There is Always Enough Time for Courtesy

 

Title: It Begins With Please and Doesn't End With Thank You; Transforming Business Etiquette Into Sales Performance

Author: Edwin P. Baldry

Publisher: River Grove Books

Publication Date: October 19, 2021

Length: 260 Pages

About the Author
Edwin P. Baldry is CEO and co-founder of EPBComms, an international enterprise that connects the worlds of business communications and financial technology.

Be Courteous, Kind, and Genuine
Do good manners and etiquette make a difference in business and in all interpersonal relationships?
YES, THEY DO! The author explains how good manners pertain to the core practices, principles, and protocols of business and sales.

My Thoughts
The target audience for this book appears to be business and sales professionals. However, there is plenty of valuable information here for the improvement of all communication skills and just getting along with other people.

Mr. Baldry gives many examples from his own sales career about how the use of good manners gave him an advantage over his competition. It is all about building relationships.

This book provides specific pandemic protocols that can be used in remote communications. There are practical guidelines for etiquette when using social media platforms.

I loved a poignant story the author told at the beginning of Chapter 17. He made a sales call at UPS and later sent a handwritten note to thank the young professional for seeing him. The recipient of the note pinned the letter up in his cubicle and it was still there months later when Mr. Baldry returned for another visit. The author believes people are starved for personalized touches like this and they will hang onto them.

This is a well-written book with practical examples of how to use good manners and etiquette in everyday life. There is always enough time for courtesy!

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

FYI ~ I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley to read and review.

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Book Review: Roadmap To Revenue; How To Sell The Way your Customers Want To Buy

Are you a business owner, marketer or salesperson?  Are you seeking ways to increase your sales and grow your company?
"Roadmap To Revenue; How To Sell The Way Your Customers Want to Buy", by Kristin Zhivago, offers you a roadmap for taking your business to the next level and selling the way your customers want to buy.


About the Author
Kristin Zhivago is a "revenue coach" whose clients range from thriving young start-ups to those in the Fortune 500, including Dow Jones, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson, and the fastest-growing companies, including Bazaarvoice and Eloqua.

Ms. Zhivago has become one of the world's leading experts on the customer's buying process. She speaks and teaches frequently for companies and organizations. She is the author of the blog RevenueJournal.com.

Making The Shift
Ms. Zhivago advises businesses to stop trying to "sell" and "market". Instead try to figure out how to make the purchase easier for the customers who would benefit from your product or service.

The Roadmap to Revenue method consists of the following three phases;

• Discover ~ Interview current customers (or prospects) on the telephone to find out what they want to buy and how they want to buy it. Record and organize the information that is collected in these interviews and present the information to the leaders of your business.
• Debate ~ Analyze, discuss and prioritize what the customers have told you. Identify the issues most important to the customers.
• Deploy ~ Map out the customer's buying process so you can support it at every step. Develop an action plan. Your goal is to fix what is broken, and improve what needs improving. Develop strategies that will better support your customers' buying process.

The author provides detailed information to support a business that wants to make the shift from company-based to customer-based. This book provides everything you need to know to start the process. The author emphasizes that this is an on-going process that will lead to significant increases in your sales. This is not a quick or easy fix, but it will lead to long-term rewards.

My Thoughts
I do not have a formal education in business or any of the business-related fields. This was a challenging read for me, but the book is organized in a way that a layman can understand and benefit from it. I found this book to be a very content-rich offering that really goes deep into the "meat" of business management. The author offers free pdf downloads on her blog that will support the information in this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about taking their business to the next level. The information is this book can be applied to all types of organizations that focus on selling a product or service.

My Rating: 5 Stars Out Of 5

FYI ~ I received a complimentary digital copy of this book to read and review from the author's publicist.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below.

An Amway Network Marketing Fiasco

Have you ever heard of Amway? I imagine each one of you answered a resounding "YES" to that question.  Amway is a direct selling company and manufacturer that uses network marketing to sell a variety of products, primarily in the health, beauty, and home care markets. It was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVoss.
I recently read My Father's Dream (Kindle Single) by Erik German. This is a poignant story about how Erik's father quit his job as a journalist and went to work selling Amway products as an independant network marketer in the early 1980s. Roger German's family had fallen on hard times and a close family member introduced them to the Amway "opportunity" at a time when the family was in desparate need of extra income. This business promises to make you $150,000, in your spare time, in just a couple of years. All it costs to get started is $250—and a dream. Roger worked hard and recruited over 100 people to sell under him, but instead of making a profit he amassed a crushing Amway-related debt. 
The author tells about the night when his tearful and incoherent father was standing in the kitchen of their home. The family had an empty gas tank out in the yard, an empty gas tank in the car, empty cupboards and an empty band account. It was a final culmination of bills due and no money to pay them. The family went to live in the basement of Erik's paternal grandparents home for eighteen months. His parents both worked constantly to pay off the debts. After they moved out of his grandparent's home, his father found work as a remodeling contractor and gave up journalism for good.
Two decades later, Erik German is an investigative journalist and sets out to learn how Amway works and how it failed his family. Mr. German reveals Amway's formula for recruiting and motivating sales people. The author found that the secret to making big bucks with Amway is not selling the products but by selling motivational books and tapes to your recruits.
This book brought back memories of my personal experience with Amway.

The Amway Opportunity Knocks On My Door
In the mid-1990s, a couple from our church approached my husband and I about an opportunity to improve our standard of living. They asked if they could come to our home and share this valuable information. We had a feeling that this was about selling and we are NOT salespeople.  Honestly, my husband and I could not sell a fur coat to a naked Eskimo in Alaska.  We are really that bad. The couple was very persistent and we didn't want to hurt their feelings so we agreed to a meeting with them.
On the appointed evening, the couple showed up at our door. They made some small talk and then started sharing the fabulous opportunity that Amway offered. The husband was a very smooth talker and said that it looked like we were doing pretty good but it was now time for us to go to the next level...a nicer house, new cars, vacations, FINANCIAL FREEDOM! 
Well, I told him that I was really satisfied with my life and that I would rather down-size instead of taking on the responsibility of more material possessions!  I wish you could have seen the look on Mr. Smooth Talker's face.  He was speechless.  I just shot down his entire sales presentation.  The couple left soon after and I am so glad that we did not take advantage of this "opportunity". 

The Book
I highly recommend My Father's Dream (Kindle Single).  This book contains 30 pages and can be read in an hour or less.  It should be required reading for anyone considering a network marketing opportunity. Read it and weep.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.