The power of plaques

I am fascinated by plaques. People love plaques. I do love my plaques: I got some at work and I display them with great pride in my cubicle.

I guess that’s because we are humans, we like to feel recognized by your peers or by somebody we respect.

Now, I am interested in extending the use of plaques in business to increase goodwill between two parties for a very low cost.

Plaques can be sent for the most original reasons: “circle of top partners” “best suppliers’ club” “Supplier of the year award”

And this last one is not invented: look at this link

(http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050506/65073.html?.v=1)

I am sure this award cemented the relationship between Solectron and Spirent creating value for both parties: Spirent consolidated its name as authority bestowing awards to top suppliers (so next year other suppliers will compete to get the award), Solectron now has yet another plaque to show to prospect customers…both of them got some extra publicity thanks to the press release.

All this for the cost of a plaque…

Now, if you have a supplier that went the extra mile for you, why not sending a “Thank you for going the extra mile” plaque? Or if you have a distributor that sold above and beyond its quota, why not sending (along with the commission money…) a plaque to consolidate the relationship?

I wish you a prosperous week,

Mau in Austin