Demystifying Men’s Business Attire by Guest Poster Hendrik Pohl

( Many thanks to specialist Hendrik Pohl for his insightful tips in this guest article sent to me from San Francisco - please also note Hendrik has given a link to business dress codes around the world )

 

You may have heard people say “dress for success”. But what exactly does this mean? The sad truth of it all is that people judge based on first impressions – meaning the first few seconds of meetings someone. Things like a handshake, eye contact, and personal hygiene are certainly contributing factors. But just as important are the clothes we decide to wear.

Dressing appropriately is especially important in our professional lives. Be it a business meeting, a job interview, or a luncheon with colleagues, “dressing for success” couldn’t be more apparent than when on the job. To help you get on the right “dress for success” path, here are all the things a man needs to know about different types of business attire.

Formal Business Dress
When most people think of a business man, they picture a man dressed in dark suit, white shirt, a tie, and a briefcase. In short this is what formal business dress looks like. It is classic and conservative, and commonly worn by lawyers, bankers, and politicians around the world. Suits are either midnight blue or dark charcoal in colour. The dress shirt is white, the classic oxford shoes are black, and the necktie is typically navy, grey, or dark red in colour.

General Business Attire
Although this dress code does require you to wear a tie, it is much more relaxed compared to formal business attire. Suits in any shade of gray, navy, as well as beige/tan (summer) are all acceptable. In addition, sports coats and blazers worn with off-coloured, yet complimenting, dress pants are another acceptable choice. Even more flexibility is given with the dress shirts. Most colours are acceptable as are patterns. A check-patterned shirt, solid coloured tie, navy blazer, beige dress pants, and dark brown dress shoes are a good example of someone taking advantage of the flexibility this type of business dress offers.

Business Casual
In short, “casual” means you can leave your tie at home. The classic pieces that make up this outfit are: long sleeve button down dress shirt (any colour & and all classic patterns), dress pants, and dress shoes (leather shoes in black and brown). A jacket is optional, although it does make an excellent addition for a chilly day days. Other alternatives to the suit jacket are sports coats, V-neck cashmere sweaters, and cardigan sweaters. 

Casual Fridays: What it is & What it Isn’t
Don’t be fooled by the word “casual”. In short casual Friday is an even more dress down version of “business casual”. Collared shirts are required. Although short sleeves are acceptable they are not recommended from a sartorial point of view. Jeans can be worn as long as they are dark in colour and do not have a visible faded wash or tears. Casual brown dress shoes are a great choice, but the even more casual boat shoes and loafers also work for this dress code. The things that are not acceptable are: shorts, sandals and flip-flops, T-shirts, faded or torn jeans, excessive jewelry.

About the Author:
Hendrik Pohl is the owner of Tie-a-Tie.net as well as of Bows-N-Ties.com. He himself is a tie aficionado, and he turned his hobby into his job when he started the US tie retailer Bows-N-Ties.com in 2007. When he is not managing his business he freelance writes for a handful different fashion & style blogs. For more information, please visit the following guide for business dress around the globe: http://www.bows-n-ties.com/mens-fashion-tips/wrapper.php?/archives/321-Mens-Office-Dress-Codes-Around-the-Globe.html

Antifragile Selling in a VUCA world of Black Swans , Schrodinger’s Cat and Talebantifragilistas.

“An expert is one who does the wrong things for the most sophisticated of reasons.”

Few Sales Directors and Sales executives  would claim  if asked to submit a forecast that they were experts at forecasting.

 We are all trying to learn how to sell in a VUCA world . (Volatile, Uncertain , Complex and Ambiguous.) That makes forecasting increasingly harder as well as important.

  Click here for free download of Buyers Views 2012 Selling in a VUCA world

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb  author of  the bestseller ‘The Black Swan’  is a specialist in risk engineering. He says

“ We can’t predict very accurately.

We can’t forecast things.

There is a high degree of unpredictability”

Professor Taleb  describes Expert problems (in which the expert knows a lot but less than he thinks he does) often bring fragilities, and acceptance of ignorance the reverse.”.

 “There are secrets to our world,” he writes, “that only practice can reveal, and no opinion or analysis will ever capture in full.”

Some  things in business hate volatility some things love it.

His new book in called  Antifragile.

 The more I get to understand his philosophy I think it means we in Sales need to be Antifagilistas which sounds like a band of undercover  business guerrilla operatives out in the VUCA jungle.

We need to be brave and learn how to embrace the chaos.

