National Speakers Association – Certificate of Completion 2014 Speakers Academy

For the last year I have been attending the Speakers Academy of the National Speakers Association.  This has been a wonderful experience to sit among so many mentors in the public speaking arena and to learn everything that I can to grow my speaking business.  The wealth of knowledge that the North Texas Chapter has is phenomenal.

It’s really exciting when folks willingly give of their time and expertise to coach and train the pups in the industry.

Thank you to our Co-Deans,  Stu Schlackman and Dave Hill for your dedication to making this a wonderful experience for all of us.  Finally a special thank you to my mentor, Julie Alexander, for your coaching throughout the year.

Kudos to all of my fellow grads and best of wishes to all.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2014

Sales: Face-to-face interaction

“Rapport is not developed over the telephone.  Face-to-face interaction develops long-term business relationships.” Byrd Baggett.

In sales, building and developing long-term relationships are critical to growing your business.  Consequently this statement about face-to-face interaction by Baggett back in 1997 is still so very relevant today to your success not only in sales but also in life.

With everyone using electronic devices to communicate these days, our society is becoming a group of people who do not know how to carry on an intelligent conversation with another person.

In an article by Virginia Acacio, “The Benefits of Face-to-Face Communications” she talks about the fact that when we communicate directly with one another, issues get handled and decisions made much faster than trying to exchange a multitude of emails or texts.  There are some things that simply can’t be relayed accurately, accomplished over the telephone or through an email or text.

Further, Acacio, discusses the merits of being able to determine the non-verbal communication that goes on when you are face-to-face.  Obviously you can’t discern much of anything unless you get in front of a client or prospect.  “It’s said that over 90% of how we communicate is through nonverbal cues like gestures and facial expressions.”

Recently a friend of mine was talking about her pre-teen son who had a friend over to their home for a visit.  They were both sitting on the sofa texting to each other!  I was absolutely amazed at this behavior.

What can we do to turn this around?

We have a responsibility to teach our young people to put down their electronic devices and engage one-on-one with one another.  We must teach them that being face-to-face, carrying on a conversation is still the most effective way to build and develop strong relationships.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2014

Excerpts taken from: “The Pocket Power Book of Performance” by Byrd Baggett ; Article by Virginia Acacio, “The Benefits of Face-to-Face Communication” (http://bluejeans.com/blog/benefits-face-to-face-meetings)

Sales: How consistent are you?

Peggy’s Pointer on Business:  Definition of Consistency is “the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time.”

Think about professional athletes – most of them are not superstars like Michael Jordan but they achieve their professional status by performing at a high level of consistently over and over.

What successes have you had over the past years?  Figure out by looking at your last year to see where you have been the most consistent and how that has worked for you.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2014