As communication continues

to experience convulsively

explosive change, so do the

methodologies we use to sell.

     Playwrite Arthur Miller clearly had something else in mind at the time he wrote and titled his classic Death of a Salesman, but there could never be a more apropos expression for what’s happening today, right this very minute, that is about to forever extinguish the “sales process” as we have known it since the day anyone reading this was born. 

     What, for example, does it suggest to you that even as recent as a year ago, effective sales communication was commonly reported to consist of as much as 87% nonverbal ingredients–gestures, posture, tone of voice, appearance, eye contact, active listening, etc.– and today major companies are talking about the sales process in terms of “digital body language”?

     Except for those salespeople who haven’t caught up (or, on) yet (and you surely know who they are and where they breed), business is at the crossroads of revolutionary change, and savvy salespeople spurred on by the blinding speed of technological advances are quick on the heels of entrepreneurs worldwide in leading the way.

     With entrepreneurial base-camp entrenchments established, salespeople will be muscling their way up the mountainside and serving the rest of society and the business world as the catalysts of change who will ultimately shake our depressed economy back into place. But this will only happen if those engaged in sales careers are able to fully grasp the dynamics of what’s going on around them.

     Entrepreneurs are spirited innovators who start enterprises, and who find the fuel and who get the engines fired up, and who get that initial forward thrust to happen (which is probably the most monumentally difficult and underrated task in all of business), but it is the world’s salespeople who who are responsible for revenues and growth and profits more than any other entity.

     Ah, but therein lies the potential problem. Salespeople who don’t see what’s happening, who don’t jump at the chance to instantly and dramatically shift into higher gear, who think they can keep doing the same old things in the same old ways, will fall by the wayside and die. And there won’t be any mercy rules!

The bottom line for salespeople:

• You must adjust your mindset to become more of a marketer and less of a sales representative.
• You must provide prospects/customers with new buying process experiences that are anchored by product/service/idea and market knowledge.

         You must rely more heavily on proving performance with demonstration and testing and sampling.

• You must increase your focus on benefits and ways of integrating purchases with existing products/services/ideas.
• You must spend more energy sitting on the same side of the prospect/customer’s problem-solving table and working as a partner instead of as a representative.

HIGH TRUST/credibility, proven performance and database marketing are now the three kings of sales! Are you making it happen, or is it happening to you? 

# # #

Good Night and God Bless You! 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!    

Put this on your wall…

     Effective communication is commonly attributed 80% to listening and 20% to speaking. Experts report that as much as 87% of communication is nonverbal. So where does that leave us, besides all tangled up with sign language?

     Martin Yates, in his best-selling, well-on-the-way-to-becoming-a-classic business book (KEEPING THE BEST…And Other Thoughts On Building A Super Competitive Workforce; published 1991 by Bob Adams, Inc., Holbrook, MA) says essentially–among many other A-1 working management concepts–that your effectiveness as a communicator is as heavily dependent on the follow-up actions you take, as it is on what you say and don’t say, and how you move or don’t move.

     Yates advises, for example, that after soliciting input, the boss needs to “make a visible effort to act on it and credit its source. It is counterproductive,” he says, “to solicit good input from team members, then put it into action with no accredidation (or worse still, with incorrect accreditation).”

     Yates proceeds to suggest (to owners/operators/managers) to praise creative ideas whenever they surface. This, he says, “encourages innovation and success-oriented thinking.” Yates paraphrases the old standby message to praise in public; criticize (when it’s absolutely necessary) in private.

     His emphasis on “accentuating the positive” [See also my Prentice-Hall Action Report article, “Theory A” (for “Attitude”)  published a decade earlier on the same topic] “build(s) positive behavior. It cannot be repeated enough: whatever behavior you recognize [positive, negative or ambivalent] will be reinforced” [and will produce more of the same]!

     So, the bottom line here is that if you are managing others and not getting what you want out of them, you must look first to your self. Ask yourself if you are paying more attention to scolding, belittling, and taking people to task than you are focusing on searching out the good behaviors and publicly rewarding those?

     I know a highly skilled healthcare practitioner and prominent researcher who maintains a “Wall of Shame” where he posts representations of every manner of employee screw-up, from dumb memos and emails to photos of his people caught in embarassing moments or doing the wrong things with patients. He laughs about it, and says his people all laugh at it too, that it’s become a “company culture kind of joke.”  

