I’ve just witnessed a beige presentation…

Oh dear.

The speaker has just sat down and I am confused. I think it might have interesting for some of the audience, there’s a brief ripple of applause. There again I think they’re just being polite. I’m not really sure what he talked about. He’s overrun too, so there’s no time to ask a question. Everyone’s leaving.

He’s just underwhelmed me in a number of ways.

Firstly, he doesn’t seem terribly enthusiastic. Dale Carnegie once suggested that you should only speak about something for which you have a passion. This chap’s voice is flat and monotonous. He looks miserable too!

Secondly, he’s not really shared anything that was of use to me. No insight, no advice, no warning, no apocryphal tale, no heart-warming story, no tip, no offer… nothing. Just fact after fact after fact about his business – whatever it was.

Finally, he just finished rather abruptly.  He didn’t conclude his talk well – had he done so I might have had a fighting chance of letting you know what I’ve just been listening to.

That was a really “beige” presentation. I prefer mine kaleidoscopic!

• Only speak about something for which you have a passion
• Smiling helps convey enthusiasm (not a fixed grin though!)
• Work at getting some variety in your voice
• Share something of use with your audience (you may need to do some research to work out what that might be)
• Conclude your talk by summarising your key points, and
• Please finish on time.

Presenting is Distraction Management

Enthralled

I once ran a presentation skills course for The National Trust  on which one of my delegates was a forestry warden. In the final presentation he delivered he described forestry as being about “light management.” That phrase made me think about presenting in a different way. When you stand up to present – what is it that you have to manage?

Distraction. Presenting is about “distraction management.”

There are a myriad of ways in which your audience can be distracted.  Your role as a presenter or speaker is to limit the potential for these distractions to steal your audience’s attention away from you. Some distractions may be outside a speaker’s control but many are, unwittingly, caused by the speaker. Here then are the main distractions of which speakers and presenters fall foul.

1. Not being introduced or not introducing yourself properly. When people in an audience sit down they have many unanswered questions flying around their brain – one of which is, “Who is this?” and ” Why are they qualified to speak to me?” It’s an excellent idea to tell the audience your name (don’t just rely on PowerPoint or the printed programme) – most people don’t bother reading it. Qualify your experience in a short sentence or two. Don’t brag (I once saw a presenter who used PowerPoint to animate his qualifications – one at a time – -after his name. This didn’t endear him to the audience. So, something along the lines of, “Well hello, Ladies & Gentlemen. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today. My name is Roger Faraday and I have been practising employment law for the last 30 years…” If someone else is to introduce you – supply them with a script! (Otherwise they might say something that undermines you or what you have to say.) NEVER apologise for being the speaker: “I’m really not used to speaking in public…” or “Our Managing Director has been called away on urgent business, so I’m afraid you’ve got me….”  are not phrases that an audience warms to and are ultimate distractions!

2. The audience not understanding “what’s in it for them”. If someone in the audience doesn’t think the presentation you are about to give offers them something worth staying awake for, they’ll go to sleep. Not necessarily with their eyes shut but, they’ll be away with the fairies, day-dreaming about something more important. Early on in your presentation you need to motivate your audience to stay alert. Tell them what they’ll get out of your presentation. “So, by the time I’ve finished you’ll be able to….”

3. Not telling the audience for how long you’ll be speaking. People get twitchy if they don’t know when they can next go to the loo, have a fag, drink a coffee, hear the next speaker. etc. So, tell them for how long you’ll be speaking. Be specific. Nobody wants to hear, “so, in the next hour or so I’ll be covering…” or even, “Hopefully my presentation will last between fifteen and twenty minutes.” Hopefully is not a good word to use in your introduction! Having said how long you’ll be speaking for make sure you finish when you said you would (see number 8*.)

4. Typos in PowerPoint. Some people will be incensed by spelling mistakes and other errors on your slides. For them this is a huge distraction and the only thing they’ll remember.

Flying low - distracting

5. Wardrobe malfunctions. If your flies are undone, or if your skirt is tucked ion your knickers, it’s very doubtful that many of your audience will hear much of what you say. Other wardrobe distractions include: dirty shoes; holes in the soles of your shoes;bulges in pockets; creased trousers/jackets; clashing colours; flamboyant ties; trailing threads; ties tied to the wrong length (click here to find out the right length); frayed cuffs; dangly, jangly jewellery. In a similar vein there’s unkempt hair (especially if there’s a bit sticking up) which can keep an audience fascinated for the duration of your talk.

