Peggy’s Pointers

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please place your electronic devices in silent mode during the meeting today.”

Is it acceptable to make a phone call; send or receive text; or read your email while meeting with a prospect or client?  The answer is NO!

I would venture to say that none of us would ever think about doing this in front of a client or prospect.   Yet week after week many of my fellow members of my networking group engage in some form of cell phone usage during our meeting.

Why, then, has it become acceptable to text and read email it at networking events?

In reality, this is not an acceptable business etiquette at all.   It is just plain rude, disrespectful and very unprofessional.

Think about this for a moment:

• People make decisions about us, as professionals, based upon how you show up and act.
• Your networking partners are the ones who are in a position to refer you to others.
• My time is just as valuable as yours.
• When you text or read mail during a meeting, you are saying to those around you that they are not important enough to deserve your undivided attention.

We must, therefore, respect our fellow networkers just as if we are sitting in front of our clients or prospects.  After all, our networking partners are the very ones who will recommend you to their client base.

Consequently, the exact same rules and protocol of acting and being professional must be adhered to no matter what type meeting you are attending.

At your next event, go prepared to do business, looking and acting the part of a professional and turn off the cell phone!

Engage and listen otherwise you might miss an opportunity to make a connection.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2015

How do you identify and track your personal successes in life?  Recently, a couple of business associates and I were talking about success.  These questions came up:

*  When do you know you have arrived?

*  When do you believe deep inside that you are a success?

*  Why to we have a tendency to compare ourselves to others when it comes to success?

I decided to do a little research on success.  What I found was that most all of the articles only addressed big accomplishments in life.  The discussions primarily centered on global success in life—attaining accolades in our industry, financial security, having children, power and position.

My question is–What about the little things in life that we do every day which make up our overall personal success story?  Don’t they matter?  How can we identify and track our successes?

Personally, I believe that success is not only about the big promotion to the corner office or being recognized by our peers as a thought leader in our industry.  Instead, it is the sum of the parts—it’s the little activities that we do every day along with the big events that comprise our overall success.

In Eric Jensen’s book, “Little Book of Big Motivation,” he lays out some pointers on how to identify and track our successes.

*  Create a daily list of your victories.

*  Track your triumphs for at least one week.

*  Your list should be all-encompassing from all areas of your life.

*  Include every single accomplishment, no matter how seemingly insignificant.

I believe the key here is to chart the most minuscule detail because once we get to the end of the week and reflect on the totality of our achievements, we will even surprise ourselves.

Finally, create and develop our own measuring stick of success.  After all, your personal success in life is made up of our own actions.  Don’t be afraid to take credit for your achievements.  In other words, “Let your Little Shine—Don’t hide it under a Bushel.”

I am going to work on my own list.

Peggy P. Edge © 2015

Leadership is not always easy to accomplish and truly the decisions that we make are not always as simple to do without consequences or regrets.  Truly Thomas Paine’s quote, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way” is not a simple thing to accomplish.

Do you wrestle with indecision when all options seem to be the best?  Or, are you hasty to make a decision only to find out later that you were a little too quick resulting in wrong decisions being made?

Some of us are better at simply deciding and moving on whereas others belabor points over and over for fear of making the wrong decision.

Some effective leadership pointers on decision-making include:

Make a Pro/Con list

-Divide a piece of paper in half and list all of the pros and cons on each side.  Assign a weight to each bullet point.

–Pointer:  Make sure to put your ideas down with pencil and paper.  It is so much easier to see a clear choice when you have your ideas out of your head and in print.

Weigh logic against emotion

-If you are a Type A personality, it is said that you only make decisions based on logic where as if you are a more laid-back Type B personality you tend to lead or make decisions on feelings.

–Pointer:  Do not discount your emotions.  We are human and it’s okay to listen to that inner voice more often than not.

Balance time spent and energy expended

-Weigh whether the desired outcome is a $10 decision or a $1000 decision.

–Pointer:  Remember don’t waste time or sweat the small stuff.  Use your time to deliberate on the things that are most important to your desired outcome.

Drill-down to the key alternatives

-Create a checklist of your crucial and relevant points and don’t deviate from that.

–Pointer:  Zero in on identifying the critical issues at hand.  Decide if each issue is an A-list factor.  If not, discard it from your options.

