Bad Hair Days and selling image "Let us trim our hair in accordance with our Selling lifestyle"

As someone whose shares the hairstyle of the prophet Elisha , I am somewhat wary of proffering advice on matters coiffure. As  a young student I vainly wanted the long hair sung about in the rock musical "Hair".

The appearance of one's hair is  an important signal to others. Coco Chanel observed that

“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”

Sometimes the matter of hairstyle is not a question of personal choice. In North Korea 2014 hairstyles of students are dictated by the government. Only 18 styles for women after marriage ( less before marriage) are allowed.

For North Korean men 10 styles for are currently stipulated .  

The hair of the country's young men should be less than 5 cm long and they should have a haircut once every 15 days as longer hair apparently takes away nutrition from their brains.

 Older men, whose brains are presumably already rotting away anyway, are allowed  hair as long as 7 cm.The programme allows men aged over 50 seven centimetres of upper hair to cover balding. ( a redundant concession in my case !)

The edict stresses the "negative effects" of long hair on "human intelligence development", noting that long hair "consumes a great deal of nutrition" and could thus rob the brain of energy.

Men should get a haircut every 15 days, it recommends.

The TV campaign  is entitled “ Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle.”

It got me wondering


 "What might be a Selling lifestyle hairstyle ?".

In the UK the comic character " Swiss Toni" comes too quickly to mind.

Charlie Higson’s character “ Swiss Toni” for  almost any situation in life he understood was  "like making love to a beautiful woman". Swiss Toni is usually depicted wearing a grey suit , pink tie with tie clip. His hair was exaggeratedly styled in a platinum blond bouffant quiff.

Searching on the web

Dave Alexander on About.com suggests we consider practical recommendations depending on work environment such as whether we. work outside, undertake frequent  travel,

If you’re a business person “Stay away”  Mr. Alexander advises” from extreme styles and opt for something a bit more neutral -- especially if you are in a sales position or any type of job which requires you to deal with the public. A conservative investor may be put off by a broker with a Mohawk.”

What do you think dear readers ?  Care to comment ?

Christie's Auction "Posters with a purpose" London Transport Museum archive sale auction

One of the oldest closes in selling is :-

“Buy now while stocks last”

For Auction House Christie’s ( founded in 1766) the promotion of the sale No 6,934 was duplicate  posters from the London Transport Museum  archives  werebeing sold in aid of this not for Profit organisation at South Kensington.

The copy in the mini publicity card promoting the sale read

 

"A train every 90  seconds"
A lot sold every 90 seconds at the
Posters with Purpose Auction
at Christies , South Kensington

“… never to be repeated opportunity to acquire iconic Underground Posters from the archives of the London Transport museum.”  ( buy now while etc.…in other words)

The Coleridge gallery in their South Kensington Rooms on the Brompton Road was the venue for the sale.

The pulpit-like rostrum was placed centrally at the far end.

To the right was a desk ‘manned’ by a row of beautiful ladies managing the telephone bids.
 
Nearest to the rostrum was the on line bidding desk although the auctioneer mainly used the monitor mid way above the audience.

This enables the auctioneer to maintain more eye contact with bidders in the room.

To the left of the rostrum was a desk where the confirmation paperwork was received and entered on a pc.

Usually on line auctions are rather remote and lacking in personality but in this auction  it was subtly orchestrated by the auctioneer to the four different bidding audiences i.e. The absent bidders who had left bids with her, bidders via the internet, bidders placing bids via the telephone and those in the room itself.

The auction was a little delayed due to a queue at reception registering .

So a little after 11 o’clock wearing a stunning purple dress the auctioneer mounted the steps to the rostrum set up her radio mike and welcomed everybody in the room plus the over one hundred  on-line bidders.

“ Christies are proud to be entrusted with running the auction for the museum....”

To the front above the rostrum either side were TV monitors. To the right the 'lots' were displayed and to the left were the prices of the bids in pounds sterling, US dollars, Euros, Swiss Francs and Roubles.

The selling job of an auctioneer requires many skills. She was like an orchestral conductor multi tasking like crazy. A confident, friendly and clear and authoritative voice is key.

Although never making bidders feel hassled she needed to keep things pacey. On average each lot took around 90 seconds on average to sell. Yet there were 300 lots to sell so she did not hang about.