Uncertainty -The Science bit ( a bit of  diversion)

 

 ( if Science is not your thing scroll down to 'back to Prof Taleb ' -I am not sure Science was my thing )

My first intellectual struggles with 'Unpredictability' came from wrestling with the challenges of undergraduate Chemistry in the 1980s.

 The theory responsible for my dis-ease, was from the thoughts of one Herr Werner  Heisenberg 1927  .The  ‘Uncertainty Principle’ followed by work by  Kennard and Weyl in 1928 .
 

 Probably today’s primary school children do this stuff in an afternoon now for all I know !

I found it tough going

Anyhow it went something like

The more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum  can be known, and vice versa. There was also a thing called Planck’s constant which I think I was a thick as ! :)

Then there was Schrodinger's Cat-  the famous thought experiment that illustrates the paradox of quantum mechanics when applied to everyday objects I wish this New Scientist video Click for video had been around when I was at College.

Scientists wrestle with Uncertainty then  but so do Philosophers let's get back to Prof. Taleb

Back to Prof Taleb

One of the leading experts in Unpredictability is Professor Taleb a risk engineer at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute. His best selling book on how unpredictable events influence our world was The Black Swan

Question : What’s the opposite of fragile?

One might answer robust, resilient, solid or strong.

Prof Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues these are inaccurate.

 The opposite of fragile , would be a mail package on which one would write “ Please mishandle” The opposite of something is not neutral or zero it is positive.

Some things benefit from being mishandled randomly knocked shocked and banged

 I know it when I ‘tap’ my computer in frustration !

Prof Taleb’s point is that emergencies or problems can often lead to a new idea.

For example :- The airline industry benefits from every mistake ever made on the planet. Any pilot who makes a mistake  on the planet today makes your next flight safer.

The banking industry is the opposite. Every mistake takes the banking system closer to a total collapse.

One system is ‘antifragile’ one while the other is ‘fragile’.

The banking system was built for order and not for the unpredictable. It was very fragile and people were hiding risk.

So which are you a

Fragilista ? Robustilista ? or Antifragilista ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“No skin in the game” can lead to

One of the problems is that investors and bankers too often had no personal risk from their actions

If they wave all the upsides and none of the downsides the system becomes very fragile.

The banking system in 2012 paid itself large bonuses in the history of banking and that was from taxpayers. Bankers have hijacked the system and people think that’s capitalism.

Capitalism is about adventurers who get harmed by their mistakes, not people who harm others with their mistakes. The only way you can have a system that’s robust is when people are punished for their mistakes.

Maybe the professor is correct.

The FT wrote a supportive review The Guardian was rather  less taken with it and him.

For me Taleb is good at shaking up my brains.

Here are some statistics I gleaned from the really useful .City A.M. on line version  which m gets across Taleb’s ‘skin in the game point’

·         More than 80% of all workers in the Financial Services Industry expect a bonus for 2012. Almost half expect their bonus to be larger than last year’s.

·         The total cost of bailing out the British Banking system  was £1.3 trillion more than 10 times the budget of the National Health

·         Taxpayer paid out £45 billion shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland, £20 billion in Lloyds

PERHAPS!  PERHAPS!  PERHAPS! 

If we in Sales can’t 'make our mind up about 'Taleb’s notions' then we’ll never get started'  or as  Doris Day sang     Click here for Delightful Doris

Perhaps Schrodinger’s cat is 'on a hot tin roof' in a state of extreme anxiousness.

Perhaps  for some Taleb’s Black Swan is cooked or

Perhaps more in Sales should read Taleb and join the Talebantifragilistas

today!

Business dress Yellow Stockings Pink Shirts or a Kingsman ?

With any  written advice on the subject of dress and how it will affect our potential to ascend in society , earn more money or be more attatctive to the opposite sex , it is wise just to check the veracity of the data and the motivations of the author or commissioner of the information.

Pink Shirt was centre place in this
 Jermyn Street shop window in 2012

Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA, has recently commissioned  a  study  this year into shirt colour and fabric :

'You can tell a lot about someone by the colour they wear.’

 Such opinions were as prevalent in the first Elizabethan period as well as  in our own.

In retro die ( back in the day)    [scroll down to 2012 if history is not your thing]

The colour of dress mattered both in the costumes of the theatre players as the colour and fabrics of the audiences in Shakespeare’s day.

 ‘Twelfth Night’ is being played this Autumn 2012 with an all-male cast at London’s Apollo theatre has Stephen Fry playing the role of Malvolio.