Determine the here and now

-Adopt the habit of thinking in current event terms.

–Pointer:  Often times we spend too much time mulling over “what ifs” or rehashing the past.  Decide and move on, after all, tomorrow is always a new day.

Peggy P. Edge © 2015

I was so very thrilled to be presenting “What’s New in Packaging” to 3rd-5th grade girls this week.  Plano ISD has a grant that is geared toward young ladies introducing them to science and math as a career choice.

These young folks are using their math skills to create and design a package for a product.  I showed them examples of packaging products that they would never see as most of my products are discarded at the shipping dock before they go into the retail store.

Here are some samples of their work:

Congrats PISD for encouraging young ladies into the packaging business.  There are very few women in my industry and it is so much fun and rewarding to get to see how things are made and what it takes to be a part of getting a product prepared for market.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2015

As a waitress do you set goals and objectives for your job?  Are you a sales associate in a clothing store?  What is your overall plan for the year to grow your client base?  As a hairdresser, do you need new clients?  Do you have a marketing plan for your business?  If not, why?

Today, I was chatting with a colleague whose primary business is in the retail sales market.  He mentioned that store managers and retail salespeople need to have sales skills yet quite often they don’t know or realize that they need to employ the same skill-set that is paramount to all sales individuals.

For most of my career, I have been in industrial sales.  Goal setting is just part of my overall sales plan each year.   At the end of the year, I start reviewing my existing client base and identify prospective clients to determine a plan of attack for the coming year.  Basically, I ask myself where my business will come from next year.

At my hairdresser’s shop, there is a young lady who has only been out of beautician school for about a year and is looking to build her business.  Currently she gets to help out the senior hairdressers when they are overloaded.  However she needs to be able to develop her own practice.

I shared the following tips with her to help develop and grow her business:

• Set up a Facebook Business Fan Page and LinkedIn Profile.
  • Start writing about hair care tips.  Write about your industry.  What’s new and happening?
  • Review new products on the market.
  • Be consistent with your writing. Post information on your social media pages at least once a week.
• Create a list of people in your Circle of Connections
  • Connect with everyone that you know and tell them what you are doing for a living now.
  • Don’t forget friends of your family, high school/college, fraternity/sorority, church, clubs, neighbors, spouse/significant other connections, gym/exercise class, professional connections like CPA, banker, attorney, etc. Think about every type of connection that you have and reach to them.
• Create multiple-purchase offers or offers that cost you very little.
  • For example, you can offer $10 off of your client’s next hair cut when they help bring you new customers or offer a free hair cut with every 3 new clients that you bring in.
• Join trade associations in your industry. Yes, even in the restaurant, beauty, etc. industry there are associations that you can become members that will help promote your business.
• Ask your clients for a written review of your work. Encourage them to post on your social media page and speak about your level of professionalism and expertise.
• Look and act professional.
  • Have business cards made with your name, phone number and email address.  Give them to everyone that you meet.
  • Even if you are a waitress at the local pub, hand out your business cards to customers, if permissible by management. Ask the patrons to ask for you next time they come in for dinner.
  • If your business establishment will not allow you to hand out your personal business cards, ask your manager for his card and write your name on the back to give to customers.
• Get involved in some type of community events.
  • Find ways to volunteer and help others.
  • Volunteering affords you a different opportunity to connect with people outside of your sphere of influence.
• Brainstorm with others in your business or with trusted friends as to tips that you can use to add to your business.

These tips are applicable to any type of business that you are engaged.  When you can apply one or all of these ideas, you will begin to see an increase in your bottom line.

Remember that no matter what type of business you engage, do not be bashful to let everyone that you are connected with know what you are doing and ask for their help to grow your business.

Finally, always be sure to give back.  Ask those customers and clients what you can do for them.

Peggy P. Edge © 2015

Peggy Edge presented “Key Steps to Effective Business Networking” to the Plano Chapter of Dallas Referrals Networking on Friday, January 16th.

Her presentation included the importance of determining your Return on Investment (ROI) for all networking activities; crafting an effective 30-second commercial; and identifying and training synergy partners so that they can help you grow your business with warm referrals.

Do the manufacturers of the products you rep require that you reveal your client list as a condition to do business with them?

Recently I was getting ready to purchase some packaging products for a client when the manufacturer wanted to know the name of my and how much product they buy from me annually.

