I was reading an ad for Cingular Wireless in the New York Times this morning. You may know this campaign: The fewest dropped calls of any national network. This has always bothered me and now I know why.
Cingular is telling it’s customers that dropped calls are a fact of cell phone use. Can’t do anything about it except minimize the number of times it happens. The subtext is they aren’t even going to TRY to eliminate the dropped calls.
How many of your guest teams would come to your tournament if your marketing line was: Fewest late starts of any tournament. or Fewest number of club linesmen or even Fewest incorrect champions declared of any tournament. You get the idea.
Our advice: Don’t start off your tournament with the assumption that something can’t be done. Assume that it can be and the only challenge is to figure out how. How can you post scores immediately following the end of the game. How do we start 100% of the games on-time. How do we staff referees at 100%. You may not hit it every time, but you won’t be throwing your hands up in resignation like Cingular did.
One quick plug. if you have not already read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, please do. It is not a book about getting rich (though it probably will help) but a book about getting past what people say can’t be done, whether that is buying and selling real estate, inventing a better mousetrap or running a soccer tournament.