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24 Words That Will Change Your Business

Written by: Laura Posey

Article Overview: Chicago in 1932 was a mess. The Great Depression had a firm grip on the city. Businesses failed one after the other and people lined up outside missions to get bread or soup as their only meal of the day. At the Club Aluminum Products Company, things were dire. The seller of a new and expensive line of cookware, the company had seen its high pressure, door-to-door sales pitches declining in effectiveness.

24 Words That Will Change Your Business

Chicago in 1932 was a mess. The Great Depression had a firm grip on the city. Businesses failed one after the other and people lined up outside missions to get bread or soup as their only meal of the day.

At the Club Aluminum Products Company, things were dire. The seller of a new and expensive line of cookware, the company had seen its high pressure, door-to-door sales pitches declining in effectiveness.

As a result, the company was nearly bankrupt; creditors were beating at the door and the newly appointed president, Herbert J. Taylor, needed to do something to save his company and the 250 employees and their families who depended on him.

He came up with 24 words that saved the company and ultimately changed millions of people around the world…

Taylor, a devout Christian, came up with an “ethical yardstick” which he called the Four-Way Test. Before distributing his test to his workers, he checked with people who he knew in four other religions to make sure that it wouldn’t violate any of their ethical beliefs.

Here is Taylor’s Test:

“Of all the things we think, say or do:

1) Is it the TRUTH?

2) Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3) Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS”

4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”

This short text helped revolutionize the way his salesforce and his whole company did business. In just a few short years, Club Aluminum Products was debt-free and paying handsome royalties to its shareholders.

Taylor, a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, went on to president of Rotary International, which adopted his Four-Way Test as their standard for behavior. Taylor even graced the cover of Newsweek magazine that year, noting that the Four-Way Test had made its way into 38 countries by 1954.

Each year over 1.2 million people worldwide are exposed to Taylor’s simple message weekly at Rotary clubs.

What would your company look like if you ran it according to the Four-Way Test? Would you increase the level of trust with your employees, clients, vendors and the community? Would you profit not only financially but emotionally as a result of using these 24 words a GPS system for decision making?

Just asking…

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Article Tags: marketing, motivation, sales, sales tips, small business



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