Over the past few weeks I’ve been talking to some managers responsible for teams of sales assistants in large retail shops. The task was to show them how they could restructure their team’s approach to customers that would generate an increase in sales.

In this videoclip I tackle two main problems.
The first is the problem with asking “Can I help you?” that too often destroys a sale.
Secondly, how to generate multiple sales

Contact Stephen by email: stephen@assimilating-talent.com

Yesterday I had a great time with some business friends discussing the scandal of the NOTW and Rupert Murdock’s business empire. We all agreed that there have been lots of occasions when businesspeople believe their created image that they then become paralysed when things start to go pear shaped.

“You’re brilliant”
Director paralysis isn’t new. This often comes from having people around you that always tell you how brilliant you are. The more a business leader hears it the more they come to believe it. Murdock’s thousands telling him how brilliant he is seemed, at the start of the scandal, to create a paralysis of understanding of the seriousness of the situation. This, as is so often the case, was translated by the UK public as being arrogance.

Then again I’ve observed Directors of much smaller companies believe their own image and create similar problems for themselves. Like the Sales Director who joined an insurance company saying he had come to “save the company” when most people didn’t know, or believe, that it needed saving.

Or the Managing Director who told me that in twenty eight years at the head of his business he’d not made a “New hire mistake ever”. In fact he told me that he could identify a success when “they walked through the door“. His staff turnover was very high and continually created problems for his sales.

“Remember you are mortal”
As generals drove through the ancient Rome after winning a war a slave at the back of the chariot would whisper in their ear “Remember you are mortal” in case they believed the crowd’s adulation. I wonder how many CEO’s would consider hiring someone to continually question their thinking, just in case they thought themselves infallible?  

Like so many people in the UK I watched the student riots over eduction fees with concern together with a sense of a feeling that this might be the start of a series of such demonstrations.

However, what has got me thinking is the number of people who so obviously caused damage, assaulted police or threw missiles whilst being recognised through photographs and TV coverage. The consequences of this are likely to be prosecution, possible loss of their place at university and their future career affected. It’s interesting that in the near future this is likely to become their “personal brand image” as far as future employers are concerned.

Yet this type of behaviour isn’t restricted to overexcited students. I’ve observed people with excellent jobs fall into periods of self-destruction. Such as the employee at a rewards dinner who publicly told a joke (story) with a punch line insinuating that the Managing Director couldn’t distinguish his rear end from his elbow. (Whilst the MD laughed at the time the employee in question left the company within three months!).

So the question is why aren’t people more aware of their actions at the time? Or is it that our storyteller and the demonstrating student become embroiled in the excitement of the situation and the consequences of actions become lost until reflection afterwards? That they have no feeling for a “personal and future brand image”? Or is it that a “personal brand image” is easily changed?

Stephen Fry went to prison for a time and still managed to find success and perhaps some students will be taking comfort from his example this morning

Over this past month or so a number of people in my network have approached me to discuss how they can manage a personal brand image.

I guess it’s because one of the first things I discuss with an executive that moves into a new job is the “image” that they want within their new workplace. We start out by developing a plan of action to construct and manage a positive image within the first few days and weeks.

However, it’s been long understood that head-hunters, future employers as well as future employees will search the internet for clues as to the reputation, management style and expertise of any future boss. This makes having a positive on-line reputation one that’s worth considering ahead of any change of job.

As for being self-employed, well the benefits of a strong on-line brand image is obvious.

In this first video I discuss how to create an plan for a personal brand image on-line as well as to discuss creating an “elevator pitch” that covers the three rules of “Credibility, Clarity and believability”

How to create a brand image