Tangerine Trees... the horse!

Did you know, Tangerine Trees has a namesake in the equine world? He was born in 2005, just one short year before this version of the same name.

This is him. Gorgeous, isn’t he?

Now, I know nothing about horse-racing but I have it on good authority from RacingPost.com that,

“HALF an hour or so after Frankel set the Rowley Mile alight with his scorching Guineas victory, Tangerine Trees did his best impression of the mighty colt with a Palace House victory that was all speed.

Like Frankel, the 18-1 shot set off with rockets burning and led from the starting gates to the winning post.”

… at Newmarket in April 2011.

And that sounds like a good thing to me.

So there we are. A business consultancy and a horse. Who’d have thought?

TTBookClub Twitter meeting - 4th August

Tangerine Trees’ TTBookClub is now available on Twitter (@ttbookclub)!

Every month we discuss one fantastic business-focused book, looking at different aspects of the book on each day of the month.

And on the first Thursday of every month, at 7pm GMT, we grab a big cup of tea and join forces on Twitter to summarise what we loved about the last book and what we’re looking forward to in the next month.

You can also vote for the book you’d like to read next month by voting on the poll at www.tangerinetrees.co.uk/bookclub.

Join us from anywhere in the world to discuss books you love, ideas that work and opportunities you want to put to the test.

Book your place now by clicking http://ttbookclub.eventbrite.com

See you there!

Kathryn @ TTBookClub

Ethical Marketing in Action - PR and Media

First of the Ethical Marketing in Action series of webinars

Do you say what you mean in your marketing? Do you mean what you say?

Are you afraid to embark on the kind of positive press coverage you deserve, because you worry ‘they’ll’ find out the truth about you?

The world has changed, and business is changing with it. Poor customer service, stifling corporate culture and aggressive sales processes are going out of fashion fast. Staff, customers, suppliers and communities expect more. Ethical Influence is the standard, and Ethical Marketing is the application.

Ethical Influencers make lots of money. They have successful businesses with happy staff. They are passionate to the point of extremism about their product or service.

There are so many reasons to be an ethical influencer – happy customers, happy staff, easier sales, smoother projects, improved community, personal values, improved assertiveness, improved influencing and persuasion skills (naturally!), and better pricing decisions, to name a few.

Join Kathryn from Tangerine Trees as she uncovers 15 tips to get you great press coverage simply by being true to yourself and influencing with ethics.

Book you place by clicking http://tangerinetreesethicalmarketing.eventbrite.com now.

Work That Room

When I asked Brad Burton, founder of the 4networking business relationship company, for some tips on how to get the most out of networking, I knew I'd asked the right man!

As well as establishing the business, Brad is also an avid networker himself, and attends many of the 4networking events around the country, so he's seen it all - the overeager, nervous types; the desperate salesperson; the business card distribution machine.

So what are Brad's golden nuggets?

"There are three things that make the difference when you're networking. And just the act of knowing them means that you'll act differently and feel more confident.

Firstly, don't look to win clients, look to win trust.

People buy from people, before they buy products.

Get the people bit right, the business will follow."

Thinking in such a long-term way might seem like a painful process for your business, but the entrepreneur knows that enduring relationships are built on something more substantial than 30-seconds of flurried business card exchange.

And the people you meet may never buy from you. Ever. Which is no bad thing. Because they may be the intermediary that brings your name in front of others who will. And the recommendation that accompanies such a referral is potentially worth pocketfuls of real folding money, because this intermediary is known and respected by your ultimate prospect.

So never turn down a serious opportunity to network if you're serious about building your sales.

Because the ultimate outcome could be worth a hundred times more than a simple sales transaction. And the networks you build provide foundation and strength for the real entrepreneur.

I Decide Why to Buy

A few weeks ago, we got a dog. An eight-week old spaniel, to be precise. And although I'd grown up with dogs, I'd never had my own before.

Within the first weekend of his arrival, we must've visited the biggest pet store we knew and bought everything available for puppies, including toys, food and house training items.

When he started chewing the furniture, we started buying more toys to distract him. And when he stopped eating his puppy food, but pining after whatever we had for dinner, we bought different varieties of dog food, all proclaiming to be the tastiest on the market.

And when he started waking up at 4am every morning, we bought inoculation shots, collars and leads to take him for walks in the evening.

Even the first real day of sunshine this year ending up with a big bill after he chased a bee round the garden, got stung on his nose, and had to go to the out-of-hours vet for antihistamine and steroids.

And, if you dear reader are a proud parent, you know that this is just the tip of the financial iceberg required to keep children happy, healthy and occupied.

But my point is this - no hard-sell salesman was necessary to help me part with this huge amount of money. Well, none other than the dog himself, and I'm not sure his grasp of all things fiscal is up to much.

I wanted to spend for all my own reasons, and the salespeople I encountered en route simply helped direct me to the inevitable outlay.

You can be pretty sure that your prospects have been through a similar process of need in order to bring your paths to cross, so don't get in your own way for a sale. Let them tell you all the reasons they need you, and then help them buy.

Are Your Sales Unbreakable?

Have you seen a film called Unbreakable? I think it's an M. Night Shyamalan movie, and it stars Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson.

It's a good film, but the plot is complicated to say the least, so I won't attempt to offer you an abridged version here if you haven't seen it. I'll simply suggest you get yourself down to the video shop on the next cold, bleak Friday night and rent a copy.

Suffice it to say though, there's a part in the film that leapt out being an example of the usual pattern that sales conversations follow.

Bruce Willis' character David wants to find out how many days he's taken as sick leave from work, so he leaves his enquiry with his boss' PA. The next time David sees his boss, the boss gives him a pay rise. His assumption was that, by asking a question about sick leave (and thereby clearly showing his boss that he's never off sick), he wanted his boss to notice and appreciate his commitment and dedication.

In fact, for reasons that are long and complicated, David had entirely different motivations for asking the question.

Now, whilst this might seem like a positive outcome, how often have you leapt in with a price deal when a prospect asks you a question? David took the pay rise, and I'm sure your prospects took the deal, but you didn't necessarily need to offer it.

When you're practising your entrepreneurial sales techniques, make sure you understand the reasons why your prospect just said what they did. And if you don't know, ask.

Nudge...

I've just started reading a great book called Nudge by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein. It's a couple of years old, so some of you may be way ahead of me on this one.

The authors present a concept called "choice architects" - people who have responsibility for organising the context in which people make decisions. Naturally, salespeople are an obvious category of choice architects.

In common with physical architecture, choice architect salespeople are responsible for ensuring that the signals we receive (the stimulus) must be consistent with the action that is desired of us. When there are inconsistencies, we trip up, we make mistakes and we get confused.

As the authors say, "Life is full of products that suffer from such defects. Isn't it obvious that the largest buttons on a TV remote control should be the power, channel and volume control?"

How often have you put your ticket in a machine the wrong way up, or pushed a door that needed to be pulled, or stood at the wrong counter to be served? Embarrassing, isn't it?

So, take a fresh look at the environment that you're inviting your customers in to. And make the choice to address any inconsistencies and build surroundings that help your customers make easy choices

Tangerine Trees Blog