     Well guess what? The wall that started with 2-3 isolated pieces of incriminating paper is now covered with the evidence of a steady stream of bad behavior. And not only does that “company culture wall” speak for itself, so to speak, but so does this organization’s employee rate of turnover.

     People leave there–rapidly and happily–for lower paying jobs. Is he successful? His research is successful. As a businessman, and a professional, he’s earning just a small fraction of his potential… because his reputation for emphasizing the negative now precedes him.

     It’s a much easier, more enjoyable, and more productive thing to reward positive behavior than negative, and if you don’t agree, I’ll print out your comments and paste them on my wall!     

God Bless You and Good Night!  halalpiar  

Special thanks to my friend Doyle Slayton www.salesblogcast.com for the indirect inspiration   

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Having grown up a mailman’s

son, maybe I’m just sentimental

(or simply as stupid as the PO?) 

     On top of their idiotic, money-wasting, survey last December [Click on December Archives in right column and go to DEC 15 “NO MORE ROOM FOR “SNAIL MAIL – Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy, The US Postal Service” for the ugly details], the amazing U.S. Postal Service management team has been making some astonishingly whacko business decisions.

     Since revenues are off, they’ve cut back hours, increased postage prices, increased their elaborate sample mailing campaign to entice more small businesses to do more mailings with (you guessed it) stuff that’s prohibitively expensive to the typical small business to even think about mailing anyway.

     I’ve received two personalized t-shirts, a metal hinged and color-labeled box filled with expensive die-cut printing samples, and the list goes on. And now. Now they’re pulling the blue drop boxes off the sidewalks!

     How utterly brilliant! Hey, nobody’s using them, so take them away. How many things can you think of that those boxes could be used for if YOU had them for YOUR business? I’ll bet there are at least 10,000 ideas.

     Okay, here’s where I’m stupid. I’m going to give away my consulting expertise for free to the U.S. Postal Service. Right here. Right now. Think they’ll take it? Not a chance, but I’m going to put it out there anyway just because they are chewing off their own arms and legs and I hate to just stand around watching them self-destruct.

SO… Here’s what the U.S.P.S. needs to do:

1. Stop wasting time and money and effort on useless dumb surveys. Just listen to your customers!
2. Stop with the radical cost-cutting methods and ideas that only serve to prevent future sales and revenue streams. You can’t make money by turning off lights! Only sales make money!
3. Stop throwing good money after bad with products and services no one wants. Stick to your knitting, and remember innovation is taking an idea all the way to completion! 
4. Take some pages from FedEx and other competitors who train their drivers to go beyond being just drivers and to become account managers– as responsible for promoting and selling and customer servicing as for driving and delivering.
5. Start an Email delivery service (Call me for details!).
6. Learn how to use and promote via social media options. Visit Twitter for two hours!
7. Initiate customer service training at ALL levels. When was the last time anyone got a thank you note from the U.S.P.S. when it wasn’t a thinly-veiled give-me-a-tip-for-Christmas card?
8. Put a P.O. Box in every P.O. Box (Call me on this one too!).
9. Recruit community groups to garden and landscape your ugly buildings (inside and out).
10. SPONSOR community events; get out there and mix with your customers! They don’t bite! Show them you’re (like State Farm) a good neighbor! 
11. SELL AD SPACE ON THE INSIDE OF EVERY P.O.BOX DOOR!!!! 
12. SELL AD SPACE ON STAMPS!!!!
13. Provide shelves for the poor souls with heavy packages standing on lines waiting for the incompetent counter clerks to finish their coffee. 
14. PIPE IN SOME MUSIC!!!
15. Make it “A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE” to go to the post office!
16. How about an occasional (NON-Christmastime) slip in empty mailboxes that the carriers sign that says: “I noticed you didn’t get any mail today, but I wanted you to know I was thinking of you anyway. Have a great week!” 
17. Barter some direct mail advertising for media time and space… other services! 
18. Run direct mail training sessions for small businesses in P.O. lobbies – serve coffee for free! 
19. START A REAL BLOG that actually addresses real customer situations on a daily basis! (If you actually read this far, definitely call me on this one!)
20. Teach small business owners/operators how to tie direct mail to website and other ad and promotion programs.
21. Offer (Put in all business P.O. Boxes) detailed info on direct mail programs with package rates for use of postcards and self-mailers, with sizes and deals and discounts and coupons!
22. Offer quantity discounts!
23. Offer and arrange shared delivery discounts (to same office or building, for example).

