Less is Best

                                                      

Edition 152  Monday 20^th August 2012

Hi, ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ would not have been hard last week because we were not moving very fast at all. Sleep deprivation tends to have that effect on you amongst other things! Having a new baby in the house also fine tunes your time management skills as you make the most of the short bursts of time you have when baby is sleeping to attempt to get stuff done……other revelations;

• No more family motorbike riding to local cafes, pubs and vineyards !!
• Pack half the house into bags and car for simple family outing.
• Showers and baths will never be the same….dont drop the kid !!
• Hours of darkness will never be the same…goodbye sleep
• Disposable nappies….mans best friend.
• Breast feeding….mans best friend.
• Falling asleep during an All Black test is ok.
• Its has never been and will never be about me !!

I cant believe how fast our first week of new parenthood has screamed (excuse the pun) by. No matter how tired we are or how different we have found adjusting we both agree we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I hope you all had an excellent weekend making time and having fun with family and friends.

 Have a great week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons love their new brother but does he have to make so much noise?

“All things being equal, people will buy from a friend. All things not being so equal people will still buy from a friend.” Mark McCormack CEO International Management Group

An amazing thing happened to me last week….

I had recently called on a large prospective customer who was happy using one of our competitors. I established contact with the key decision maker (Arnold) and started to form a relationship….in fact I made a point of making it more than that. Through establishing what was important to Arnold in and outside of work I was able to start forming a friendship with him.

He ended up staying with his existing suppliers because he liked their representatives and was loyal to them. I accepted and admired that and withdrew gracefully but kept in touch with him. This surprised and pleased him and as a result our friendship grew.

Recently the representative working for our competitor left the company and handed over to another employee who doesn’t make Arnold feel important or wanted…….enter Mr Jones !! As a result of the friendship we have formed and my persistence we now have an opportunity to secure the business.

Lessons;

• Never give up on a customer even if you don’t get their business straight away.
• Build business  relationships into friendships through areas of common interest.
• Stay in touch with all your existing and prospective customers, rank and prioritise visits.
• Refer to quotes above and below…..they are true
• Selling is all about people and how well you can build friendships with them.

Business doesn’t have to be complicated, what is more simple than making heaps of friends?

What matters is working with friends,people you respect, knowing that if times turn bad these people would hold together.” Richard Branson founder and Chairman of Virgin Group

FJJ 09/08/12

                                                      

Edition 151  Monday 13^th August 2012

Hi,WOW, a lot can change in the course of a week that’s for sure !!! Last week as we selfishly indulged ourselves lingering over a late and sumptuous lunch on Waiheke little did we realise it was effectively the ‘last supper’ we would enjoy peacefully and romantically alone together in so many ways!! YES our world was turned upside down on Wednesday when Christine went into early labour and with one thing leading naturally to another our brand new son Fletcher duly arrived 3 weeks early at 3.03pm Thursday afternoon 09/08/12. All 7.7lb (3.365kg) of him burst on to the scene much to the relief of his anxious parents for whom life was about to change forever.

It is hard to describe one of lifes true ‘Moments of truth’ adequately or to do the real life drama,the love, the passion and the feeling of such an occasion the true justice it richly deserves. Nothing or no one can prepare you for the impact or the true magic that the miracle of childbirth beholds for all who are lucky enough to experience it. Moreover, there is also nothing any one can tell you about the Tsunami of responsibilities and total commitment that is new born childcare. The days post birth have been a sleep deprived blur , everything we were told they would be and much more!

The good thing is we were as well prepared as we could have been and have managed to work together so neither of us gets too overwhelmed. Even so I feel like I have played two games of rugby back to back, attended the aftermatch all night then staggered into the carpark and been backed over by the team bus !!!! I am sure I will harden up during the weeks annual leave I have taken in an attempt to do my bit in getting Mother and child settled in to their new routine and surroundings. I am happy to report that everything went as well as it could and that Mum and son are doing well even if Dad is struggling to keep up. The experience has been surreal and I still havent come back down to earth. I am a doting proud Father all over again and as far as I am concerned life doesn’t get any better. Fletcher and I are also truly blessed to have such a loving and caring Mother and Partner!

It is moments of truth like this that again reinforce that there is nothing more important than family.

On that note I hope you all managed to spend quality time with your family this weekend. If you havent caught up with family lately then I urge you to make the effort to do so again soon.

 Have a great week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons have welcomed their new brother to the hood. They are very proud brothers and sisters and cant wait to introduce him to the Scooby Doo gang !!!