Ironically Lot No  5  “90 seconds per train” by Abram Games 1914-96 was sold in a little over that time  for £3,200 to an on-line bidder.

She noted in the summary  of each sale the final bid and recorded  winning bid details by sum and the bidder’s paddle number.

Bidder in the room had paddle numbers. Some on made for the job - ones presumably by regulars and others written on show cards.

The ladies on the telephone desk raised numbered paddles but the  numbers used by the online bidders were referred to as their paddle number although here we were in virtual reality domain.

The auctioneer also needs to build rapport with the various bidding audiences. Here are some of her calls..

“ On the telephone at..”

“I have on line …”

“ I have interest here with me my absent bidder”

“ My interest on the book for this lot”

“In the room…”

She would encourage those in the room with

“ I have two bids here at ..”

“ Shall we go up/on

“Bid here in the front / aisle/ at the back”

“One more might do it”

“ You look unsure… we can wait there’s no hurry..”

“I’ll take whatever you’ll give me”

“Bid with the Lady here”

“Bid with my gentleman”

“ With Nicolette then ( telephone bidding representative)”

“ Against you in the room/ on line “

 Click here for  Video Clip of one of the early lots being sold at Chrsities

“Any  advance on..?”

“in the room at .. it’s not yours on –line”

“There it is then at..”

“Are we all done ?"

“ I am selling at.. (hammer)"

“It’s yours / Sold to you – Thank you"

“Paddle number…

Her role is obviously to do well for all concerned to get the primary client 0in this case the museum) a good price but also  for the various bidders. In particular when she had a reserve limit by an absent bidder she would start at a lower price.

Clear use of body language communicated to the room where the bids lay.

Her eye contact in the room had to fix with bidders as well as look around the room and the on-bidders screen bids.

Her eyebrows were also effectively and expressively used.

Although you might think that a set of Underground Poster from London’s tube would interest mainly Londoners- bids came across the country from London e.g. Ringwood, Stratford upon Avon but also from France, from the USA - New York , Illinois, Massachusetts  and Abu Dhabi  in the time I was in the room.

Courtesy was given to all in the room with thank-yous for winning bidders.

I was not able to stay beyond the first 100 lots but I guess the sale would have finished mid afternoon  when a call of “ come in Sale No 6934- your time is up!”

Passing through the gallery on the way out on the forthcoming James Bond  auction ( 50 years) the theme - "Nobody does it better " came into my head.


Nobody has done it better than Christies since 1766.!

Passing under the Eye and the Needle at London 2012 Marathon

(The London Eye to the left of the lamppost - Cleopatra's Needle piercing through the trees)
16 minutes into the London 2012  Olympic Games -Women's marathon

For those of us unable to get any tickets for the London 2012 Olympics there are a few ' free events'.

One such event I witnessed in order to get a flavour of the games and the positive atmosphere in London was the Women's marathon.

Even in a torrential downpour the spectators cheered on these ladies doing the business of running 26  odd miles.

Video Clip of 3 mile point of Women's Marathon London 2012 Olympics

Drink Stations at Cleopatra's needle on Embankment
 for Women's Marathon London 2012

Well it would not be a British summer without rain!

The loneliness of the long distance runner ?
A  London 2012 marathon competitor
 running through the deluge
 on London's embankment cheered on by spectators

A steward accepts the shelter of a spectator's umbrella
during a downpour before the start of the women's marathon London 2012

The runners are coming

Selling Sounds of a winner - The importance of Pitch in conveying Strength, Trust and Competance

A voice that conveys competence, strength and trust is  a useful asset for any sales professional.

 In the 2012 Oscar winning film with Meryl Streep 'The Iron Lady' ,it covered a part of the former PM’s story where she took lessons in voice control in order to lower her speaking pitch to establish more gravitas.

  Unlike the film, in real life Margaret Thatcher received voice coaching from a woman not a man. Kate Fleming  coached actors like Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen. She also worked on Mrs Thatcher's voice over a period of four years 1972-1975 before Mrs Thacher became PM.

Poster of 'The Iron Lady' Film

There are quite a few parallels of leadership -especially political leadership- to selling.

Those who put themselves up for election do one of the most courageous closes in selling.  Essentially   asking "Vote for me" is pretty much the same as asking for the order.

Policies and manifestos are the equivalent of their Differentiated Value proposition but how they deliver their messages is important as well.

People buy people and similarly voters buy a voice it appears.