     NUTS, huh? Well, I’ll tell you what: If you continue the course you’re on, YOU’RE NUTS BECAUSE YOU WILL END UP KILLING YOURSELF and that would be a terrible waste of assets, resources, some super-nice people who work for you and bring about the demise of a still much-needed service.

     God Bless and Good Night!  halalpiar     

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Entrepreneurs Are

Imagination Junkies!

Okay, friends and enemies, enough bitching about the economy. Get out your “imagination sticks.” We’re going to group-beat the recession!

• “You’re a whack-job, Hal!”
• “Y’think?”
• “Yeah.”
• “Well, you may be right, but I also have some news for you. Are you ready?”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited.

Imagination encircles the world!”

Who was the dumb idealist who said that, Hal? Hey, none other than our dumb old idealist friend Albert Einstein. And I know it for sure because it’s in a frame on the wall at the Delaware Creative Writing Center in the Cape Gazette Building in Lewes, Delaware, and Delaware Creative Writing Center people are very careful about the words they choose to surround themselves with!

So what? Who cares? What does that have to do with me? We’re in a recession in case you haven’t heard. And we don’t have any time to run around imagining things; there’s enough real stuff right here to deal with, besides you’re always preaching to be realistic and stay focused on the here and now, and now you’re saying we should all go off to never-never land with Tinkerbell and Michael Jackson?

Whoa! First of all, I’m not a big fan of either pixie dust or sequined gloves, but let’s look at the realism issue a minute, shall we? Realistically, none (zero, nada) of the world’s great businesses could have survived and thrived in economic problem times without imagination.

Only by fostering, nurturing and practicing the application of imagination to the products, services, ideas, R&D, and processes that launched them or put them on the map to start with, have they been able to make a difference.

Only when you plug imagination into your business’s status quo outlets will you experience the level of electricity that will thrust you into exciting new directions, markets, and revenue streams. Do you think Microsoft and Apple and HARO and TWITTER and revitalized old companies like GE just (pardon the expression) stumbled upon greatness?

Greatness doesn’t just fall from the sky and happen to happen! Greatness is created with imagination. You can build more of that commodity into your daily business activities. Start with some highly structured, tightly-timed brainstorming sessions as the road to expanding imagination!

Remembering that the solutions to any group problem are within the group, start with a group of 3-7 people (sometimes all managers, sometimes no managers, sometimes a mix works best . . . you may need some trial and error efforts to decide; sometimes three different groups tackling the same topics will produce the best results; don’t be afraid to experiment).

Conduct a disciplined 5-minute time period session with the goal of posting as many ideas as possible (on newsprint pages or whiteboard) that address the subject you spotlight. Encourage absolutely stupid and bizarre ideas (because they will trigger better ones!).

NO criticism is allowed during these 5 minutes! NONE!

When that list is done, take 3 minutes to refine it. This is the time to be critical, eliminate the nonsense, consolidate and combine points that seem to fit together, and take a good hard look at what’s left. Odds are you’ll surprise yourself with what you’ve orchestrated.

Many companies hold sessions like this weekly, and in some cases, even daily. The result is that people’s brains get stimulated. Productivity and sales increase. Imagination fuels the fire that heats up the economy. Entrepreneurs are imagination junkies.

Imagination is what made America great to start with. Imagination will do it again. Will you be a catalyst or an observer?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US    or  931.854.0474

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Sales is a game of confidence,

skill, and will. The best sales

people I know have a huge ego. 

Those who are great, have

learned to control it.”

— DOYLE SLAYTON

            When you hear an industry leader speak, you listen because that person already got to where you want to go and there’s a chance you’ll learn something, right?

  SO PAY ATTENTION HERE . . .

“If you,” says Sales Industry Leader Doyle Slayton (originator of the headline for this post), “can control your ego, you are on your way to greatness in sales!”

Great! says you, so how do I do that?

     First, you accept the truth. You look in the mirror and acknowledge that your head is bigger than it looks! Next you take some deep breaths [Click “ARE YOU BREATHING? to check out your breathing. This 60-second 4-step technique has been called “the most important link in my life” by thousands of the world’s top salespeople!]

