Jonathan Hoffsuemmer

$SNAP SPECS is a new category.

If every new request becomes a priority, doing more work will never feel like catching up. The list can grow faster than your authority to change it. Being responsible for growth should include a say in what the company stops doing.

A buyer’s hesitation can feel like a judgment on years of your work. It may be a concern about the first week of theirs.

Reach is what you pay for. Fit is what they repeat for free.

$CVS fits on a pharmacy sign. The business spans pharmacy benefits, insurance and care delivery. A familiar label can keep working long after it stops explaining the company. When the business changes, buyers may need more than a new name. They need a reason to revise the old picture.

Medicine keeps getting better at seeing what comes next. People have stayed the same about acting on it. Most of us put off the help we need, and when we finally go, we pick it by what we can see from the outside. Nobody has a model for that part yet.

The choice looks like clever or clear. The message that wins is the one the reader thinks she thought of herself.

From Message Market Fit. People don't buy because you've convinced them.

A multiple is the price of a word, paid quarterly.

Being needed on every sales call can feel like proof of your value. Then the business grows, and the reward is more calls. Your experience deserves to become something the team can use, even when you are elsewhere.

Mark's business had outgrown his spreadsheet. He said so at a cookout, over the grill, to no one in particular. Eight years of doing his own books, and this was the year it stopped being possible. He needed an accountant and had no idea how to find one. Three people at the table had accountants. Dave had been with his for fifteen years. Liked him, trusted him, had never once thought about leaving. "I'll send you his info," he said. He meant it. He never did. Priya said hers was fine, she guessed, and went back to her plate. Carla said, "Call Linda Reyes. She answers her own phone, and the first year she'll clean up whatever mess you've got for a flat fee. Tell her I sent you." Mark called Linda on Monday. He didn't compare three firms. He didn't read reviews. He never asked what Dave's guy charged, because he never learned Dave's guy's name. He called the one he could remember something about. Dave's accountant may be the best of the three. Fifteen years of nothing going wrong says so. He lost the client anyway, at a cookout, because the person who trusted him most couldn't say why in one breath. Then the other half. When Mark called, a person picked up. He said Carla's name, and the voice on the phone said, "Oh, Carla. How's she doing." The first meeting was that week. A few days later Carla got a two-line note from Linda: Mark's all set up, thank you for sending him. Carla will say Linda's name again. She'll say it with more confidence next time, because the last time she staked her word on it, it came back in better shape than she lent it. That's what a referral is. Not information. A loan. When Carla said "call Linda," she wasn't describing an accountant. She was lending Mark her own decision, years of nothing going wrong, so he wouldn't have to make one. For the kind of help people would rather not think about, that's the product. The not having to decide. And people don't lend where they've been burned. If Mark had gotten voicemail and a week of silence, the loss would have been Carla's. She vouched. It failed. Next time she'd have said something vaguer, or let Priya's shrug stand for both of them. Most businesses treat referral as luck. It barely shows up in the marketing plan because it doesn't feel like marketing. It is the marketing. It's the only kind that arrives already trusted, and it runs on two things you control: whether your name can be said in one breath, and whether it's safe to say. Dave's accountant never gave Dave anything to say. Linda gave Carla a reason, and then she made sure it held. Monday Write what a happy customer would say about you at a table: your name, one reason, and the next step. "Call Linda. She answers her own phone. Tell her I sent you." If it won't fit in one breath, fix that first. Then give it to the three people most likely to say it. And make it safe to say. When a referred person calls, whoever answers knows the referrer's name and says it. Within the week, the referrer hears that their friend was taken care of. No details. Just that the loan came back. One of these every Sunday, free, at nobodywantsadoctor.com/story

Tonight is the biggest night of the year for candy, and $HSY makes more of it than anyone. Almost none of it is bought by the person who eats it. The buyer is paying for how the bowl looks when the door opens.

When a price feels wrong, the word in front of it is usually what’s wrong.

The lobby with the water feature impresses for a week. The desk that remembers the dog’s name, and that the dog was sick, matters for a decade; so does the call after a scary result that nobody asked for. Impressive can be bought by any competitor with a budget. Remembered has to be done one person at a time, for years, and it is the only thing on the list a member will repeat at dinner.

The best thing a medical practice can do for its reputation is answer when it’s closed.

Your quietest customers are either your happiest or already gone. From the outside they look the same. No complaints, no replies, invoices paid on time. The unhappy will always be heard. The grateful you have to find, because gratitude doesn't file a complaint. So most businesses spend the year answering the loud, and never learn who was about to leave, or who would have sent three friends if anyone had asked. Once a quarter, call five who haven't said a word. Not to sell. To find out which kind of quiet it is.

$TDOC reported last night. The lines to read are visits per member and how many members came back for a second year. Telehealth solved the Tuesday-night problem: a doctor in twelve minutes, from the couch. What it hasn’t solved is the second year. A fast visit with a stranger is a transaction. It gets repeated when someone needs another one, and it builds nothing for the year after. The practices that hold a panel for a decade sell the opposite thing: the same person every time, who remembers the last visit.

At fifteen minutes, someone comes out and says the doctor is running behind, and offers a time. Those few words are the difference between a late visit and a bad one.