Sales and communication

Great salesmen are great communicators. Great communication comes with some original traits, gait and a lot of practice. However, it is easier to train and learn. Here are some simple techniques for being a great communicator.

1. Keep your information simple
2. Ensure your words and action reflect what you are saying
3. Endeavour to build key strategic partnerships and not just temporary solution
4. Blend with local and be consumer focused – understand their needs
5. Deliver on quality and value for money
6. Children are key customers

Your communication should reflect your commitment, passion and belief. Train your front of house team on this, the importance of what you are, the story it tells and the connection with the client.

Stop and wonder

Sometimes it is important to stop and wonder. It will gasp you out! Stolen from here.


 

Monday Blues: Let go

Have a simple message for you in this post.... 

Life is short! Focus on what matters and let go of what doesn't...

Monday blues: Ignore the misunderstandings

This Monday choose to stay above what people think and say. Do your job. No one has the time to understand how you feel what you do and what really goes on in your mind. So ignore them anyways.

Concentrate on doing what you can do and how efficiently you can do. I think there is a superior power above that will look at your work and reward. Trust me He is just.

See what I found online! Smile and continue your job :)

Why are Indians so horny?

A totally awesome finding by Jug Suraiya.. a little long but this is too good !

Is it because they are so many that they are so horny, or is it the other way round? If the men are bad, the women are worse. They're horny all the time. Right out in the open. In full public view. In the middle of the road. Go out any day, whatever the season, spring, summer, monsoon, autumn or winter. And you'll see them - or rather, hear them - going at it hammer and tongs: PEEEH! PAAA!! POOOOH!!! PEEEE!!!!

Why do Indians, all Indians who drive cars, trucks, buses, three-wheelers and two-wheelers, blow the horns of their vehicles all the time? To foreigners and other such unenlightened people it is one of the more mystifying aspects of our ancient civilisation morphed into a young, get-up-and-go nation. In foreign parts people blow their horns too, of course. They blow their horns when they want to avoid an accident by alerting another vehicle or a pedestrian who is in their path. Or they might blow their horns to attract the attention of a passing friend or acquaintance. Sometimes they blow their horns to vent their annoyance at another road-user who's transgressed driving norms or etiquette in some way. But apart from these specific applications, in other countries horns are most noticeable for their lack of use. 

In India the reverse is true. If in other countries traffic is hornless, by and large, in India horns are often trafficless. A car, or bus, or truck, or scootie is being driven down a straight, empty road. There is nothing else on the road, not even - incredibly - a stray cow or dog wandering across it. However, the person driving the car, bus, truck, scootie, whatever will have a thumb - or preferably both thumbs, two always being better than one in such cases - pressed down firmly on the horn: PEEE! PAAA!! PAAAAWW!!! EEEE!!!!!

Who is the driver sounding the horn for? No one knows. Because there is no one there to hear it. Except the driver. Is the driver sounding the horn for the driver? Like one reciting a prayer or a mantra to oneself in order to get in touch with one's innermost being? Is the automotive horn in India a form of spirited self-communion, like satsangs, bhajans and all-night jagrans?

At a busy intersection the red traffic light is on, halting movement in that direction. Or there's a traffic jam. Vehicles gridlocked, bumper to bumper. No one's going anywhere. No one can go anywhere. So what do the drivers, all the drivers do? That's right. They start blowing their horns PAAAW! EEEE!! PAAAA!!! And they don't stop blowing them until the red light changes to green in their favour, or the traffic jam unjams itself and things start moving again. 

Why do Indian drivers blow their horns at all times when there is no ostensible reason to do so - i.e., clear road - or when blowing the horn won't serve any purpose anyway, i.e., red light/traffic jam? And the reason of course is that Indian drivers have reinvented the automotive engine. 

In other places, the automotive engine is powered by the combustion of petrol or diesel which causes pistons to move and propel the vehicle. In India, the engine is directly connected to the horn, and it is the sheer decibel volume of the horn that powers the vehicle, be it truck, car or two-wheeler. The petrol or diesel which people have to put into their vehicles at great cost? A necessary, though expensive, subterfuge to keep the rest of the world from getting to know about our revolutionary reinvention of the automotive engine. India's reinvented engine works on horn power. If drivers don't use their horns, or use them insufficiently, their vehicles will stop moving. This is what causes traffic jams. And red lights. The answer to both of which is to make up the horn-deficit and blow your horn even louder and longer. This will cause the jam to unjam, the red light to change to green. PEEE! PAAAH!! POOOH!!!

Sorry, what did you say? Can't hear a word. All that horniness has driven us all stone deaf.