 Malvolio is the very ambitious steward whose excessive social climbing aspirations get the better of him. His adversaries set a trap by dropping a  letter  supposedly written by the Countess Olivia.
Malvolio is tricked into wearing yellow stocking and cross gartering which he thinks will help him climb further up the social ladder – but these are fashions that the lady Olivia actually hates.

Dress and fashion in Shakespeare’s day was ‘regulated’

Only people of a certain class were allowed to wear silk.

The Government of England and Wales 1571 issued a  statute that every male of six years and above who was not a gentleman would wear a woolen cap. It had to be  worn on Sundays and holidays.

Indeed there a records of Shakespeare's Uncle being fined for refusing to wear his cap. This was probably as much to do with a protest against the enclosure of farmland as a revolt against wearing the cap.

The Elizabethan government had an investment in what people wore. These laws would usuually tell you what you should not wear.

In 1597, for example, Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation ordering people of lower social orders not to wear various kinds of clothing or trim limited to those above their social station. This was a way of visibly creating, or reinforcing, social divisions.

Such laws were meant to ensure that when you walked down the street you knew who was your social superior and who your inferior.

Statute Cap Typical woolen had that the Groundlings
at the Globe might have worn

In specifying what you should wear, instead of what you shouldn’t or couldn’t, the ‘statute cap’ is an exception to that.

The cap is the only sumptuary law we know in which the government said you are going to wear this on Sundays and holidays – and obviously not everybody liked that.

It help the wool industry that had experienced a drop in sales by forcing poorer people by statute to wear a woollen cap. The Groundlings  who stood in the pit of the Globe theatre would  wear woollen caps.  
Such a cap was displayed at the BP sponsored Shakespeare Staging the world exhibition at the British Museum this summer part of the Culture Olympics .
www,bbc.co.uk/radio4/Shakespeare  

In later times many street sellers adopted to wearing a kerchief around their necks as much as a provocation to the officers of the law (the Kingsmen) as well as denoting their status street sellers.. The word "kingsman" is  a slang term for the large kerchief worn by costermongers or street sales people used to wear ( origin  of costermonger  coster = a type of apple  monger =seller  therefore Apple seller BSJ before Steve Jobs!)

Old 20th Century advertsing poster and slogan to promote hats

I wonder whether hats will make a  comeback in business. Certainly the hat is making the news of late

Gary Oldman is besporting a hat in the O2 ads for its Priority Moments Ads,   X factor’s  Olly Murs  is often seen in a hat  and F1’s Lewis Hamilton in a Pirelli labelled Stetson after winning a Grand Prix in the USA.

Although the Stetson was worn with more style by the sadly missed Larry Hagman as JR !

Christmas 2012 Window of  Bates of Jemyn Street
Can you identify the Homburg, Bruand, Faena,
Gatsby, Tall Top Hat, Jermyn, Poet and Bowler?



Back to 2012 and the power of pink shirts

'Pink is a colour more men have been embracing recently and it's encouraging that they are not afraid to experiment with brighter colours”  says Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA,

'We spend most of our days at work and it's good for company standards, our own confidence and work ethic to remain smart, but that doesn't mean you have to be boring.”

 A typical pink shirt wearer earns £1,000 more a year than those who opt for other colours, the poll of 1,500 male office workers found.

The power of pink

Men who wear shirts of that are pink earn £1,000 a year more than those who don’t.

 Men who wear pink also tend to be confident and get more compliments from female colleagues.

 Pink shirt wairers are better qualified than those who favour traditional colours such as white or blue, it has emerged.

25%  of men feels more attractive in a pink shirt

One in ten male  pink shirt wearers having a PHD.

Men who wear pink are also twice as likely to have a Master's degree than those who favour white shirts

Pink shirt wearers on the other hand are more likely to have a low carbon footprint as half of them insist on taking public transport to work.

White shirt

Punctual: Men who opt to wear white shirts to work tend to be the most punctual, research suggests

Men who favour shirts with green tones are the most likely to be late for work,

Blue

those in blue have the least work romances

 Purple Shirts

 those who frequently wear purple or lilac have the most office romances. And if you are trying for a promotion then it's best to dress in a purple shirt, it emerged.

In the last five years men who are likely to wear purple shirts have had the most pay rises, so it's no wonder that one in twenty of them drive a car that's worth £20,000 or more.

'Men appear loyal to cotton when it comes to fabrics, but with colours and styles of shirts, men can experiment just as much as women can.