6. The Gestalt Effect.  This is all about the little things that can visually annoy the hell out of people: crooked pictures on the wall; torn curtains on a stage; your slide show not being square (or worse still – spilling over the screen.) Before you start have a good look around and have a tidy up!

7. Other PowerPoint faux pas  We’ve looked at typos but there are a host of other ways in which PowerPoint can distract your audience:

• too many words (20 a slide should do it)
• slide numbers (it’s not good for an audience to read  ”Slide 4 of 89″ fifteen minutes into your twenty-minute presentation
• being read to (audiences hate this and will hate you to if you turn your back to them and read what they can read for themselves
• the phrase “as you can see” when they clearly can’t
• the phrase “don’t bother reading that” – they’ll wonder why you couldn’t be bothered to edit it
• animations for animation’s sake (especially when accompanied by the sound effects of type-writers or screeching tires.)

8. *Overrunning This drives an audience around the bend. Unless you’re Lee Evans, Ken Dodd or Billy Connelly, and the room is full of your adoring fans, they’d rather you finished on time. Honestly. Finish early and they’ll love you!

9. Fiddling It’s not a good idea to play with your jewellery; jangle the keys or coins in your pocket; keep pushing your sleeves up; twiddling your hair; scratching etc. You get the picture

So, before you take to the stage, or the front of a boardroom, or even making a video for YouTube think about how you’re going to keep your audience’s attention and do all that you can to minimise any distractions.

In the meantime please share any stories about the ways in which speakers have distracted you? I’d love to hear about them!

Remember, remember…techniques for remembering your presentation

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

In my last blog post I looked at some techniques to help you out should you lose your place or simply “go blank” when giving a presentation. In this blog post I’ll be sharing a technique that I use to help me remember a list of up to ten things very quickly. The technique I want to show you is called “pegging.” The more you use the technique the better you get. I use it regularly to remember the headlines of my talk or the order of jokes for my stand-up routine.

The idea is that (in your mind’s eye) you “peg” what it is you are trying to remember to a number. There are three stages to this:

Stage 1

The Rhyming Pegging System

Substitute numbers with something visual. I use a rhyming system whereby each number from 1 – 10 is replaced with something that rhymes with it. Hence:

1 = Run
2 = Zoo
3 = Tree
4 = Door
5 = Hive
6 = Sticks
7 = Devon
8 = Gate
9 = Wine
10 = Hen

Most people can master Stage one in a matter of seconds.

Stage 2

Decide on the ten things you need to remember, (this could be headings for your presentation.) List them alongside the numbers. Here I’m going to use a list of random words:

1 = Marketing
2 = Car Wash
3 = Bathrobe
4 = Money
5 = Map
6 = Fountain
7 = Lifeguard
8 = Banana
9 = Valentine’s Day
10 = Treacle

Stage 3

“Peg” or link your word to the number substitute by visualisation.*

1. So, you need to link your word Marketing to the word Run. Picture yourself running along through a busy market handing out Marketing leaflets. You’re wearing a running vest that says “Marketing” on the front. There you get the picture (forgive the pun.) Now when you think “One” the word Marketing should pop into your brain.

Continuing with the list

2. Picture elephants at a Zoo - washing cars with their trunks.

3. Visualise a Bathrobe hanging high in a tree.

4. In your mind’s eye open a door and imagine the joy of finding a large sum of money behind it.

5. Imagine a group of bees studying a map – they’ve lost the way to their hive.

6. See a fountain with huge jets of water shooting up into the sky. You notice a bundle of sticks being held up in the air by the force of the water.

7. Picture laying on a sandy a beach in Devon. A lifeguard meets your eye!

8. There’s an ornate wrought iron gate with a banana impaled on each of its spikes

9. Visualise a wine bottle – on it’s label there’s a huge heart symbolising Valentine’s Day. See yourself enjoying a glass of the wine with your Valentine.

10. Picture a hen having difficulty walking. She’s stuck in a river of treacle.

…then
Simply recall the number rhymes and you’ll recall the pegged “answers”

*Tony Buzan the master of memory suggests that you do more than visualise – that you employ as many senses as possible when linking the number rhyme to your object. So. Hear the hen clucking furiously as she struggles to get out of the treacle.

Seems mad! But it’s almost impossible to forget your list once you’ve learned it. I find it tremendously useful when delivering a presentation. I hope you do too.

For Fear of Forgetting… what can you do if you forget your presentation?

Comedians write on their hands…

When you stand up to speak at a seminar, conference or even at a team meeting, do you ever worry that you’re going to forget what to say? That’s not surprising – it’s a key concern that most people have and often cited as a common side effect of nerves.

