#TuesdayMotivation A Selling thought from Rumi

"Load the ship and set out.

No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbour.

Cautious people say, "I'll do nothing until I can be sure".

Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose.

Don't be one of those merchants who wont risk the ocean.

Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real sufis just laugh:

nothing tyrannises their hearts.

What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl."     Rumi

Happy May Day 2016

Song of May Morning (1632–33) by John Milton

NOW the bright morning-star, Day’s harbinger,    

Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her

Farnham, Surrey

The flowery May, who from her green lap throws              

The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.             

  

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire           

  Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!        

  Woods and groves are of thy dressing;  

  Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.      

.

Thus we salute thee with our early song, 

And welcome thee, and wish thee long

The Milkmaid's Life  

Upon the first of May,

With Garlands fresh and gay

They nimbly their feet do ply,

In honour of Th' milking paile

-c1640 (Anon.)

Children dance round the Maypole in Farnham , Surrey

The Humours of May Day

What Frolicks are here

So droll and so queer

How joyful appeareth the day

E'en Bunter and Bawd

Unite to applaud  

And celebrate first of the May

-1770 (Anon.)

Happy Magna Carta Day Selling's debt to 1215

At 12.15pm  today the toast is Magna Carta

Article 35 of the Great Charter said: “Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely 'the London quarter'.”

@beerdaybritain  #CheersBDB

Law Liberty Legacy exhibition
Definitely worth a visit if you are in the
 Kings Cross Area of London!

Happy 800th Birthday  Magna Carta 

                In today's sales age of data,

And commercial knitter natter

Remember our  freedom’s Alma Mater

Was inscribed in Magna Carta.

800 years from Runnymede

Let’s not forget our clients’ need

For merchants to travel free

To sell their wares and not impede

Monday the 15^th of June

A day all sales folk should swoon

For 800 years ago received a boon

To travel free beneath sun or moon

Later copy in the Guildhall Museum, City of London

What Say the Reeds at Runnymede?

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,

What say the reeds at Runnymede?

The lissom reeds that give and take,

That bend so far, but never break,

They keep the sleepy Thames awake

With tales of John at Runnymede.

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,

Oh, hear the reeds at Runnymede:

'You mustn't sell, delay, deny,

A freeman's right or liberty.

It wakes the stubborn Englishry,

We saw 'em roused at Runnymede!

When through our ranks the Barons came,

With little thought of praise or blame,

But resolute to play the game,

They lumbered up to Runnymede;

And there they launched in solid line

The first attack on Right Divine,

The curt uncompromising "Sign!'

They settled John at Runnymede.

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,

Your rights were won at Runnymede!

No freeman shall be fined or bound,

Or dispossessed of freehold ground,

Except by lawful judgement found

And passed upon him by his peers.

Forget not, after all these years,

The Charter signed at Runnymede.'

And still when mob or Monarch lays

Too rude a hand on English ways,

The whisper wakes, the shudder plays,

Across the reeds at Runnymede.

And Thames, that knows the moods of kings,

And crowds and priests and suchlike things,

Rolls deep and dreadful as he brings

Their warning down from Runnymede!

                                                      To balance all this 'bashing" of Bad King John

'King John’s Christmas' by AA Milne

King John was not a good man —

He had his little ways.

And sometimes no one spoke to him

For days and days and days.

And men who came across him,

When walking in the town,

Gave him a supercilious stare,

Or passed with noses in the air —

And bad King John stood dumbly there,

Blushing beneath his crown.

King John was not a good man,

And no good friends had he.

He stayed in every afternoon…

But no one came to tea.

And, round about December,

The cards upon his shelf

Which wished him lots of Christmas cheer,

And fortune in the coming year,

Were never from his near and dear,

But only from himself.

King John was not a good man,

Yet had his hopes and fears.

They’d given him no present now

For years and years and years.

But every year at Christmas,

While minstrels stood about,

Collecting tribute from the young

For all the songs they might have sung,

He stole away upstairs and hung

A hopeful stocking out.

