Have you done these two things for your customers?

Young and Rubicam has been one of the most successful advertising agencies in the world.  Here are two things Mr. Rubicam did…

1. The founder fired customers (“accounts”) that spoiled the fun – or the morale of his staff.   Here’s the text of the letter in which he resigned the very big American Tobacco account:

‘Young & Rubicam and American Tobacco were both successful companies
for some time before our association began.  I trust both will continue to
be successful companies after our association ceases, which is it doing as of now.’

2. He earned the trust of the richest companies in the world because he acted like an advisor instead of a seller. Here’s a stunning example:

“The early success of Young and Rubicam was due more than anything else to the fact that General Foods was their biggest client.  (But) one day Rubicam told the head of General Foods that his account had grown too big for any one agency; he should hire a second and later a third. This is why General Foods came to trust every recommendation Rubicam made to them.” – Ogilvy on Advertising, p. 196 

You know what to do as it relates to your own customers and prospects, yes?

PS. About two weeks ago, I “fired”  about 2/3 of my email list – on purpose.  I selected those folks who had opened one of my emails in the last 90 days, and removed all the rest.  We’re talking thousands of folks.  So now my list is tiny for a “guru” but when I send out an email, 40-60% of my readers open it in a day or two. 

What’s the point of a 10,000+ name email list, when fewer than 12-20% open my emails?  I don’t want to be noise out there, so I deleted them all.  Now it’s a nice little club of people who do stuff.  Just what I like.