Unfortunately, the way in which most people find their way around this problem, ends up working against them… PowerPoint. Yes, most people type out their script, using PowerPoint as an auto-cue, and then proceed to read it to their audience.  Let me tell you… audiences hate being read to. You should avoid this approach.

So, the problem remains – how do you ensure you won’t forget the content of your talk? Over the next couple of blog posts I’ll be sharing with you some of the strategies that great speakers use in order to solve this little conundrum.

The obvious answer is to learn your material. Rehearse it over and over again.  Not just in your head, but, out loud. We learn things “parrot fashion” and the act of constant repetition definitely helps.

But even then, nerves alone can make you “go blank.”  It can happen to anyone. You just need to find a way out of the problem should that happen!

Frank Dick OBE

I once had the privilege of working with Frank Dick OBE – the former British Athletics Federation’s Director of Coaching. Frank is much in demand and is a brilliant motivational speaker. Travelling with him between venues I said, “Goodness, you have a fantastic memory. You never forget your material.” He replied, “I often forget my material! When I do, I make out that I’ve just thought of something funny – I stop and I tell a little joke (I have loads I keep up my sleeve) and as I’m telling it I wander back to my notes. As the audience laugh at the punch line I sneak a peek at my notes and… I’m off again.”

So, have your notes to hand. Notes you can call on should you lose your place, or forget your lines. Best not to have these written on your hand (a trick adopted by many a stand-up comedian) as they are evident to the audience and don’t look terribly professional.

If you are speaking from a lectern you can have an A4 pad before you, but personally  I like to use index cards. Viewed side on they are quite unobtrusive and they fit nicely inside a pocket.  The secret though, whatever you choose, is to write just key words as notes. Use only a few key words to keep you on track.  If you write out your script in full the temptation will be to read it. To connect with your audience you need to maintain eye-contact– reading does not help! If you do “go blank” you need to find your place quickly. You do not want to read through an essay in order to get back on track. Keep your notes short.

Index Cards best for notes

I keep my notes in my inside jacket pocket. If I lose my place I’ll sometimes admit it (we are all human – it’s going to happen every now and then.)  I’ll say, “Ladies and Gentlemen… do you ever get half way through a sentence and completely forget what you’re going to say next? Well it’s just happened to me now! I haven’t a clue what comes next… just bear with me…” I calmly take out my notes slowly look through them till I’ve found my place say, “Ah, yes of course…” and simply continue. Most people don’t even register what happened.

In my next blog post I’ll be sharing with you a memory technique that I use for learning things quickly. I serves me really well, not only when I’m out and about delivering keynote talks but also if I find myself without paper and pen but I need to remember what I’ve just heard or even thought.

In the meantime If you have some tips or tricks for keeping your presentation on track please share them here – I’d love to hear them.

Are Rain Makers born or are they made?

Rain Making?

There are many clichés and adages in sales training; “People buy from people they know, like and trust” is one of my favourites – because it’s so true.  The key job for all of us who have a product or service to sell is to become known, liked and trusted in our market place.

There are many ways in which you can do this, including:

• writing blogs and articles
• giving presentations
• staying in touch with clients after the job is done
• developing questioning and listening skills
• becoming astute at spotting opportunities
• and networking.

Ford Harding, the man who coined the phrase “Rain Making” to describe the processes needed to generate good quality leads, recommends all of the above. A “rain maker” brings in more business to her firm than she can service herself. Any business would love to have more Rain Makers in its employ.

Harding makes the point in the introduction to his book “Rain Making” that “whilst many firms offer in-house training on technical issues… marketing & sales training is…” and I quote, “…spotty.”

Working the Room?

When we go networking we see that not everyone is good at it.  Many actually undermine their likeability, trustworthiness to a point where people just don’t want to know them! It’s often because they put too much pressure on themselves to sell. They don’t. They get frustrated. They give up.

At New Tricks we train people to network properly… we help to create Rain Makers.

Our top tips for Networkers include:

• Rather than focussing on generating business, first focus on becoming known, liked and trusted.  It’s unlikely business will flow until those qualities are established.
• Develop a succinct “elevator pitch” that describes how you help your clients– rather than just listing what you and your firm do!
• Get there early – it’s much easier to introduce yourself to new arrivals.
• Smile, say “hello” and ask lots of questions
• Target yourself to meet at least five new people and to find out what they do. Look for a co-incidence
• Make an effort to remember and use people’s names in conversation – it impresses and really help establish rapport
• Follow-up with people you’ve met – a “follow-up cup of coffee” is a more realistically achievable outcome than a bit of business.