A study into voice pitch by  Klofstad, Anderson and Peters  from Miami and Duke universities has been recently published . It  gives some more robust scientific data  about the persuasive power of a lower  voice pitch. The conclusion of the paper reads

“ …our findings challenge existing theories of human behaviour, which assert that attitudes, such as partisanship and ideology are the primary force behind vote choice. Thus, while social participation and political decision-making are viewed as higher level cognitive functions—the kind of thinking that sets us aside from other animals—our results clearly demonstrate that these behaviours cannot be understood in isolation from biological influences.”

Pitch influences perception of leaders C. A. Klofstad et al.

The study involved testing the judgement of listeners to altered pitched version of 

 ‘I urge you to vote for me this November’

by female and male speakers.


People appear to prefer lower voices when voting

The study appears to demonstrate that humans prefer leaders with lower-pitched voices, whether they are male or female. Consequently, male and female political candidates with lower pitched voices may be more likely to win elected offices. ( The political equivalent of winning the account in selling)

As a consequence, the researchers also observe that notwithstanding countries that use gender quotas , women are vastly under-represented in leadership positions across the globe.

" While gender discrimination is an obvious cause of the under-representation of women as leaders, our results suggest that biological differences between the sexes, and the study's responses to those differences, could potentially be an additional factor to consider." ( I am not sure what gender discrimination studies have been undertaken in the Sales / buying arena - but certain trade sectors seem under represented e.g. Engineering)

 Left: Election experiment results. Proportion of votes cast for the lower-pitched version of male and female voices.

 A value of 0.50 represents no discernible preference for either higher- or lower-pitched voices.

Male (white bar) and female (grey bar) listeners voted for the lower-pitched male and female voices more frequently ( Pitch influences perception of leaders C. A. Klofstad et al.)

 

Because women, on average, have higher pitched voices than men, and because higher-pitched female voices are judged to be weaker, less competent and less trustworthy ( from this study), the characteristics of this vocal signal could help explain why women are less likely to hold leadership roles than men.

 At the very least, voice pitch is a physical characteristic that does not counterbalance social norms that foster gender inequality.

 A test of this hypothesis  the  researchers postulate would be to assess which sex fares better in a forced-choice election experiment when subjects are asked to choose between male and female voices with the same, and different, voice pitches.


Voters  ( like Buyers? ) vote on impressions

 The researchers  results add to the growing evidence that vote choices can be made based on ‘thin’ impressionistic judgements . They also add evidence to the literature showing that human behaviour is influenced by voice qualities in domains other than physical conflict and mating. ( which I guess includes selling, We certainly feel in selling the truth' that you don't get a chance to make a first impression)

 As more and more selling is communicated through pitches via the microphone of telephone, mobiles and Web Pitches this research area has pertinence for our profession of selling.

Of course a low voice pitch alone will not always be the whole story in successfully capturing votes.

Great brand : Jacobs Crackers
First produced in 1885

 Remember comedian Joe Pasqualie was voted King of the Jungle 6th December 2004?
 I guess the bush trucker trials etc. put his strength, competence and trustworthiness to the test for the  watching public's vote in  ITV's " I'm a celebrity -Get me out of here"


Jacob's Crackers apart from being delicious always bring a smile to my face now!

Related Links

Sounds like a winner: voice pitch influences perception of leadership capacity in both men and women Miami and Duke University Klofstad, Anderson and Peters

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/03/06/rspb.2012.0311.short?rss=1

BBC Article by Daniel Boettcher 14^th March 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17355013

 Importance of voice pitch tone and pausing University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research Study

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/05/fast-talkers-smooth-talking-or.html

Pitching over the web

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/05/sales-presentation-on-web-using-pro.html

UK Selling needs the WOW factor

The 100th World Women's day was celebrated on March 8th 2011.

In London the celebrations culminated in a three day WOW festival on the south bank of the Thames over last weekend.

A set of stalls were set up in the foyer of the Festival Hall around the Clore ballroom.
Discussion groups and shows were held in the Clore Ballroom, Western Roof Pavilion, the St Paul's Roof and Weston Pavilions, the Purcell Room .



There was a great atmosphere of empowerment , intelligence and passion in the air.


Although some progress has been made in the campaign for equal rights for women there is still along way to go in many human endeavours including the world of business and selling.