“Customers are responsible for pay days and provide business evolution.” Jonesey

Firstly, thank you for your awesome feedback on last weeks ‘sizzle’ and your messages of support as we hit edition 150 ! I affectionately refer to feedback as the ‘gift of growth’ so I am eternally grateful.

Another thing that assists with the growth of a business is a commitment to customer service. Looking after existing customers attracts new customers to your business whereas a poor attitude to customer service obviously has the reverse effect. In a perfect example of this on the weekend I read with interest that the TSB bank won the ‘Peoples Choice’ award at the recent banking awards. TSB are not one of the biggest banks in the country but they are becoming one of the most popular because of their commitment to customer service. 

Most if not all people surveyed who had changed banks in the last year changed because of a bad experience with their current bank. TSB picked up the most new customers over the same period. When asked people who changes said it was because TSB made them feel special and that their business no matter how big or small was important to them. Clearly an investment in providing quality customer service is an investment in the growth and evolution of any business. If you are not playing your part in delivering this quality then you need to be thinking of ways you can at all times.

“Customer Service is not an ‘oxymoron’ but morons choose not to provide it” Jonesey

YAY, its MONDAY

                                                      

Edition150!! Monday 6^th August 2012

Hi,welcome to our 150^th edition of ‘Upbeat’ crikey how cool is that??!!! Yes you are part of something special and yes it takes focus and discipline to attack every Monday with energy and enthusiasm.

Give yourselves a pat on the back for making it this far !!Thank you all for your frank and honest feedback, I appreciate it and thrive on it. Your comments are vital to me both good and bad, they provide encouragement, recognition and ideas for improvement. If you are not receiving feedback then you need to ask for it because without it you stall and mark time, we all need to move forward!

I took Friday off to surprise Christine for her birthday, we went on a magical mystery tour and ended up on Waiheke for lunch at one of those flash vineyards! Yes the weather played its part and everything ran with Swiss precision and YES I was a hero !!! It felt so cool to do something special for someone special on what was a pretty special day!...note to self…do it more often Mr Jones.

Talking about seizing the moment my newest customer is the Selwyn Retirement Village in Auckland. I have spent a lot of time there in the last couple of weeks working with staff and implementing new systems. I have also met a number of the residents from the new entrants to the departure loungers and it has been a huge eye opener for me. For most it is too late to do the things they have always been meaning to do as they have neither the strength, the will or the health to do them. We all need to visit places like this to appreciate what we have when we have it. It certainly had a bearing on my decision to take the day off to celebrate a birthday, to take more holidays,to have another child in my 50’s and above all to appreciate the important people in my life NOW when I have the chance to do so rather than regretting not making the effort. To this end we had a lovely lunch with Mum and Dad on Sunday, no occasion but because we could!! Don’t die wondering,die content you did all you could.

I hope you were able to spend time with people that are important to you this weekend or that someone made a fuss of you for no reason in particular! Have a great week,……..cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons assure me the investment in their registration is money well spent and will be returned many times over in unconditional love and wet damp kisses !!@!

“YAY its Monday.” All Upbeat readers every Monday morning !!!

I caught a lift for the first time for ages the other day and had forgotten how deathly quiet and uncomfortable they can be. So I deceided to do something about it and started greeting everyone as they entered the lift at the different floors. The effect was amazing, if you say nothing then so too does everyone else, yet if you talk to people you start a massive conversation and even get people engaged and laughing. I started simply by just saying hello when people entered and then goodbye when they got out. It felt good and from what I could gather it made others feel good too. I think the main reason was that people were surprised someone said something to them, it was different and it was fun. I even had a couple of people ask me if I had been hired by the owner of the building to inject some life into the lift trip???....others said how come you know so many people? This was something small and simple that had a BIG effect on people. No one I said hello or goodbye to did not reply !!! So what does this tell us??? We all get far too used to being morons and don’t go looking for opportunities to meet people. We get too caught up in our own little worlds when there is a huge world out there waiting to meet us….we need to back ourselves, put ourselves out there and build our confidence and self esteem….dont be insular and withdrawn. OK so you may not be having a great day but I assure you after making a complete clown of yourself in a lift you will feel a lot better and so will everyone that met Mr Clown in the lift that day!! It’s a bit like the attitude and atmosphere on Fridays versus Mondays…Friday’s are bullet proof because they are the gateway to the weekend, Mondays are the gateway to another never ending week of torture….yet who says it has to be that way?,try being excited on a Monday and see what happens,you will be excited and so will others!!

“Why keep people guessing when you can open your mouth and remove all doubt.”Mr Clown