Saying the Same Thing Differently

I received an email from my colleague, Peter Donnelly at Mustang Leadership. He sends a Thought for Friday (on a Friday obviously!). I loved it, especially as a copywriter, it is all about emotional direct response. But I also loved it for the story that it is.

Take two mins and have a read:

Saying the Same Thing Differently

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning?” and continued, “What did you write?’

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

What he had written was: “Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile.

Have you your telephone sales script ready?

I spoke with a client today. We are working on a flyer and a new brochure for his new business. I can say this as I said it to my client but I felt his words were a bit stiff.

So I called him up and suggested a role play. I was the potential client, he was the salesman.

The reason why the words on his flyer and brochure were stiff was because he was stiff on the phone. He didn’t have a script ready, didn’t immediately tell me what the benefits were and stumbled along the call with no clear goals and most certainly didn’t ask for the sale.

Yet when I speak with him about his business and its potential, he gets energised. He just needs to transfer that energy into a script and practice, practice, practice.

My question to you, this Wednesday morning, is this:

Are you ready to sell when the phone rings?

Is your staff helping or hindering your brand?

Just a quick note to tell you about my recent trip to one of the more elite jewellers in Dublin which reminded me that your company’s representatives have a huge amount to do with your company brand.

Background: My sister bought me a lovely bracelet on my wedding day. She wanted to give me something from that traditional wedding mantra - something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Long story short, it was a bit big, kept dropping off me so I wanted to get a security chain on it so it would stop falling off me.

I went into the store and to put it simply, one of the store representatives looked at me, ignored me and proceeded to make a call.

Then when I finally got speaking with another member of staff, he interrupted us.

I took off my invisible coat and told the lady that was dealing with me about the store assistant that ignored me. She apologised and decisively said that she would give me the security chain with no charge.

Instead of walking out of the store, swearing I’d never use it again, I left thinking what a good representative she was.

Ask yourself honestly:

• Are your staff (whether retail or service based) promoting your business?
• Is their behaviour helping or hindering your business?

You spend a lot of time networking and marketing your business. You might as well burn the cash if your staff aren’t there backing up your brand and being consistent with your image.

To know for sure that your staff is helping your brand, revisit the following five tips:

1. Don’t make assumptions based on your customers appearance

2. Understand that every person that walks through your door is a lead

3. Reward your staff who recognise that every person who walks through the door is a lead

4. Be consistent with your image through regular customer training/support/mentoring

5. Give your staff the authority to make a decision to keep a customer happy.

What do you do to keep your staff promoting your brand?