Tiggy Sonya's Business Communications Blog Station

Executive recruitment, in a way, is like searching for a gemstone in a bag of beans. You started hunting for a new sales executive, looking for a playwright of future success. In the evening, as you sip your mead by candlelight, you begin to think that Shakespeare has left the building or indeed the globe.  You have interviewed several candidates for the bountiful role you have tucked in your top pocket, but everyone is lacking. You were hoping for a writer, a linguist, a storyteller. But oh my, all you managed to find were five candidates who talked and rattled on but never listened, and two old hounds who had years of experience but were too set in their ways to take on new skills. Your client is a forward-thinking company that likes to take the scribbles of curiosity in a mind map session and set the wheels in motion. They have come to you because they are looking for some reassurance that those shining ones are still out there somewhere. And at the moment, you are finding that you

  Published 28th April 2023 www.tsrn.co.uk Oh, what a week it has been! We have traveled from Harrow almost on the hill to hot sticky memories within the forests of Rangoon. Yes, it has been fun traveling back and forth to 1956. You might be asking yourself. Why, Sonya, why? And I am going to answer…… I don’t know. Anyhow, let us catch up with Toni, Geoff, and Brenda one last time this week and see how the trip to Hong Kong turned out. “It’s full, it’s so full, I couldn’t fit any more in Geoff “announced Toni as he placed his bulging order book down on Geoff’s desk. (The William Morris Trellis cover glowing in the morning sun beaming in through the art deco black lacquered windows) “Aw, and you should have seen the Shek Pik Valley, it was a triumph! All flowers and fauna. The Pekingese would have loved it you know. And Brenda, I mean Lorretta of the mincing word came alive from our brochures. Standing out like a lighthouse on a misty night at sea off the Cornish coast. Oh yes, I think

  Published 27th April 2023 www.tsrn.co.uk/news Yet again, we join our trio in Harrow almost on the hill, London. The summer of 1956 was one of the hottest since the end of the war and we find the staff of T & G Mincers bearing the heat but looking forward to a cooler day! It was noon. The white art deco building had been baking in the sun all morning. You could hear distant music through the open windows in Toni and Geoff’s’ office on the third floor. “It reminds me of that summer in Rangoon, the summer we met, me and Geoff. It was torrid, torrid Brenda!” declared Toni. Brenda put the lid down on their traveling trunk. It was all go as Toni and herself were off to Honk Kong to attend this year’s Kitchens Of The Future Show. With a two-week boat journey from Dover, they were packing for all eventualities, which included amongst other things a large container of loose tea, curling tongs, and a large bottle of Iberian Gin. Brenda sat down on the tasseled pouffe behind her “I’m sorry

Published 26th April 2023  www.tsrn.co.uk/news/ Today we are going to think about what being bold in business means. So, pull up your padded office chair, grab a freshly percolated coffee, and let me take you back to 1956 when being bold could sometimes cause you all sorts of problems! Brenda was exhausted and had just arrived at her sales meeting with Toni and Geoff. She had spent the last months traveling and was glad to be back in Northolt, West London with her parents. She had nattered her way around Great Britain and sold eighty-two and a half table mincers and five burlesque, I mean perlesque toned slicing and dicing machines. Also, five hundred silver-plated tablespoons with a picture of Gregory Peck embellished on every single one! Brenda’s sales trip had been a success! “It’s mother,” Brenda anxiously said “She caught our neighbor’s daughters peaking at my new undergarments on the washing line through the hedge. She said that I’m an embarrassment!  Then, she said, I’ve gone al

  Published 25th April 2023  www.tsrn.co.uk/news/   After many requests, I will return you to Harrow, North London, and T & G Table Mincers Ltd. Oh and what a day it is! Brenda has turned a corner in her career path and today her sales training begins! Geoff and Toni are designing a new slicing and dicing machine as Ken would not do it. So let us take ourselves back to June 1956 and the art deco offices of the above-named…. Brenda, (now known as Lorretta, queen of the mincing word) made her way up the stairs to Toni and Geoff’s office on the third floor. The high heels she was wearing were killing her. She had traveled from High Kilburn down to Putney for facial, makeup, and hair appointment. The first photo shoot for the new marketing campaign had gone well and she was looking forward to a nice sit-down after a very busy morning. Brenda knocked and immediately heard Toni say “Entrée” as she entered the room. Toni and Geoff stopped what they were doing, which wasn’t much, and their

