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The late Don Dwyer, Sr. Dead for 15 years and still getting people excited! Who among us can expect such a legacy?
Dead for 15 years, that Don Dwyer is still getting people excited! Who among us can expect such a legacy?
Thanks for the emails following my blog: Got A Don Dwyer Among Your Customers . . . . That article set the all-time readership record for FranchiseMastermind.com! Within a couple of hours, 60% of my list had already read the blog. I assure you Don isn’t surprised that people are still interested in reading about him, and for that I’m grateful.
Another great story
Since you’re hungry to know more about Don Dwyer (I used to tell my journalism students: people are always interested in good stories), and since retaining customers and cultivating Champions are among the most important themes of my blog, I’ve got another good story for you.
A great story if you’re interested in customer relationships!
President George Bush hears about VetFran
After two days of meetings in Washington, DC in the fall of 1992, which included a visit to the White House to inform President George H.W. Bush about the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative (VetFran), conceived by Don and promoted by me, Don and I hopped a commuter plane to Boston where we had a meeting with George Gendron, editor of INC. Magazine. Don expected INC. to write a cover story about VetFran and its creator. (Look, Don never, ever thought small about anything and if you do, then is it time to re-think your expectations? If you don’t think your business, your franchise, your ideas, your products and services are worthy of an INC. cover story, who else will?).
“John, as a reward for your work in D.C., we’re flying first class to Boston,” Don told me at the airport.
How fortuitous!
Senator Kennedy hears about VetFran
Because guess who — at the last minute — sat down across the aisle from me, one row in front of me? None other than Senator Edward M. Kennedy, headed home to Cape Cod.
“Here’s your chance to meet a Kennedy,” Don whispered to me. “Give him a VetFran brochure and tell him why he needs to introduce it as a bill in Congress.”
I gotta admit, I wasn’t ready for this. We had just finished two whirlwind days in the nation’s capital, which had me on the edge of my seat (keeping Don on track wasn’t easy), and I just wasn’t prepared for speaking to a Kennedy. But, of course, I did, because I recalled what I told you in the last blog that Don often said: “I don’t see you for who you are. I see you for who you can be.”
Where was my camera?
As we exited the plane in Boston, I mustered up the courage to interrupt the Senator and hand him a brochure. He was extremely cordial, took the brochure, listened to my elevator pitch, and then I said, “Senator Kennedy, I want you to meet the man who conceptualized VetFran, Don Dwyer, one of the world’s most successful franchisors.” Don stepped in, shook hands with Kennedy, who congratulated Don, and it was then that I realized I didn’t have a camera. Hey, who among us is perfect? Fortunately, Don didn’t mention it.
An aide whisked the Senator in a different direction and Don and I headed for our hotel.
One of my favorite Don Dwyer stories
Now this is where the story percolates!
The morning of our meeting I told Don to meet me at the elevator at 10. We had breakfast at 6. Don had eggbeaters — forever eating healthy — and I had oatmeal. Then we took a brisk 30-minute walk and planned our agenda for the meeting with INC.
He was buying a car, over the phone
At 10 I’m at the elevator, but no Don. That was odd. Not like him to show up late. I got concerned at 10:05 and called his room and he said he was on his way. Moments later I was holding the elevator door and I said to him, “What happened?”
“Nothing,” he said, and smiled. “I was on the phone with a guy who’s going to sell me a red Mustang convertible.”
“Oh,” I said, obviously not interested or humored, although I knew Don loved automobiles.
“You don’t like cars?” he asked me.
We had INC. Magazine waiting for us
“Not really.” I was more concerned about getting to our meeting on time.
“If you could have any car you wanted, what would it be?” Don persisted.
“A Lincoln Towncar,” I said.
I know: Boring . . . especially since he said ‘any car.’ But it’s what I liked.
“Do you have any Grey Poupon?”
Don was surprised. Here was a man who drove a Rolls Royce in rustic Waco, Texas, and I loved it when he picked me up at the airport in that automobile fit for royalty. One time I told him I was going to ride in the back just to get the feel for royalty, and he went along with it, even serving as my chauffeur! (People thought Don was all business and all serious. Too bad they didn’t know him).
Looked a little over-the-top moments later when we arrived at a Chinese restaurant in Waco, and Don opened the back door for me! Wow, did I feel important! (You realize, of course, that this was another way for Don to get to know me, and to help me feel better-than-good, as my client Zig Ziglar would say, so that I’d continue to do my best work for Don and his companies. The drill in the elevator was for the same purpose).