Down with fever

I have fever, cold and body ache. I am not at work after about 6 months. I am bored. My little angel is down with cold and fever. Wify and mil are down too. Especially because I cannot sleep due to my nose and I cannot play, hug and fight with my little daughter(as I might pass on my virus to her). She is so tired, sleepy and feverish. She is so tiny and I have to let her rest. So what do I do. My phone doesn't help me in the game.

So I head to kitchen make a really good spicy chicken. Hope we all are up by tomorrow. here is a pic from the final dish.

All pics displayed here can be downloaded and used for free. Just give a link here. You can find more pics here: t3i photography.

Watch the change

Marketing is a fun job. In the process of trying to understand others, I am learning more about myself! Consciousness is a gift or is it? Here is an interesting thing I found. May companies are trying to shed off their old look and feel, culture and are trying to come out with a different brand image. This involves working around on their logo.

About 22 companies have come out with slightly better(you be the judge) identities. Here is the link to that.

Here is one prominent change, LiveStrong loses its subtitle.

Monday Blues: Work, Lead, Finish

In a service/product oriented organisation, it is not the bottom or top-line that matters most, but how the front line works and handles the tasks!

Kick Monday Blues today. Be a frontline
person today. Work. Lead, Finish.

Pic is from Redwood's blog.

Monday Blues: Fresh air

Get some fresh air today.
Go for a walk.
Find the best and the most creative way to do something.
Charge yourself and storm ahead.
Kick the Monday blues.

Cling to the cross

1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
   The emblem of suff’ring and shame;
   And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
   For a world of lost sinners was slain. 
2. Refrain:
   
   • So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
     Till my trophies at last I lay down;
     I will cling to the old rugged cross,
     And exchange it some day for a crown.
3. Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
   Has a wondrous attraction for me;
   For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
   To bear it to dark Calvary.
4. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
   A wondrous beauty I see,
   For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
   To pardon and sanctify me.
5. To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
   Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
   Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
   Where His glory forever I’ll share.

Obedience helps growth

Taken from StanleyonBible. 

Disadvantages in life usually keep us humble and obedient. 

  Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was one of the  most godly and successful American Presidents. He had a difficult childhood. His formal schooling was for less than a year. He failed in business in 1831 and was defeated for the legislature in 1832. The next year he again failed in business. His fiancee died in 1835. He was defeated for speaker in 1838. When he got married, his wife became a burden for him. Only one of his four sons lived past age 18. He was defeated for congress, Senate and vice-presidency. But he was elected as President in 1860!

There is no one without failures in this world. For those who love God no failure is final. Failures, crises, suffering, losses, disappointments and such things belong to the same category. In the providence of God, all these can be redemptively used to learn obedience.

Why does God take us through difficult and depressing situations? Hebrews 12:9 seems to give the most satisfying answer: "We have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live?" Jesus was not exempted from this experience except that in His case there was and could be no failure but only suffering. The Son of God as the Son of Man graduated with honours in the School of Suffering, with obedience as the major (Heb 5:8).

Except in very rare circumstances, failures in life are due to disobedience to the Word of God and His revealed will. Failures are God's attention-getters. Failures bring us to knees. Repeated failures make us prostrate before God. If we don't learn from failures, we are only learning to fail. Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his first car. No one repeated that mistake. Hear the testimony of the Psalmist: "Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your Word... It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes" (Psa 119:67,71). Failures break our arrogance and make obedience easy.

Some failures are beyond us, but we are responsible for most of them. An objective analysis of these failures would teach us how we can avoid them by watchfulness and diligence.

Not to the strong is the battle, not to the swift is the race;

Yet to the true and the faithful victory is promised thro' grace!

                                                                    (S. Martin)

Co-exist

Character isn't what you try and show. Character is how you behave when you have no time to think and when no one is bothered about you.

By stopping her run and helping a dizzy, tired and almost blackingout athelete, Meghan reaffirms that love and care are still there in this world. What can you do to change the world to a better place? One small step but a huge leap.

Love you @meghan vogel

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155133/Meghan-Vogel-Inspiring-photo-shows-Ohio-runner-help-carry-competitor-finish-line.html

Let's bargain!

I have been asked to help in negotiations, retuning purchased(once cherished but not needed anymore within 24 hrs) sort of items and called for better pricing deals and so on as I am known to be a tough negotiator.

I personally never bargain. Its a choice. If I want to buy something, I choose to find out the best deal and if it matches the value I presume it will be to me, I buy. I take a long time to select, preview and then move to purchase. Once I decide, I rarely go back and feel bad, change my opinion.

However I have been told I should bargain every time I purchase by everyone I know! My dad, mom, friends, mom in law and so on. Fortunately wify has come to understand my point!

Why I don't bargain would be another blogpost but Jerry nails it here! Read on...