'Colour aside, clothing material is also an important factor for what you wear to work.'

(N.B. Remember who commissioned the research !)

5%One in twenty of those polled said there was rivalry between the  male members of staff over who looks the best and well over half said they like to make an effort with their image.

Ironing

 42 % of men said they ironed their own shirts but

 one in 20 pays someone to do it for them.

Over a quarter have their shirts ironed for them by their wife or girlfriend,

 13 % still rely on mum to press their clothes.

More than half of men polled said ironing shirts was an irritating job, with the average man spending 24 minutes every week on making their shirts crease free.

Stephanie Thiers-Ratclifee added “ A crease free shirt is crucial to looking smart and professional, ironing can be a laborious task – making easy iron 100% cotton items increasingly popular.

 N.B. Remember who commissioned the research and avoid yellow stocking  cross gartered.

Related Links:

 Business Dress Code in UK 2012

 Formal Corporate Hospitality Wear in UK 2012

 Clothes that sell or portray an image

Jo Swinson BIS Plans to boost Britain's Young Street Sellers

The European Services Directive on freedom to trade in 2009  has put pressure on the UK Government  from a sales related perspective. At first it was not apparent that the directive would cover pedlars, but when the European Commission decided that it did, a change in the law was required. The purpose was to make it easier for service providers to set up or sell their services anywhere in the EU.

 I suspect few of the UK’s field representatives, desk based sales professionals or key account executives would give any thought that their right to carry out the act of selling would need  to be legally certificated.

Such a certificate must bought and registered at a Police Station or local government office by pedlars.

Pedlars’ trade is governed by the Pedlars Act of 1871.

 The Act requires travelling salesmen to have a permanent home address and to be of “good character” before police will grant them a certificate.

There are around 4,000 pedlars registered with the country’s police authorities.

They have applied filling in a form much like the one here (left).

 

The  Coalition Government Minister for Employment and Consumer affairs at the Department  for Business Innovation and Skills,Jo Swinson says “The Pedlars Act is an archaic law which requires those wishing to peddle to obtain a pedlar's certificate (and pay a fee for this) at a time when small businesses are at the heart of continuing growth in the UK - this is unhelpful and restrictive bureaucracy.”

But pedlars will have to comply with new rules under the plan

A pedlar will have to move to a new site 10 minutes after arriving at a location and attempting to sell his wares, under the proposed reforms. The new site must be at least 50 meters from the first location and he should move on again after another 10 minutes. Pedlars will not be allowed to return to a previous location for at least three hours.

However, if they are approached by customers they will be allowed to complete any transactions before being expected to move.

They will also have to carry all their goods unsupported or in a trolley, which must be pushed or pulled and no larger than two metres high.

 

Words from the  Act of 1871 are Dickensian mentioning titles like 'Chapman', 'tinker' 'mender of chairs' – their means of travel described as ‘ a horse or any other beast of burden”

"The term pedlar means any hawker, pedlar ,petty chapman, tinker, cater of metals, mender of chairs or any other person who without a horse or other beast bearing  burden or drawing burden travels and trades on foot or goes from town to town to other men’s houses carrying to sell or exposing for sale any goods , wares, or merchandise or procuring for goods , wares or merchandise or procuring orders for goods wares or merchandise immediately to be delivered or selling or offering for sale his skill in handicraft"

 

 

Certificate not required by commercial travellers, sellers of fish or sellers in fairs

1.       Commercial travellers or other persons selling or seeking orders for goods wares  or merchandise to or from persons who are dealers in or who buy to sell again ore selling or seeking orders for books as agents authorised in writing by the publishers of such books

2.       Sellers of fish, fruit or victuals

3.       Persons selling or  exposing to sale goods, wares or merchandise in any public mart , market or fair legally established.

Concerns from Local Authorities

Councils have previously raised concerns that looser restrictions could make it more difficult to monitor traders. The Local Government Association  LGA spokesman Cllr Mehboob Khan warned the plan could turn high streets into a "free for all for rogue traders" and threatened to encourage cold callers who prey on the elderly.

"Allowing a street trade free-for-all is likely to drive customers away from the high street and create an unlevel playing where legitimately run shops and market stalls find themselves struggling to compete.

And 'Solicitors' ? ! :)

 ( Perhaps  today’s legal professionals  called Solicitors would not like to be grouped with those who ‘solicit’ on the high street !)

Nonetheless Wikipedia has under its page on Peddler reads “A peddler, in British English (!) pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, higler or solicitor (with negative connotations since the 16th century), is a travelling vendor of goods.