It’s all about building relationships with customers
“What color?” Don asked, referring to the Lincoln Towncar.
I knew where this was going, so to save time I said, “Black exterior, creme interior, and no I have not gone to the dealership to sit in one, to smell it, feel it and project that someday it would be mine, and no, I do not have a photo of it on my bathroom mirror!”
Don laughed.
“You’re a good student, Hayes,” he said. “And I’m getting the idea that you really don’t care all that much about cars.”
Didn’t and don’t.
A phone call like none before it
But Don thought I should!
A couple of months later, Christmas time, Don called early one morning — you’ll remember from the previous blog that there was nothing unusual about that — and as always I was prepared with my notebook to make sure I could capture the assignments I was about to get. Everything seemed normal until the very end of our discussion when he said, “And as soon as you can, go see Tony at Northeast Lincoln Mercury in Philadelphia.”
“You want me to go where?”
Usually he would have just hung up the phone, but I caught him when I asked, “Why?”
He said matter-of-factly, “He’s going to give you the keys to a black Lincoln Towncar, Signature Series, creme interior. Merry Christmas.”
And then he hung up!
Did I hear him correctly?
I sat at my dining room table, stunned. I usually spoke to Don at home before leaving for the office and my wife, noticing the look on my face, said, “Something wrong?”
I said, “No. But you won’t believe this. Don Dwyer just told me he’s giving me a Lincoln Towncar.”
“Yea, I know,” she said. “He called me the other day to find out the closest dealership to us. Isn’t he something?”
Something indeed! No one had ever given me such a gift before. And the way he did it made it all the more special — no, thrilling! (which was just like Don).
Again, it’s about building relationships
But look, it didn’t take a good student long to figure out what was going on. Even though Don was my client, he was treating me like his customer. Obviously a very important customer. In his own way, Don was teaching me how to build customer relationships.
After thanking him profusely for several days, I jokingly said to him, “I know what this is about, Don. Every time I get in that car you know that I’m going to be reminded of you and that will trigger my brain to ask, ‘Are you doing enough for your great client Don Dwyer to deserve this luxury automobile?’” He laughed, and he didn’t deny it!
All of this explains all the more why I told you in the previous blog that you must cultivate Don Dwyers among your customer base, and you don’t need many. Franchisors, franchisees, franchise suppliers — all business owners — surround yourself with a few Don Dwyers and you’ve got an army! You’ll never be bored, you’ll always be challenged to do your best work, and the work always will be personally satisfying and financially rewarding. I’m proof of it!
Bush 41 + VetFran = No Clinton ?
Just several things as I close this blog:
- Bush 41 thought VetFran was a “very patriotic idea,” but didn’t embrace it. And you know what happened to him. A few months later he had to move out of the White House! We thought he should have used VetFran to generate goodwill and more votes!
- George Gendron immediately identified with Don and INC. Magazine generously promoted both Don and VetFran (but no cover story, this time).
- Senator Kennedy’s office continued to give lip service to VetFran (we corresponded a few times), but nothing more came of that chance encounter.
- Tony at Northeast Lincoln Mercury thought I walked on water when I met him, “I don’t know who you are,” he said, “but this guy Don Dwyer thinks you are fantastic. Do you know he paid cash for your car?” Everyone at the dealership was talking about “that guy” from Texas.
- For more than 10 years I looked very handsome in my black Lincoln Towncar. I never started it without thinking about Don and saying a prayer for him and his companies. I hated giving it up, but I turned it in for a beautiful executive series F150 — by this time, I was a Texan, too! Yes, the truck was black, and I bought it with money yielded from Dwyer Group stock, which Don also had given to me.
Saving stories for my tell-all book
I’ve got many more marvelous Don Dwyer stories — the time he showed me how to reverse-sell a franchise prospect; his surprising choice of an Italian restaurant when we were in Philadelphia, city of great Italian restaurants; the night we spent with presidential candidate (now the late) Jack Kemp; a touching train ride when he talked about his love for his wife and the pride he held for their six children; the phone call when he told me I had two weeks to rewrite his book, Target Success, and how he convinced me to do it; why and how he created VetFran — it was just supposed to be a one-time event for soldiers; and others. But I’m saving the best stories for my tell-all book about franchising! (You don’t think I’m going to give that away free on a blog site, do you? Don would turn over in his grave!).
It’s a grand time to be alive, even without Don, but only because Don taught me the importance of cultivating Don Dwyers in my business and my life. Those of you who are my Don Dwyers — family, friends, colleagues and clients — you know who you are. God bless you!
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