RE: trade secrets

["microdoc" <microdoc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Did you mean insulted or insulting?

The customer has a right to know what you do to their transmission to
justify what you charge for the work. For the vast majority a simple
explanation such as "I install new high quality bearings, bushings and
what-not into newly align-bored oiled passageways using techniques and
skills I have developed and acquired over the past 30 years, and here is a
list of a dozen customers for whom I have recently completed a similar
repair." You also should be able to recognize the difference between the
questions asked by a concerned customer preparing to fork up $1000 or more,
and a would-be copycat looking to steal something from you.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Cutter [mailto:tpcutter@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 4:39 PM
To: bill.moss@xxxxxxxxxxx; oilheads@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: trade secrets

<<What I am saying is that if someone has the skill to perform
a complex task, than their trade secrets are usually either
something that cannot be patented or copyrighted due to
their being common or prior art, or simply a sales pitch. In
this context I show people how to do things (its called
teaching graduate school) in the knowledge that the tasks we
perform are so complex that we are not in direct competition
save perhaps for recognition.>>

  I knew this would end up with me getting insulted. The prevailing 
attitude is that the public is somehow entitled to the knowledge gained 
in a lifetime of work. I respectfully but forcefully disagree.

<snip>

But you must be right. It is probably just a sales pitch.

Tom Cutter
Yardley, PA
http://www.RubberChickenRacingGarage.com