By Margaret DeGange
"Let there be work, bread, water, and salt for all." -Nelson Mandela
Well, this week's message will be short and sweet—umm, I mean short and SALTY!
I want to give you a very meaningful and gratifying charge this week, and that is to be SALTY. I am giving this charge to myself as well, especially since this was a very trying day, which followed a very trying weekend. I had opportunity today to live the words below, and to also reflect on where I fell short. Still, I know to beep on going, and to keep on purposing to be SALTY!
To be salty means to have flavor—flavor that makes people want more of you and more of what you are offering. In this day and time, I think it is especially important that you be the type of person and business professional that can create a thirst in your potential clientele, and leave them wanting more of you, and more of what you represent.
So be salty by just being salt! Being salt is a high honor. By being salt, you add goodness to others, and you help them to better enjoy the normal "food" of life. By being salt, you actually become a person who adds to the experiences of others. How can you be salt? You are salt when you are kind, patient, fair, sweet, considerate, helpful, caring, fun, innovative, and good-natured.
On every turn, and with every opportunity you have, be salt out there with your customers and prospects. Being salt will make you feel good, and you'll love the way it makes you see and embrace life, and the "salty you" will even benefit by gaining new, desirable customers. One of the many by-products of being salty is that you will get some wonderful referrals, AND, you will even get the kind of referrals you really want and prefer, because the people you "shake your saltiness" on will refer you to other people who appreciate goodness, love (yikes, there she goes again), kindness and relating. People who respond to salt know others who respond to salt and who appreciate the goodness that salt brings. This means you'll get less and less of the bitter, cranky, contentious types of customers and more and more of the types of clients who are excited that you are "salty"—ecstatic that you are a professional person who cares about connection, and one that reaches out to others. Salt your circle of influence every chance you get.
Furthermore, you can sprinkle a little salt community wide. Salt your city or town and make people hungry for more of your services by doing events, trunk shows, and seminars, and by sending off heartfelt newsletters. Perhaps you could do something special for charity—even just something simple or small. Let your salt be mixed into your entire business philosophy.
Be out there "salting" all along the way, talking with people and keeping it real, and sure, you can go ahead and share with others what you do and why you are so passionate about doing it and doing it well. Trigger the appetite of others for more of that wonderful flavoring, for more of your creative talents, for more of your skills, knowledge, and expertise, for more of your winning ideas and service, for more of your personality, and for more of everything you stand for in your business.
This mentality should also spill over into your personal life. Be salt for your spouse, your children, your pets, your friends, and your significant others. Sprinkle your "salt" by being thoughtful, gentle, generous, patient, and generally loving. People today are hungry for this salt, and they will readily respond to, and connect and do business with, those who offer this very pleasant seasoning. Let that salt be YOU!
Have a Wildly Salty Week,
Margarett (Margo) DeGange, M.Ed. is a Business and Design Coach in the Home Fashions Industry. She creates and delivers custom training programs for managed businesses and their sales consultants to help them communicate better with customers and increase sales and profits. Margarett is a Writer and Professional Speaker, and the President of The DeGangi Group and The DeGangi School of Interior Decoration, with both on sight and on-line courses in Interior Decorating, Marketing, and Redesign. For almost 20 years she has helped individuals and managed business owners in the interior fashions and decorating industries to earn more while fully enjoying the process.
Two of Margo’s popular products for furniture store owners and their sales professionals are The Decorating School Crash Course Power-Ed Pack (9 design lessons on video/audio with 12 hours of content), and the matching Decorating School Crash Course Learner Files to measure learning, provide added interactivity, and motivate sales consultants to own their opportunities for growth.
Visit Margo DeGange’s website at www.DecoratingForProfits.com for more information. Send email and questions to her at Margarett@furninfo.com.