Initially, I responded to the email with all of the information that they requested. However, just before I hit the send button, I had second thoughts about this request.

They didn’t give me an ultimatum but on numerous occasions of recent they wanted me to reveal the name of my client when I purchased products.

In the packaging business, there is no exclusivity of products. I can purchase the exact brands from several vendors. In addition, I am under no contract or obligation to buy from only them.

Even though we don’t have a contract, we do have a gentleman’s agreement that we do not call on each other’s accounts. I have always honored this agreement because I respect their position and consequently I expect that they will respect mine as well. Furthermore, I strongly believe that either one of us is shooting ourselves in the foot if we breach that verbal commitment.

This particular supplier does have a direct salesforce who sells to end users. Historically, there have been times when I have provided a client’s name in order to protect my own interests within a particular account. However, I have done this readily because I did not want their sales representatives bird-dogging my accounts.

The bottom line here is that we are not talking about doctor/patient or lawyer/client privileged but in all honesty I do not feel this is any of their business whatsoever to know the names of my customers. What are your thoughts on this?

Peggy P. Edge © 2015

A Strategic Networking Plan is a “must-have” inclusion in an overall Marketing Plan for any business or individual.

When you map out a plan of attack, for your networking activities truly, you can be extremely successful growing your business with a plethora of warm introductions and referrals thus minimizing the need to cold call.

Here are a few key steps to drafting a Networking Plan:

• Return on Investment (ROI)
  • Start by evaluating last year’s results.
  • Assign a cost to your hard and soft expenses – How much does it cost you in time to attend each event?
• Identification of Strategic Partnerships
  • Create a list of every connection and analyze how they might be eligible to be strategic to your partnership.
  • Do you have new products/services offering where you will need to identify new connections?
• Development time to train those partners
  • Set up a schedule to meet with your networking partners and share with them what you expect to accomplish during the year and how they can be an integral part of your success.
• Tis’ better to give than to receive.
  • How you are going to be of service or assistance to others. It could be as a mentor, trainer or leader.
• Social Media
  • Include in your plan the utilization of social media in your networking activities for the year.
• Craft engaging 30-Second Commercials
  • Create at least 3-5 different commercials, then practice, practice, practice in front of a mirror, using a stop watch.

Peggy works with corporate sales teams and individuals to develop their Strategic Networking Plan.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2015  (Portions of text are excerpts from “5 Key Steps of Effective Business Networking” – Peggy P. Edge (c) 2012)

Recently I was reading an article about sales sins.  Since I like to work in a positive manner as much as possible, here are a few helpful pointers about sales that we must keep in mind when we are in the marketplace:

1. Listen between the lines – instead of running your mouth, try to figure out what your prospect or client is implying in their conversation with you.
2. Sell benefits and value proposition from the customer prospective –look at the need of the client. You must ask yourself, what benefits will he experience and what is the value proposition in the eyes of the client…not your eyes.
3. Be proactive in your sales process – always ask for the order.
4. Make sure you are talking to a prospect and not a suspect – If you have done your homework, you will know:
   • Who the final decision maker is
   • What products and services to present
   • How you are going to present the recommendations and justifications that fit the prospects needs.
5. Create client advocates – an advocate is someone who will promote, talk about, recommend you to others. In Carl Sewell’s book, “Customers for Life” he talks about under promising and over delivering is just one way to create those life-long advocates.

“Getting ‘THE EDGE’ over Your Competition!!!”

Peggy P. Edge © 2014

When you give your 30-Second Commercial at a networking event, do you just stand up, open your mouth and hope the right words to come out?  You are shooting yourself in the foot unless you plan in advance what you are going to say.  Developing a good elevator speech requires some forethought.

A well-crafted commercial will answer 3 questions:  Who, What, and Why.

1. Who are your clients or prospects? Be specific with the levels of management that you call on as well as the industry niche that you work within or are expecting to break into.  Example:  I work with______________.
2. What the products and services that you offer? Highlight only 1 product or service at a time.  Remember you only have 30-seconds.  Example:  I provide ________.
3. Why should I listen to what you have to say? Your Value Proposition explains why your product or service is important.  Example:  Because or So that_________.

To improve your presentation, write the answer to all of these questions and fill in the blank.  Next, get in front of a mirror and practice-practice-practice.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2014