"Give Me Some Sugar, Baby!"

I loved that. I immediately put that into effect here in our office. I'm with a large distributor. In most cases, HALO Branded Solutions is one of the top five customers of most any large supplier. They already give us the best pricing, prioritized service, special rebates and other perks. They come in to see us weekly. I have supplier meetings scheduled through the end of this year ... we're already full up to 2014. So, they love Halo, we love them, they come in frequently ... and we rarely think to say "thank you." We give them orders ... lots of orders. They produce them and we pay them and everything is fine ... but we hardly ever say those magic words.
Until that SAAC Times article.

So, now, we send hand-written thank you notes to our Southern California area reps and supplier partners who come by to see us, to make a presentation, to bring in lunch or afternoon treats. I have my office manager Rosalba take care of this, and she does a great job. And now I have valued suppliers THANKING ME for THANKING THEM. I feel good about it and they feel good about it, and the next time I need something extraordinary, I'll most likely get it not because we're Halo but because there is positive energy and appreciation working. And this goes for anyone, large or small.

Sprinkle that sugar. You have the power to make someone's day simply wonderful. Show appreciation, really mean it, and say thank you ALL THE TIME. You'll feel great and positive energy will imbue your every move. Suppliers will be thrilled to hear from you not because of the orders you book, but because they LIKE you.

As my friend Ash says to the Army Of Darkness ... "Give me some sugar, baby!" He was trying to make it with some hot demon hellion, but the message is ... be grateful, communicate it often and your business partners will fall over themselves to help you succeed.