King John was not a good man,

He lived his live aloof;

Alone he thought a message out

While climbing up the roof.

He wrote it down and propped it

Against the chimney stack:

“TO ALL AND SUNDRY – NEAR AND FAR –

F. Christmas in particular.”

And signed it not “Johannes R.”

But very humbly, “Jack.”

“I want some crackers,

And I want some candy;

I think a box of chocolates

Would come in handy;

I don’t mind oranges,

I do like nuts!

And I SHOULD like a pocket-knife

That really cuts.

And, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,

Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man —

He wrote this message out,

And gat him to this room again,

Descending by the spout.

And all that night he lay there,

A prey to hopes and fears.

“I think that’s him a-coming now!”

(Anxiety bedewed his brow.)

“He’ll bring one present, anyhow —

The first I had for years.”

“Forget about the crackers,

And forget the candy;

I’m sure a box of chocolates

Would never come in handy;

I don’t like oranges,

I don’t want nuts,

And I HAVE got a pocket-knife

That almost cuts.

But, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,

Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man,

Next morning when the sun

Rose up to tell a waiting world

That Christmas had begun,

And people seized their stockings,

And opened them with glee,

And crackers, toys and games appeared,

And lips with sticky sweets were smeared,

King John said grimly: “As I feared,

Nothing again for me!”

“I did want crackers,

And I did want candy;

I know a box of chocolates

Would come in handy;

I do love oranges,

I did want nuts!

And, oh! if Father Christmas, had loved me at all,

He would have brought a big, red,

india-rubber ball!”

King John stood by the window,

And frowned to see below

The happy bands of boys and girls

All playing in the snow.

A while he stood there watching,

And envying them all …

When through the window big and red

There hurtled by his royal head,

And bounced and fell upon the bed,

An india-rubber ball!

AND, OH, FATHER CHRISTMAS,

MY BLESSINGS ON YOU FALL

FOR BRINGING HIM

A BIG, RED,

INDIA-RUBBER

BALL!

A. A. Milne

Related Links:

Selling's debt to Magna Carta 13th June 1215

3 key Selling levers of your business Social media #YouTube,#LinkedIn #Facebook and #email

Hannah and Jason from "Team Snappy" preparing their
 flip chart for feedback on
 'effective use of social media in selling'

 Scrabbling along  social media platforms. 

 I facilitated some sessions recently examining  how social media channels like You Tube, LinkedIn /Facebook , Twitter and email can be best integrated with the more conventional communication channels that professional selling uses.

Here are some of the conclusions of the syndicates' views who worked on these issues.

1. Depending on the experience and resources available it was thought worthwhile to adopt a GCHQ listening station style monitoring approach was a good starting point on a number of the social media platforms.

Such  listening and tracking of  client, trade group and competitors' Linked In and Facebook group discussions was worth undertaking. 

Subtle and relevant comments on You Tube clips were deemed another good entry protocol with the occasional link address. However it was thought best not to over do this type of piggy-backing. 

It was agreed that in 'speech platforms' such as in Twitter and written communication of Facebook and email are constantly changing. 

Most felt tracking client company tweets profitable but were not convinced of the merits engaging in extended discussions on twitter. Such activity was best avoided.

2. "Clucking the news" Proactive announcements and links to a corporate website as an integral part of overall sales and marketing campaigns was worthwhile.

3. Integrating Social in your sales process. Social media can contribute to most parts of a sales process the challenge is to identify which parts it is best suited and what time should be invested in such activity.

In tandem with that ,  both written and spoken English is constantly changing and it is worth paying attention to this expansion in the business communication arena.

Even in English word games like SCRABBLE new words are constantly joining the lexicon

Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins Dictionaries, says:

 "Dictionaries have always included formal and informal English, but it used to be hard to find printed evidence of the use of slang words.

Now people use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments, text messages - you name it - so there's a host of evidence for informal varieties of English that simply didn't exist before.”


