Every prospect gets the same question: How did you know to call us?
Phone book, Mike said.
You mean the on-line yellow pages, I asked?
No, he said, the yellow pages.
Oh. The paper ones, like the book?
Yeah, you know, the yellow pages. Fingers walking and all that.
We discussed the work. He quickly grew confident in our capabilities and he hired us, over the phone, to do the work. Before we wrapped it up, I brought it up again. Mike, I said, you’re sure you got us from the book, the paper yellow pages?
Yes, I have it right here.
What year’s on the front of that book, Mike, if you don’t mind my asking?
Well, it says here, let me see…oh…2007.
Mike this is 2010. That explains it. I haven’t renewed my yellow pages for two years, and I haven’t sold a job from the yellow pages for at least three years. As a relevant medium, it’s become extinct.
Well, Mike said, that pretty much describes me too, I guess. I’m kind of old fashioned like that.
You don’t shop on line?
No, I can usually tell what I need to know by the way the ad is written and presented. Everything’s right here on the page. That, plus talking on the phone. I can’t do that on line or with email. I kind of like doing things different, I guess. I like the old ways.
I told him I appreciated his approach, and it made me feel good that we still exhibit old school values–trust, reliability and craft.
Mike hired us for subsequent work for the same reasons. And whenever I dropped him an email, he answered it on the phone. On the copper, that is (land line).
Imagine that, right there in Westlake–the heart of prosperity, a man with old fashion values, looking in the yellow pages, and talking on the copper. The dinosaur of Westlake.