In England, the term was mostly used for travelers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies."

 In London more specific terms were used, such as costermonger. ( Coster – type of Apple and monger = seller)

But the government said current regulation of 1871 of door-to-door traders was “untenable”.

 The government believes the reforms could see more pedlars from other EU states operating in Britain, encourage “entrepreneurship”, and increase competition and “diversity”.

The minister said: “Some of the best places to shop are our vibrant street trading stalls, which are an important part of traditional British culture. “These proposed changes will help give a boost to those that trade on the street.”

“The changes we're proposing will help to eliminate barriers to street traders and pedlars by making it easier to trade, boosting retail and helping small traders - including many young entrepreneurs - to expand and grow.

There is only a “minimal” risk that the move could lead to more pedlars who are of “poor character” because police rarely check applicants’ detailed criminal records or refuse to grant certificates on the grounds of character.

Councils will no longer have the power to refuse an application on the grounds there are already enough traders and shops in a particular area.

The On line reaction

There has long been a suspicion if not phobia of dishonest or petty criminal activity associated with pedlars and travellers. Such opinions are even held today in the digital age.

I noticed that in the group thread following the BBC website news on the story this weekend the early comments posted were disapproving. But by 300 comments both sides of the argument were being put forward.

Here are some of the public concerns over the new proposals from comments on line.

We are continually pestered by sales-people in shops, in the streets of towns, on the phone at home, via email and (other than on the BBC) on television and the web........this harassment should not be even further extended to our doorsteps

 

Unsolicited calls by phone and at the door cause great distress and worry. .....This is an unwelcome proposal

You have to ask what is going on through the government's minds at the moment?

 

 

There are far too many on our door steps now with the likes of charity and energy firms knocking at your door at 8pm at night. I certainly don't want anymore. If they want to encourage people to be entrepreneurs then they need to make it easier for people to see up small businesses on the high street.

Utterly wrong...

All cold calling on the door step or by phone should be banned.

It is invasive and annoying and most of the time, borderline fraudulent.

With the exception of the very old or infirm most of us know how to get what we need or want.

And it's exactly those first two groups who risk being exploited and actually need more protection.

The government is holding a consultationon the plans which closes on 15 February.

www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations

Related Links

Pedlars Act 1871 :http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/34-35/96/data.pdf

BIS Slideshow http://www.docstoc.com/docs/33390397/BIS-street-trading-_-pedlary-mini-theatre    which refers to the study by Durham University

Department of Business Innovation and Skills http://www.bis.gov.uk/

Local Government association http://www.local.gov.uk/

For a Pedlar’s View Spitalfields Life  by the gentle author– Tony Hawkins retired pedlar

 http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/11/24/tony-hawkins-retired-pedlar/

Question time at Business Beauty Parades Sales Presentation

The Buyers' Views of Salespeople survey shows that the most popular length of time given to suppliers to present to a group of buyers is one hour including question time.

As in TV programmes like the Apprentice or Dragons den the performance or execution of the project is important but often what sways the judges or the voters at home is the way the contestants answer questions after the task. So it is in selling beauty contests.

it is often at the question and answer session that an earlier 'church mouse' panellist will ask the crucial probing questions.

In these beauty shows time is short. you will not be allowed to poach time from your competitors, so it is better to telegraph from the outset that time has been set aside for questions at the end of your presentation.

for free download of Buyers Views of sales people 2012

Panellists should feel free to ask questions during your presentation, but you can decide whether to answer them then and there or postpone to the end at question time.



Don't forget to take a note of any postponed questions. The act of writing them down shows serious interest and ensures you won't forget to repeat and answer the deferred question.




Watch out particularly during the inquest period for the following:-




The disguised objection - " Your fee is a little steep isn't it?". this needs to be handled with care. Show appreciation for the point of view, but don't agree with it. Don't get defensive about it since most questions of this kind are searching for clarification. Answer briefly.

The trip or test question - This is probably being asked to test your knowledge of the situation. Don't bluff your way out. Refer it to your partner (an expert) or promise to find out and get back soon as possible before the panel's final decision.

The Clever Cloggs person question - This is often used by members of your audience who wish to show off and display their knowledge to their colleagues. Commented them in front of their panel ( it is what they are after anyhow) . Defer the detailed answer for after the meeting. don't try to put them down. You way win an argument but not the panel's agreement to appoint you.

