaphors and was honest with the potential clients. A lot of salesmen try to conceal the fact that they’re just saying things for money. Ron kept the financial component of the interaction out in the open and the woman who heard our pitch clearly appreciated it. At the same time, the pitch was personal and had a conversational tone. It was awesome experience.

Plus, I never knew that genuine pilates requires the use of machines. The authenticity of her studio was what the woman wanted to emphasize and I had already learned something about real pilates five minutes after arriving. I checked out the studio’s old website after we left and it didn’t say anything about how this studio is special. We need to find what makes our clients unique and the ways in which they are superior, not just talk about what they do. Ron said something similar in his pitch-companies that make websites are so common now that it is no longer novel for a website to work the way it is supposed to. Each button leads to the appropriate page. What sets us apart is how our public relations/marketing and website design work together to promote the business. The design of the website reflects a customized marketing strategy.

Have a great day!

Hanna Lane