Tiggy Sonya's Business Communications Blog Station

Macrame Mayhem: Recruitment. Today’s moving tale will strike a chord with anyone who has turned their passion into a successful business. Gosh, there is even a television series where crafty people can gain help from others who have made it to the top. Somewhere out there today, there will be someone in that in-between stage. They may have so many orders that they cannot keep up. Monica and Gavin had been at it all night. A large order had come in a couple of days ago for two hundred of their special beaded plant hangers for large ferns. Fingers sore and struggling to keep up, Gavin placed the last one in the box and put the documentation inside. Then firmly sealed the flaps down with tape. “This hobby of yours has got out of hand,” he said, as he printed the address label, took a set square, and stuck it perfectly in place. He took a deep breath and then turned to his wife. “ I think we’ve reached that point,” he added. Monica also took a deep breath and looked over at her husband. He...

Settle down in a comfy chair with a hazelnut, cream billabong, nut crush latte.... Pegasus: Publicity Agents with Wings! Peg and her sis, Nora, had done it! Well, you might say, done what Sonya? It all began with the new contract with the much-acclaimed Gorgon Biscuit Empire. It had been a crummy year, and the girls looked forward to receiving a large dossier containing a yummy filling, the client's brief. But instead of a thick layer of paper, detailing requirements, they found a sheet of paper with two words written in bright pink felt tip. UNICORN SANDWICH Well, Peg and her sis were baffled. Their feathers had been ruffled! They both felt as though they had snakes in their hair as they decided on their plan of action. Today's client meeting would be refreshing, and different. And it definitely would Involve mind mapping! Very soon they realized that Gorgon Biscuits had Pegasus written all over them. This was no conservative pale rich tea crust of a company. It was a fandang...

  You made your deformed and cluttered seabed. You swim in it.  According to the Cambridge Dictionary , the word policy means: “ a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed to officially by a group of people, a business organization, a government, or a political party” So of course, as a company supplying a service or product, you need to interact with your clients to exhibit your full understanding of their needs. They, in return, need to know in the broadest sense, what your limits are. For example, I cannot discuss political parties here as that would take this article away from its true intrinsic message. Honesty is the best policy And to be honest I have no interest in writing an article about political parties in any particular way. There, that’s my truth. So, you may say to yourself. What are you getting at here Sonya? I suppose we would say that you need to be transparent with clients about what you will do and what it...

When we recruit, we are enrolling, enlisting that new person needed to fit into the culture of the workplace. You may just want someone who gets it done, does the job, and keeps things ship shape or you may want that certain someone who makes the difference as well. Brings a certain something to the team that was lacking. Once upon a time in a marketing office, there stood a marketing manager . Jasmine had just finished collecting stats for a report and updating the company website. She felt flat, yes as flat as a pancake without any sugar or lemon. She wondered how the rest of the week would turn out. Or would it just be a flop? Jasmine walked over to the window and slowly pulled the glossed sash upwards. The smell of fresh air was divine as it filtered up her nose, then down her throat, to her lungs. She looked over to the coffee shop down the road. And decided it was time for hot chocolate! But what was this, she had left her purse at home. Feeling disappointed she turned round to f...

It had been a busy morning in the office. Nigel had put together a rather long report and statistical analysis for this week’s sales meeting. He stopped whilst looking at the empty desks around him. And then he realized Duncan, the new telesales executive was having another conversation with himself, and this time it looked serious. Great! Nigel relaxed and closed his eyes. As he began to doze off, he sunk deeper into his padded executive chair. He felt his neck relax as he slumbered off into sleepy land. Suddenly, Nigel was not in his office, but in a room full of proactive salespeople! They picked up calls within three rings and were so, well, proactive! And they knew how to communicate! As Nigel listened to the conversations around the room, he knew he was dreaming. Open questions, Excel spreadsheets being filled in, and the CRM system was totally up to date! Surely, he had traveled to sales office heaven, not the offices of Pratts Plumb and Gooseberry Conserve, Norfolk Keys. ...

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 ...

  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 t...

  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 “...

  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 m...

  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 ...

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 ...

  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, a...

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 ta...