Of all the new words now accepted by Collins for Scrabble I have noticed that "facetime" is already seeping into the vernacular of selling conversations.

Facetime selling  could be the next reincarnation of selling.

In essence, communication in a business context, Selling is a two way process of transmission and reception with rapport.

A conversational tone kept in a business like conversation is in most circumstances the most powerful.

Good communication will always be at the heart of all Good Selling.  Research from the Buyer’s Views of salespeople  over the last twenty years still puts LISTENING at the top of all communication skills which buyers wish of salespeople.

We can all trot of the adage of two ears and one mouth – use them in that proportion yet the practise of such an axiom is hard work !

By the way Quinzhee on a triple word score  would earn  a respectable 84 points 

  For those who need to know some of the latest accepted words to scrabble, I have set them in a short poem.

Augh, blech, eew, grr, waah and yeesh 

Set our language off the leash 

Twerking devo  podium cakeages 

Some think cause our language breakages 

Shootie lolz  onsie  and Quinzhee 

Make our native tongue so chintzy

Obvs it’s ridic, schvitz and dench

Give our English a little wrench 

Yet facetime, hashtag, tweep, and sexting. 

Help our Scrabble play and texting 

Good Selling Good Facetime

Happy #WorldPoetryDay 2015

Selling Haiku for #WorldPoetryDay 2016

acute listening

appreciate first before

asking then shut up

-Hugh Alford

On level 5 of the Royal Festival is the Saison Poetry Library is the most comprehensive and accessible collection of poetry from 1912 in Britain. It is are the major library for modern and contemporary poetry and are funded by the Arts Council England.

I dropped in a few weeks ago and asked if they had any poems on Selling.  Here is one  to celebrate today on World Poetry Day.

The Salesman *

By Bertie  Ramsbottom  ( Ralph Windle)

Salesmen, of whatever races,

Look the same at fifty paces;

Notwithstanding girth or size,

Something lurking in their eyes

Indisputably asserts-

This guy’s in sales, so watch your shirts !

Salesmen must however fearful,

Act indomitably cheerful,

Riding round their carousel

Of never ending need to sell,

And knowing, if their meet their quota,

It’s up, for each successful rota.

How they do it no one’s saying

But when they don’t, it’s time for praying.

*A Book of Business Ballads 1985

ISBN 0-7126-1057-X

Related Links

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/national-poetry-day-2013-for-hard.html

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/sales-related-limericks-in-honour-of-mr.html

http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/

Selling cries of famous London-town

Here`s fine rosemary, sage and thyme.

Come buy my ground ivy.

Here`s fetherfew, gilliflowers and rue.

Come buy my knotted majorum, ho!

Come buy my mint, my fine greenmint.

Here`s fine lavender for your cloaths.

Here`s parsley and winter savory,

And hearts-ease, which all do choose.

Here`s balm and hissop, and cinquefoil,

All fine herbs, it is well known.

Let none despise the merry, merry cries

Of famous London-town!

"A nice love song halpenny a piece"

Plate 11 of F Whealey's ( 1747-1801) series 

Cries of London 

Here`s fine herrings, eight a groat.

Hot codlins, pies and tarts.

New mackerel! have to sell.

Come buy my Wellfleet oysters, ho!

Come buy my whitings fine and new.

Wives, shall I mend your husbands horns?

I`ll grind your knives to please your wives,

And very nicely cut your corns.

Maids, have you any hair to sell,

Either flaxen, black or brown?

Let none despise the merry, merry cries

Of famous London-town!

Anon (17th century

1st day of Autumn 2014 "...fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.."

To autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies

John Keats 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821.
A year after he published To Autumn he died in Rome.

National Poetry Day 2013 for hard working people

October 8th 2015 is National Poetry Day in the UK

To celebrate some funny , some profound some helpful poems on selling sources / links given where known firstly my own effort to the #poetryuk challenge for October 3rd 2013

STC *  Sells

Water water everywhere

 it has to be in Britain ,where

a day of poems  set to cheer

a nation’s verses love affair.

