Sunday, October 26, 2008

Leading a Horse to Water.

Growing up my parents had many sayings:
"Do you want your face to stay like that?"
"It only hurts for a little while"
The infamous: "If they were jumping off a bridge would you do that too?" -- sorry to say that I did indeed jump off of bridges, rooftops, garages and out of trees which leads to wonder why I never heard: "There is something not right about that one" from my Father.

Speaking of my Father he has to be one of the best, yet still undiscovered, sayings creator in history.  I'll never forget the gems my Father came up with when he would get angry while working in the garage on one of our cars.  If things went awry he would shout out things like:
"Cheese and crackers!"
"Son of a pup!" - I didn't get this one until I was much older and I still don't get the whole cheese and crackers thing - although I do like cheese and crackers to this day. I wonder if that is some type of psychological thing?
You see my Father worked on vehicles in the Korean war.  He is an electrical engineer by education and a purchasing manager by occupation - retired now - thank you very much.  I know first hand how working on vehicles and being a purchasing manager can drive you a bit batty because I have been there. No, I have never muttered "Cheese and crackers" of course, unless there were a bottle of wine near by.

One of their best sayings and one said by many over the years is "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink." I often think about where I would be today if someone actually told me things straight out instead of in rhyme.  Just tell me that you can show people what they should do but only they can choose to do it or not. Is that so hard?  So that was me growing up amongst all of these life lessons hidden within speech.  It leads me to my topic today: "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink."

Take Toolinghouse.com for example.  Come on, you knew this was leading to commercial. Did you think you would get all of this wonderful stuff to read without hearing a pitch or two? Toolinghouse competes with the big boys of the online world - you know who they are so I don't have to mention them.  If you were to compare our prices against their prices I can tell you that Toolinghouse is 25-55% lower on almost everything we sell.  I have introduced many end users of cutting tools to toolinghouse.com.  Many have ordered from me over the years and continue to do so today.  I cherish my customers as I know they are my corporate lifeline. What makes me wonder though are the others whom I have introduced Toolinghouse.com to but who have never ordered a thing from me and worse yet, continue to buy from that 3-letter company.  It is ultimately the buyers choice but coming from a purchasing background like I do, I cannot resist wondering why they choose to spend more for the same things they can get from me much cheaper?  "Well, I need it here tomorrow" and I reply with "so order it from me today and you will have it tomorrow." Most of our items can ship same day just like the 3-letter company. Now, for those of you who do not know, Toolinghouse is not some multi-billion dollar company with warehouses all over the land.  Kudos to the big boys for having so many brick and mortar locations.  This overhead of theirs is passed on to you the customer in higher tooling costs.  That's it. I have much lower overhead and therefore much lower prices.  The drawback, and I hope you find my honesty refreshing, is that all of our orders ship out of Michigan.  I'm not selling gasoline and I do not have a location on every street corner - nor do I have the high prices associated with that type of infrastructure.  That's how I can sell you "Great Tools - at Great Prices."

In today's market there are many goofballs (that's the technical term for it) running around out there telling you anything you want to hear to try and make a sale.  It is tough out there these days but I do not believe in deception as a sales technique.  Those of you who know me know that I am a straight up kind of guy, I don't - hey, I just remembered another parent saying, worse yet it came to mind just now and it applies - "Pull the wool over your eyes." Yikes, that stuff is still up in my head.  Probably because I am still trying to figure out what half of it means - 40 some years later.

Look, I know you have choices when it comes to making your cutting tool decisions.  All I ask for is an opportunity to quote your cutting tool needs.  All I can do is show you how I can save you money and provide you with quality US Made Cutting Tools at affordable prices. That's the sales pitch - not much to it I know but it is the truth and that is the best kind of water to be led to isn't it?  Call me today and let's talk. Toll Free: 1-866-583-TOOL. Or log onto www.toolinghouse.com and check us out. 

The bottom line is that good 'ol Mom and Dad were right about most things, confusing and twisted in their method of getting it across to me, but right none the less. They taught me some important lessons.  They confused the heck out of me and they have instilled some of the silliest yet pertinent sayings into this head of mine - even if I have only deciphered 50% of them so far.