     Now, if you really did what the last paragraph suggested, and you actually “get it” and put it into daily practice, you probably don’t need to go any further because it can solve your big head problem all by itself! On the other hand, you might find that your big head is creating resistance. I mean we all like to grow, but who likes to shrink, right? So a couple more points may be in order . . .

     First and foremost, you may have heard others suggest politely to you what I am about to toss on your table: SHUT YOUR MOUTH! Not only do you not know it all, but, guess what? Your prospect doesn’t care. If you are not listening 80% of the time and talking 20%, you are not making the sales you deserve to make, and you’ll never be a sales professional.

     World renown sales guru Zig Ziglar www.ziglar.com tells us to “sell solutions” not products and services. How can you know what constitutes a “solution” to a prospect if you don’t shut up long enough to hear what the prospect thinks the problem is in the first place? Zig always said: “We’re not selling if we’re not talking (when we finally do talk after listening 80% of the time) with a major focus on value, advantages and benefits.”

     Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? All customers (including each of us) are tuned to the WIIFM radio station: What’s In It For Me?

     If you’re not spending your energy to uncover what the prospect wants (instead of trying to impress the individual or group with how great you are) and to help the prospect understand clearly what the value, advantages and benefits are (instead of what you think he or she or they should think), you’re wasting your time.

     Every time a customer or prospect tells you a story doesn’t mean she/he wants to hear another story that you are reminded of. It means that the individual has started to relate to you as a person enough to share some incident.

     Take it as a compliment, listen even more attentively, keep your mouth shut about your great related experience, and instead shift the focus back to values, advantages and benefits. Don’t fast-talk and don’t wing it. Keep the size of your head in mind. Keep your mind here and now. Breathe. Sell.

# # #

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”    [Thomas Jefferson]

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

No, you don’t need to move

  your business    

to the Caribbean!

(aaaah, but it might be nice to try for awhile, eh?)

Here’s a 6-Point Approach to creating a more positive climate for your business that comes partly from The Management Analysis Center and partly from my firsthand experience. it works:

1.  BUILD KNOWLEDGE. Know the capabilities of your staff as well as their weaknesses. With the understanding that Heraclitus the Greek philosopher said over 2500 years ago that “the only thing that’s permanent is change,” and that Thoreau once said “all we ever have is limited knowledge,” use what you know to determine (or update) the fundamental goals of your business.

GOAL CRITERIA REMINDER: A goal must have all four of the following criteria, or it is merely a “wishlist,” and not a goal. It must be 1) Realistic, 2) Specific, 3) Flexible, and 4) Have a deadline or due date.

2.  DEVELOP A SHARED VISION OF YOUR BUSINESS GOALS. Let employees participate in the process. Tell them the problems. Listen to their ideas. Take notes. Encourage others to take notes.

3.  DETERMINE WHAT SPECIFIC CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE. Should changes be made in job descriptions or physical layout to improve working conditions?

4.  SET THE EXAMPLE. As an owner/operator or manager, you are a role model whether you like it or not. People pay attention to everything you say and do. You will not be fostering teamwork if you rule by threats and intimidation. Praise in public; criticize in private. Act, talk, and think consistent with the goals you establish.

5.  REASSESS YOUR OWN FUNCTION to make it consistent with the changes you are making. If, for example, you want to establish better communications, you may need to establish a more open door policy, listen more, and listen more attentively! To get more good work from people, seek out and reward the things people do right, and try to overlook those they do wrong. (Remember that small, frequent, one-time-expense rewards motivate best and cost less than permanent ongoing pay raises with accompanying tax and benefit increases)

6.  DEVELOP NEW METHODS AND SYSTEMS for enhancing a more positive climate, such as instituting weekly status review meetings (with set time periods, a clear agenda circulated ahead of time and follow-up report focused only on decisions made and who will do what by when) to evaluate progress, or a reward system for improved performance.

In an optimum positive climate, people know exactly what it is that is expected of them and where they fit in. Everyone shares the same goals. They know how they can be effective and what kinds of behavior will be rewarded.    halalpiar

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RIP Paul Harvey,

1918-2009

The greatest radio commentator

in American history

You touched our hearts!

Thank you and bless your soul for your “Good Morning’s” and “Page 2’s” and “The rest of the story.”