I am on the street, buying the makings of a salad. I pick up what I think I will need and hand it to the young man, who weighs them and tells me what I should pay. I pay and I am about to leave when I hear a distinct “Tchhah”.

It is a senior citizen with a terrible frown on her face.

“Sorry?” I don't actually say it but I look at her with an apologetic question.

“You are from foreign?” she asks.

“No. From Mahim,” I say.

“Then you should bargain,” she says. “Anything he will say, you will give?”

Actually, yes.

I don't bargain with the poor. I bargain with the rich. I find them ugly customers, unwilling to part with their money. I bargain with men who sit in air-conditioned offices and think that writing is not hard work, that ideas fall out of the air. I don't bargain with a man who sits on the street in the semi-tropical sun and sells vegetables.

Of course, he's marked up the price. If I think it is a reasonable mark-up, I pay it. If I think it is unreasonable, I don't buy. I walk on. I stick to four or five vendors, all of whom know me, none of whom wants to lose my custom. My fisherwoman, a lovely Koli, warns me when the fish has come off the ice. My fruit man tells me when I should buy the peaches and when I shouldn't. This is also because I do not bargain.

But the real reason is that I have long been aware that money isn't the most important thing in life. It is important, which is why I won't work for a man in an air-conditioned office until he pays me something close to what I want, but the most important thing is time.

I don't have the time to bargain.

I don't want anything so much that I would waste time discussing the price. If mangoes are too expensive for me, I won't discuss that with the vendor. I'll just buy figs. I know all the arguments: that our vendors love to bargain, that it's more of a game than anything else, yes, yes, yes.
It's just not a game I like to play.

I don't bargain for essentials, for food.

No, actually, I did. Once.

On a menu in a coffee shop in Khan Market, I once read Lime water: Rs.170. Now, that I wanted to take issue with. So I asked to see the manager. I told him politely that I could not imagine that they were actually charging Rs.170 for half a lime and a glass of water and some ice. He said something about the ambience and the air-conditioning. (Is it me or am I seeing a pattern here?) I said, I would pay Rs.50 for the ambience plus five for the water, another five for the ice and five again for the limbu and Rs.30 towards all the salaries and overheads. That came up to, I calculated, Rs.100. Could I have a glass of lime and water for Rs.100?

It seems they don't play India's favourite game in air-conditioned spaces.

Pinto is the award winning author of Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb.

Recycle: Give it its due

Once you are done with using anything, dispose it responsibly. Recycle or help recycle.

Mail is better

What do you think about this article? Is it true that all the modern hyped and all so relevant marketing tools of social media are not competent enough to beat the good old mailing technique? Are newsletters, mailer the only option or atleast the most successful option?

Well the article below says that. Here it goes:

In 2013, no company can expect to be taken seriously if it’s not on Facebook or Twitter. An endless stream (no pun intended) of advice from marketing consultants warns businesses that they need to “get” social or risk becoming like companies a century ago that didn’t think they needed telephones.
Despite the hype that inevitably clings to the newfangled, however, it’s relatively antique tech that appears to be far more important for selling stuff online. A new report from marketing data outfit Custora found that over the past four years, onl
ine retailers have quadrupled the rate of customers acquired through email to nearly 7 percent.

Facebook over that same period barely registers as a way to make a sale, and the tiny percentage of people who do connect and buy over Facebook has stayed flat. Twitter, meanwhile, doesn’t register at all. By far the most popular way to get customers was “organic search,” according to the report, followed by “cost per click” ads (in both cases, read: Google).

So can I ignore my facebook account and focus on the mailer? I don't think that is a good idea. I think facebook, twitter or any other account on social media allows you to build a character to your brand and then the original website, brochure and interaction allows you to seal the deal. A good organic mix is important for a successful marketing effort.

Should I text him?

Should I text him?

Answer to the eternal question!

See what I found online!

Monday blues: Grow

Grow with challenges. Keep the Monday spirit high!

Whom shall I fear?

I know who goes before me. I know who goes behind! Whom shall I fear?

Kauphy

Had a surprising coffee today at Novotel coffee lounge. I was served with about 50 ml of coffee, ice cream and chocolate syrup and it jolted me out of my slumber. This made me search online for a coffee measuring system and here is the infographic(No direct source detected!).

Tell me which one do you like?

Explain Sales?

Courtesy: Hugh MacLeod

New fire to the fox: Understanding the new Firefox logo

First of all, have you noticed it yet? I am talking about the new logo of Firefox.

Even though the overall concept is the same, the new logo is the image evolution was an eight-part process.

Designer Sean Martell went into great detail of the changes in his blog. Mostly, the logo will look better at smaller sizes.

And Martell has been making extremely subtle updates (that you probably didn't notice) for years.