Productivity

We had a great holiday party Saturday night for our Toronto staff (Guelph's was last week). It was well attended, well organized and a good time.

I was tired this weekend. 4 trips in 2 weeks might be part of it. Multiple time zones also serves to mess me up. 10 mile run on Saturday would contribute.

I did not feel too productive this weekend. I am fighting busy work. I can spend a few hours "working" but get little of value accomplished. My challenge is to cut through the busy work to get to the important. Devise ways to dispense with it quickly. Devise ways to eliminate it. I find the larger our company is, the more people want a part of my time. At the same time this is happening, admin and paperwork increases. One place this busy work is huge is in email. I can spend a few hours each day just to keep on top of it. And I have awesome filters, folder systems, a Blackberry etc.

There is a quotation by Goethe (but I might not have ti right because I could not find it on the net)

"Things which matter the most should not be sacrificed in favour of those that matter the least."

I recently read a book called, "Retail Selling Ain't Brain Surgery, It's Twice As Hard – 9 Steps to successful sales relationships", by James E. Dion. As the title suggests, it is mostly about retailing. He has nine steps that every retailer should use to treat their customers well. As an occasional retail customer, I know that retail selling etiquette is sadly lacking and I think most retailers could benefit from reading this very simple and quick reading book.

His nine steps are:

The greeting
Needs determination
Product knowledge
Suggestion selling
Trading up
Answering objections
The close
Maximizing last moments
After sales service

Best read the book for full details.

This is a great read for any retailer.