And thank you especially for all the professionalism, daily inspiration and good humor that you brought to so many for so very many years.

You were truly a man among men, and will stand for all time as one of the world’s greatest salesmen. Your mastery of both news reporting and voice delivery will never be matched.

You have set the example and held it aloft for all public figures everywhere to follow, the torch of trust that is most dearly needed in today’s world.

With God’s blessings, may we all learn from the light you have cast, and pass it along to brighten the darkness of others. We will miss you, Paul 

 . . . Paul Harvey . . .

. . . Good Day!

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

RULE ONE: Be a detective!

Lots of clamor lately about MOTIVATING employees, associates, and salespeople. It’s really simple…if you work at it. Some things, it’s true, really don’tever change! Managerial motivation is one of them.

The definitive theory, first published in the early 1940’s by Abraham Maslow and still taught today in university management programs, remains “MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS.”

• Maslow’s theoryviews an individual’s motivation as a predetermined order of needs. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS are the most basic and imperitive until they’re met. It’s hard to need more than food, water, clothing, and shelter, for example, if survival is not assured.

• Once physiological needs are met, Maslow said SAFETY NEEDS would rise to the top. So, now that you have enough to eat and drink and can keep warm and dry, your mind moves to the need for protecting those fulfillment’s. This accounts for concerns like air bags, insurance coverage, fences, alarm systems, locks, escape ladders, and investments. 

• As safety needs are satisfied,Maslow said we move up a level to SOCIAL NEEDS. Seeking acceptance from others, giving and receiving friendship and affection are key desirables.

• With social needs met, we pursue ESTEEM NEEDS: recognition with items and actions that show appreciation and enhance reputation…things like trophies, plaques, certificates, prizes, awards, special dedications, news release mentions, etc.

• Maslow said at the top of all needs is the need for SELF-ACTUALIZATION: realizing one’s own potentialities for self-fulfillment, for continued self-development, for being a successful, creative, and balanced person who is self-satisfied and has reached a point of total accomplishment. 

As we move from one level up to the next (and Maslow said we can only occupy one level at a time in any given moment), we can easily tumble back down to lower levels in an instant.

A job loss, pay loss, family death, injury, flood, fire, or hurricane are just a few of the kinds of tragic and debilitating events that can trigger someone who may be at a self-esteem level on Monday, for example, happy with being honored at a special luncheon, to suddenly find him or herself all the way back down to a physiological need level by the end of the week, or even the next morning.     

Okay, so how does this work day-to-day in practice?

To motivate people in ways that are most appreciated and most productive requires the motivator to be tuned in and aware to what need level someone is at on any particular day and reward that individual at that level!

Recognition doesn’t mean squat to someone with a broken-down car or inability to pay for a child’s braces, or someone who lives where there are frequent break-ins and who needs an alarm system.

Cash doesn’t mean anything to someone who’s inherited a family fortune and is working to gain acceptance by others, or some form of recognition to brag about. You can only know a person’s need level when you can know what’s going on with that person’s life and what makes that person tick! 

You don’t have to cozy-up to every employee or spend more time than you choose with them.  You do need to pay close attention to the things they talk about and the ways they talk about them. It means…you need to be a detective!  Go motivate!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!

Well, just in case you ever had any doubts about that classic old four-word warning that’s probably been around since caveman days, I’m here to tell you it could just as easily have been uttered for the first time this morning!

93% of social network, texting and email communication

is ineffective because they spawn a mentality of hiding!

     In the same fashion that most overweight people get where they are by eating in order to avoid expressing their feelings (It’s hard to say how you really feel about something or somebody when there’s food going down your throat!), most inadequate communicators are ineffective at getting their messages across because hiding behind the magical, mystical Twitter avatars makes it convenient to never have to actually engage with someone else, or develop any degree of intimacy. 

     In fact, the in-and-out “hits” Twitterers make all day are actually designed to keep others at a controlled distance, and at best can only serve to create flighty friendships. 

Now don’t misunderstand this.  I use Twitter.  I think it’s GREAT!  It forces people to think and act in the present, “here and now” monent and that alone is monumentally healthy from an emotional standpoint.  So I’m all for it for that.  It also forces concise thinking, another outstanding benbefit. 

     But it is NOT a method of effective communication because it completely overrides and inherently disregards the ingredients of effective personal communication.  The point is: do not expect it to be something it’s not. 