The Challenge question - Should you make a point in your presentation which steps on a panel's on a panel member's toes and are challenged, don't stand up to the challenge. Retreat and acquiesce: " These trends are only general to the market at this stage".

The Defensive question - Some of the recommendations of your presentation could be seen as a threat by certain members of your panel. You are nearly always proposing a change of some sort. This can prevent defensive questions. At first ask the questioner to expand on his concern. if a difficulty still remains, involve members of the panel and suggest a compromise withe panel's agreement. This is an opportunity to use a conditional close- " If we were to..."

TACTICS

Having finished with the questions and given your thanks, do try to close.

You may find this suggestion of help if you are last in the beauty line.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen . since there are no further questions , I have the authorisation form here " take it to the closing document to the Chairperson / decision maker on the panel). " Would you sign here?" ( then shut up)

So long as you use a serious and not an aggressive tone you will often get a slightly flustered response. The power in the room is now more equally shared between you and the panel It is after all 'make your mind up time' - you may well get the business because you had the guts to ask.

Should the chairperson respond on the lines " Gosh, well erm... we said that we collecting their thoughts) um.. need time to review all the presentations. you should politely respond " Of course, I understand that. It is your right to do so. You have after all sat and listened to X hours of presentation. I would hope all my competitors have all tried to close. It is the professional action to take. You would want to offer the business to anybody not hungry enough to ask for it,would you?"

That passing shot won't always get you the immediate go ahead , but it will blow out any lesser rivals and unsettle a complacent incumbent's presentation if they did not ask for the business in the final discussions of the buyer team.

Remember "If you don't try and close - you are working for the competition.

Good luck on your next visit on the catwalk.

Don't forget
Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study

for free down load of Buyers Views Survey 2012

What's wrong with the world of Selling ?



GK Chesterton might have been brilliant at tweets

The Times newspaper in the early 1900s, asked a number of authors to write on the topic:

 “What’s wrong with the world?”.

G.K. Chesterton’s answer at that time was the shortest of those submitted – he simply wrote:

“Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton."

I guess the author of the Father Brown Stories could well have been a brilliant tweeter as his succinct answer represents a  tweet of only 91 characters.

There have been many changes in selling since Chesterton's days but one issue that still remains a daily challenge is that of communicating well.

We may be working now in a more 'experiential sales ' environment than former conventional  'solution models' but that experience for our client will depend on the quality of of our communication and especially if the sales process has a glitch.

We may have many more channels of communication, but more, does not necessarily mean better. Click for free download of Buyers Survey of Salespeople 2012

Platforms such as twitter, or leaving a  message on voice mail or sending an email to a client tend to be used  by many in sales as one way forms of communication as illustrated below. There is perhaps some feedback in response but the flow of communication is rather stilted and intermittent. 

Some of the  so called 'conversations' on Social media forums like Linked In can be a bit like this.  Such threads of 'conversation' often lose their sense of direction by about the 6th comment or simply peter out.

One way communication can be effective e.g. army drill. Orders given and orders obeyed.

Selling is seldom effective when just "telling" the client this or that.  

One way communication works
 in hierarchy situations such as Army Drill
 

Fairly soon when one is following a conversation thread on Social media it will be better to get more direct and email or pick up the phone.

Many in selling prefer to employ a two way form of communication as illustrated below.
 
This  is where the 'conversation' ebbs and flows between the various parties.
 
If this can also be done with some warmth and rapport  to build a relationship so much the better.

Two way transmission with rapport better
suited to Selling and Buying

However all communication  ( "Telepathic few in selling are" as Yoda might say) is fraught with difficulties.

 How many times today will people in business think or say the trouble with this organisation is poor communication or breakdown in communication.
 
 
This does not only refer to physical breakdown  but also breakdown in business relationships.










Communication is fraught with causes of breakdown


To reduce the problems of these potential communication breakdown why not not brush up your skills click on the relevant links below that will take you to the topic.
 

PS

Good news for lovers of GK Chesterton's Father Brown series - I hear that the BBC are filming a TV series with Mark Williams as the priestly sleuth due to be aired next year.

I can't wait now that the Commissario Salvo Montalbano season on BBC 4 has come to a close:(

Better Questioning

 Skyfall Questions

Questions beyond price

32 Great Sales Questions

Better Listening

The importance of listening in marketing

Listening and taking note

Better Body Language

Body langauge 9n the bsuiness context

Masterclas in body language

Body langauge book reveiw

Better Selling select from

Communication on Facebook and twitter

Death of email

Sales jargon