Here are some stark statistics from WeAreEquals.org's little book of big debate starters:

• 30,000 women in the UK lose their jobs each year because of pregnancy
  discrimination.




• Women perform 60% of the work's work, produce 50% of the food, earn 10% of the income and 1% of the property.




• 96% of executive directors of the UK's top companies are men.




• The pay gap between men and women in UK is the largest in Europe at 15.5%




• There are currently 45,000 women in the UK taking equal pay claims to court.
  
  The EQUALS coalition is a partnership of charities and organisations that believe men and women are equals and that women should have equal rights, equal opportunities and equal representation in politics, education, health, employment, family life and media and culture.
• 
  The EQUALS coalition is using this centenary year to renew the call for an equal world. They'll be asking the questions that women have been asking for hundreds of years even more loudly than ever in an effort to prompt a debate about what inequality looks like today.

They want to ask everyone around the world, what might being treated as equals, equal?
They are inviting men and women to reflect on the incredible progress women have made in women's rights, and discuss the inequalities that still exist, share experiences and ideas with people across the globe, and take action to tip the gender balance for women and girls.

"Women's rights have come an awfully long way since 1911" - but have Equals asks have they come far enough?

In the UK, it's easy to feel as if the fight for equality has been won, but at the current rate of progress, it will take 200 years to achieve an equal number of women in UK parliament, and 73 years to achieve equal numbers on FTSE 100 boards.

Click for We Are Equals

There were a number of charities and campaigning organisations present at the exhibition. Here is a small selection of the stalls I visited to find out more about their work.

• 
  Click for Women for Women International
  
  Set up in 1993 Women for Women International is dedicated solely to helping women who have lost everything due to war and conflict and have nowhere else to turn.
• Their leaflet entitled " I am the new definition of a businesswoman" - states that donations given to them gives women the opportunity to break free from the cycle of poverty and changes their lives for ever. In today's wars the leaflet explains 90% of causalities are civilians, 75% of which are women and children. In spite of this tens of thousands of women in Afghanistan,Bosnia & Herzegovina, Congo, Iraq,Kosovo, Nigeria, and Sudan are lifting themselves out of poverty by using their skills in the local economy and becoming small business entrepreneurs.
  
  Click for The Women's Library online
  The Women's Library is a cultural centre housing the most extensive collection of women's history in the UK.

They run exhibitions and events in addition to the Reading Room Service.

The Women's Library has an extensive Printed Collections Catalogue, including books, pamphlets, periodicals and videos which are catalogued and are available to search online.








Click for Plan UK's Because I am a girl campaign

Because I am a Girl is a campaign organised by Plan UK, one of the largest children’s charities in the world.

They focus on helping girls and boys in 48 of the poorest countries realise their rights and break the cycle of poverty.

They have no religious affiliations and their aim is to enable families, communities and governments in the poorest countries to make lasting improvements to the lives of their children.

They work together with children and their wider communities to help identify and implement practical, sustainable and effective solutions to poverty. Their projects also aim to address gender discrimination and give equal opportunities to girls.

In summary they state that Investing in girls is key to breaking the cycle of poverty – it’s the right thing to do and it’s the smart thing to do.

Click for Dress for Success

Dress for Success Worldwide is an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women located in 110 cities The professional clothing, employment retention programmes and ongoing support that they provide their clients symbolize their credo in every woman's ability to be self-sufficient and successful in her career.


Dress for Success depends on a team of qualified, passionate and dedicated individuals, organizations and companies, each of whom plays an indispensable role in their success.

The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Dress for Success serves clients by referral only, and women must have an interview scheduled before receiving clothing. Our clients come to us from a continually expanding and diverse group of non-profit and government agencies including homeless shelters, immigration services, job training programs, educational institutions and domestic violence shelters, among many other organizations.
More than 3,000 organizations throughout the world send women to Dress for Success

Dress for Success relies on the financial contributions, in-kind donations and volunteer efforts of individuals and companies around the world who are committed to helping women take charge of their lives.

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On a lighter note:

Many years ago a friend of mine in the Executive Recruitment world won the Daily Mail business woman of the year award. I asked her at that time was it harder for a woman to succeed in Business in the UK than a man.

She replied " Yes women have to be twice as good as the average man in business to progress but luckily the standard is not very high!!!"

Nonetheless the playing field must be levelled and glass ceilings must be smashed.