Water water everywhere

To write a poem was the dare,

To rhyme or scan without a care

October third this very year

Water water everywhere

Without a drop to drink

Listen hard, sell without fear

Time to close I think ! 

*STC  Samuel Taylor Coleridge's line from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner "Water water everywhere" was the theme challenge for the National Poetry day 2013 - for my friends at TACK for years STC stood for their Sales Training Course now called PRO-PAYBACK selling.

The Seller of Dreams

A customer once asked me
‘Do you sell dreams? ’

By his request, I felt quite amused,
But, also rather somewhat confused.

We sell buckets and bleach
And tins of baked beans,
But, as far as I know,
We’ve never sold dreams.

We sell candles and cola
And custardy creams,
But, I’m pretty sure that
We’ve never sold dreams.

We sell pot noodle and plates
And paper in reams,
But, I can almost swear that
We’ve never sold dreams.

We sell clothes and paper clips
And cloth wipes which clean,
Is it even possible
To be a seller of dreams?

The man then informed me that
He meant ‘Dreams’: treats for his cat!
Oh, how I laughed once I realised:
I even sprung a leak from my eyes!

The customer moved off after a while,
But, upon my face, there remained a smile! 

Poet : Angela Wybrow, Salisbury, Wiltshire

 Source http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-seller-of-dreams/

A more serious poem gleaned from the web

The Salesman's Poem

by John Kumpunen, KRIN.com

Long before your eyes will meet,

Say aloud his name.

Know the games he likes to play,

And how he got his fame.

When face to face, smile and speak

His name and words of praise.

You’re there to solve his problems

So let him speak for days.

He wants to look important,

He craves for honest thanks.

So give him that with all your heart

You’ll rise above the ranks.

Like you and I, he acts on thought,

tho’ thoughts are spoken feelings.

To change his heart and all within

Go thru’ his noble dealings.

Never argue, criticize or tell that

He is wrong. You’ll only take his

Doubts away and prove that you

Are a Ding-a-ling-a-dong.

link / source : http://the24hoursalesman.com/sales-leads/The-Salesmans-Poem.html

John Kumpunen, M.A.

President and CEO

                           Selling is everyone's business and when it's not, you're in trouble.

Think about it . . .

remember the time you decided not to go back to a company,

because the shipping clerk sent you the wrong item,

the receptionist was cold and surly;

the manager didn't have time to talk to a mere customer,

the doctor had you wait two hours.

That's selling . . . negative selling.

Remember - everyone sells, and not just externally, but internally as well.

When you want a raise, you sell your boss on your skills and value.

When you set new policies and procedures you sell these to your staff in a way they can accept,

or you'll soon find they'll ignore them.

When you expect more of your staff than you're willing to properly train and supervise them for,

you're whistling up a hollow tree,

because they're only as good as the training you give them.

But there's more to selling than that . . .

Selling is knowing . . .

Who's your competition?

Who's your customer, client, patient or public?

And what's important - you or them?

Selling is knowing . . .

What your service, idea, or product is - and isn't;

what your public's needs are;

and what services or products you offer to fit those needs.

Selling is knowing . . .

When to market and where;

Where your competition isn't and then being there;

Why some things are accepted and others not.

Selling is knowing . . .

How to treat your public as you would like to be treated;

How to market and merchandise better than your competition;

How to listen and learn from your staff as well as your public;

How to assess your own knowledge, or lack of it about your services, ideas, goods or products;

and how to make it easier for your public to accept what you are offering.

And finally, Selling is knowing that this business is after all, a profession . . .

The Profession of Selling.

Let us not pretend it's someone else's problem.

Poet : Unknown

Source  Attitudes for Selling Alan J Zell   http://sellingselling.com/articles/selling-is-a-poem  

Related links:

Sales related limericks