     Social networks and texting and emails do not effective communication make! 

What’s underlying all this assessment?  Effective communication is only 7% verbal!  38% is transmitted by tone of voice and — are you ready for this?  55% (that’s 55%) of effective communication is conveyed by nonverbal body language. 

     HOW you sit, stand, walk, gesture, wink, blink, cross your arms and legs and ankles, the ways you grunt, wiggle, twist, lean, laugh, snarl . . . HOW you come across . . . is what counts to the receiver. 

     Now consider that if you are in sales, and you ARE in sales no matter what you do (unless you’re a recluse).  How much should you rely on communication TOOLS and how much do you need to communicate clearly one-on-one?  A rake and shovel do not = a garden.  To sell what’s important to you, you must accept responsibility for sounding and looking and acting responsible, and reassuring.

     You must also be an outstanding observer and listener in order to measure your impact and pace and ability to focus on benefits.  Read and learn all you can about body language and practice your tone of voice with tape recordings.  Use social network, texting and email tools, but don’t expect them to do your job for you.  If you use any tool the wrong way, you can hurt yourself.

     Stay tuned in.  Stay alert.  Listen hard.  Watch your prospect AND YOURSELF carefully.   halalpiar

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GO SIT IN YOUR

OWN WAITING ROOM!

     Every business has some kind of space designated as a waiting area for customers, clients, patients, associates, suppliers, sales reps, delivery people, visitors.  My best guess is that YOU (the owner/ operator/manager/professional practitioner . . . the boss!) haven’t sat in that space for more than a half an hour for a very long time, if ever!

     Yet, the waiting area is your most important first-impression, “silent salesman” customer service space you have, and odds are that it is undermining many of the positive values you are trying to convey and represent.  Even those spaces that are comfortably furnished and decorated can be screamingly UNcomfortable!

     Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because a waiting area space looks nice, that it is.  Be sure!  Go there in the middle of a typical workday, and sit there for 45 minutes.  Take some deep breaths.  Pretend you’ve never been there before.  Take a notebook and jot down what you see and hear and taste and touch and smell.  

•      Are coffee or other beverages available?  Are they fresh?  The right temperature?  Accompanied by the right supplies and maintained regularly?  Is there a wastebasket or garbage pail there?  Is it plastic bag-lined?  Is it overflowing?  Would you help yourself if you walked in for the first time?
•      Are there bugs, dirt or rust in the overhead light fixtures?  Are the bugs moving?  (HA! Just thought I’d see if you’re awake).  Are ceiling tiles cracked or water-marked?  Are there dead or dying or yellow-leafed plants evident?  Consider what these shortcomings communicate to outside visitors about your business!
•      Is there a TV there?  Does it work okay?  Is it tuned to a non-controversial, non-network, non-news station and maintained there (Weather, Science, History Channels, for example)?  Is the volume of the TV or music appropriate?  Is the floor or carpet stained?  Furniture? 

There are no second first impressions!

     I sat in a waiting room today that measured 16x16ft, with 8ft. high ceilings.  It had a doorway, two large windows, and a corner shelf unit that extended 5ft along each wall it hugged and rose from the floor to within two feet from the ceiling.  Not a lot of wall space, right?  Right.  But guess what? 

     What wall space that did exist –in between a coffee set-up and cabinet, a water cooler and five (5!) floor-stand candy dispensors– held– are you ready for this? — 19 posters and 35 (really!) plaques! 

     And most of that was hard to even notice because the TV was blasting away with warped nonstop network news.  And stupid me thought it would be an opportunity to steal a half hour of stressfree reading and writing time. 

     No, I won’t be headed back there anytime soon.  In fact for the same prices, the competitor down the road apiece offers a clean, quiet, comfortable lounge space for customers. 

     Why should I want to be sufficated by awards and candy machines, overhead lighting that blinked and a blaring TV spewing out continuous doom and gloom updates in between commercials for drugs to ask your doctor about that work wonders for you but have death as a possible side effect?  Duh. 

So, you know what?  You owe it to yourself and your business or professional practice to take a good hard look and listen to your waiting area, and give it a regular checkup.  Magazines do get torn and tattered, rugs do get spilled on , light bulbs do go bad, bugs do crawl around . . . and sales do get lost!          halalpiar  

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 160 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.