  Published  www.tsrn.co.uk/news /  24th April 2023   Today I take you back to a time of erm, well, not of innocence, but a time when it was harder to move up at work. Men were stereotyped and women did what they were told. Oh, but not for our heroine of the day. Yes, in this tale set in the leafy suburbs of Harrow in 1956, we find ourselves in the offices of the above T & G Table Mincers. (Those mincing machines with handles that your grandmother screwed to the kitchen table if you don’t know). Here we shall meet two legends of the mincing world. Toni and Geoff and their soon-to-be star employee. Brenda straightened her thick-set glasses and tidied her bobbed hair. If she was going to resign it was now or never. Having spent the whole weekend ruminating over the decision, today, Monday, would be the day to inform the company owners Toni and Geoff of her imminent departure. Brenda made her way up the stairs to the third floor of the art deco building. Approaching the thick midnight

  Do you feel bored in your current role? Well, maybe a change would do you good. Read on for inspiration! Dorothy had landed. She had arrived, and this was it, the new position she had been dreaming of. She rolled up her sleeves and got down to work, meticulously making her way through the sales calls. Yes, company by company she dialed out, her headset perched neatly over her perm. Over three months, she cleaned up the huge database of leads. But Dorothy was in for a surprise. Was this a new role for her, or was there something better charging her way? It was on the penultimate day of the campaign that Dorothy had to call Crusades Removals Incorporated, and it was on this day she decided to change her life. Dorothy pressed the mouse button to click on the next call and the number popped up. She instantly knew something was different when the automated voice announced that there would be a long wait due to their representatives being busy all over the world. Yes, safely escorting thos

Mr. Ziegfield has a headache…and finds his zest! Published    30th August 2022   https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/   In a distant sunny land, somewhere over the rainbow, there was a business park. On that business park was a large office selling a service. In that building there were many corridors and off those corridors, many doors. Behind those doors were desks, laptops, and groups of individuals all doing their bit to get the show on the road. On the third floor there was a carpeted passageway (the rest had linoleum tiles, but we won’t go there) and cited at the end of the final corridor was the office of Mr Ziegfield. Loosening his orange silk tie, Mr. Ziegfield poured himself a glass of sparkling Italian mineral water. Feeling the need to cool down, he helped himself to ice from his fridge. The iridescent large chunks entered the water and made a noise that only ice cubes can make as they join their shimmering costars in their fizzing glass of bubbles. A slice of lemon was added. Mr.

  A job working from home. It’s great isn’t it, or is it?  (Published   29th March 2022  https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/ You fill your new shiny kettle with water. It glimmers in the sunlight that is beaming in through the kitchen window as you select a favourite cafeteria. You ponder slowly over your growing selection of coffees. Choc Moch, Columbian Special, or smooth and lean coffee Italian Supreme…? So, it’s 11.30 am and you have spent the whole morning making calls. You’re doing great against your target for the day, but you feel a bit empty…be nice to have a chat with a human… right? This working from home was fun for a while but now you’re thinking of getting a parrot for company! To begin with the nine-to-five was just super dandy… in fact, it was more than that, it was so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you even agreed to do all the hand washing as you would now be around to peg it on the line. You did the school run, dumped the washing up in the machine, and fed the cat. Hav

A pot of gold... (Published 21st November 2022   https://www.tsrn.co.uk/news/) Searching for that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the end of each month, you know that you need to have brought enough business into your pipeline in the preceding months to pay all bills, wages, and expenses. Successfully meeting targets ensures you can cover all outgoings and have profit. They also guarantee a strong end to the financial year. Within the world of sales, we find everything that a company can be, and a lot of the time many companies only being a small fraction of what they could be. Well now, you might be saying, what has this all got to do with Rainbows and all this other nonsense Sonya? The Cambridge Dictionary states that a rainbow is the following: “An arch (=curved shape) of different colours seen in the sky when rain is falling and the sun is shining. The sun came out and we saw a rainbow” So, if you are a sales team that is having issues with not hitting targets, co

Yes, if it is not one thing it is another. The world of recruitment never runs smoothly. Do you aim for a working day that runs like an efficient machine, like a finely made brass wheel, perfect in its, erm, roundness? In this tale of recruitment woe, we see how working with a company that fits you snuggly, can make all the difference. Penguins! The trouble with penguins is they are hard to find and tend to congregate where fish stock resides. Therefore, far-flung places next to the sea. So, you gather your belongings and pack your rucksack, and off you go. Your new electric car means it will take you a bit longer, but hey ho, you like a sixty-hour working week and traveling to the far reaches of the country to see rare species. Armadillos You arrive and undo your padded ski jacket and take off your two fleeces, two silk vests to reveal your shirt and tie. You leave your Salopettes on just for good measure. You are met in the reception area with a smile and a cuppa by Agnes the tea lad