For other blog posts on Networking see How to remember People’s Names and Are you Networking or Just Connecting

I recommend the latest edition of Ford Harding’s book Rainmaking: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field – here’s what others thought.

Please buy it from your local Independent Bookshop though. Mine’s Jaffé & Neale

I say, I say I say… What did the presenter learn from the comedian?

In the past year I have, with a good friend of mine, Dave Arnold, set up the very successful Cotswold Comedy Club. We’ve run 8 gigs and seen twenty five excellent comedians. As a presentation skills trainer I watch them intently and I always learn from them. Here then are the Ten Top Tips that presenters can learn from stand-up comedians!

Your audience

1)   The “performance” begins from the second an audience claps eyes on you! Comedians work on their approach to the microphone and ooze confidence. They eyeball the audience, smile (unless it’s Jack Dee of course) and start with a welcoming “Hello” “Hiya” or “Good evening.” They then… wait for it… wait for the audience to say “Hello” back! Presenters should do the same.

Ed Aczel

2)   Comedians don’t bother with PowerPoint. Neither should you (unless you really can’t explain something without it!) Ed Aczel uses a flip-chart, badly (intentionally) for comedic effect. Most presenters use PowerPoint as an autocue – comedians don’t.  Some write on the back of their hand (that doesn’t look too professional) but most just learn their material and rehearse lots. Presenters take heed.

Yianni

3)   The very best comedians engage with their audience. They ask questions, they allow the audience to interact. The audience has a say in where the act goes. Yianni Agisilou banters with his audience but maintains control of the flow and direction of his act. Presenters should engage their audience too.

Gary Delaney

5)   The best comedians pare down the words in their act to an absolute minimum. Gary Delaney has mastered the one-line gag format in a really economical way – there’s no “fat” in his act. A presenter should work at simplifying their message and cutting out anything extraneous. Gary is also adept at tip number six:

6)   Read the feedback from your audience; adapt and change your material accordingly.

Jonny Aswum

7)   The comedians that go down well with our audiences are those who are, smiley, enthusiastic and seem genuinely pleased to be there. Jonny Awsum is a tremendous example. Presenters should be enthusiastic – if not passionate about what they are presenting.

8)   Comedy is a serious business and those who are serious about getting on perform as many gigs as they can and learn from every one. If a comedian is any good it’s because they’ve had hours in front of an audience. It’s the same for presenting.

Milo McCabe

Chris McCauseland

9)   Two of my favourite comedians Milo McCabe and Chris McCausland are masters of the… “pause.” Pausing allows the audience to catch up, reflect on what’s just been said and gives you thinking time too.

10) Great comedians rarely outstay their welcome and often leave the audience wanting more. If things aren’t going well – they get off quick! Presenters should do the same.

The A-F of Time Management

We recently spoke at a meeting of the Association of Accounting Technicians on the subject of time management.  We’ve run many training sessions over the years on this subject but this talk was based upon the system that we use ourselves generated by our own experience and with elements of systems proposed by others, in particular ‘Getting Things Done’ by productivity consultant David Allen.  Business is not getting any easier and so, it is now more vital than ever to squeeze the most out of every minute and to do that you do need to have a system in place. Ours is as easy as ABC… DE and F and this is a synopsis of the presentation.

A is for A system. Find a system that works for you and stick with it. Much has been written on the subject. There are some great thoughts within Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, John Adair’s “Effective Time Management”, Brian Tracey’s “Eat that Frog” and of course “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway” by Susan Jeffers. You’ll find on the internet a proliferation of blogs and websites on the subject. We particularly like the collective knowledge and thoughts within Dave Allen’s “Getting Things Done” primarily because we are so familiar with one of the key tools within the system. Back in our days working in a bank every branch ran like clockwork by virtue of 43 Folders.  In the Sub-Manager’s filing cabinet was a diary system consisting of these 43 folders. There is a folder for each one of the 31 days in a month and another for each of the 12 months adding up to 43 folders in total. When deferring your stuff you literally put it into one of the folders! Then on the relevant day (or better still the day before) you get out your stuff and Do it on the due date! Brilliant.

Dave Allen’s prescribed flow-chart for dealing with your stuff is really easy to follow and you’ll find it in his book.

B stands for bucket, because one of the most important elements of effective time management is that you work on one thing at a time and do not have a desk littered with items that you flit between.  To achieve this, everything needs neatly storing and prioritising in buckets – well if not actual buckets, files & folders, both real & virtual. The first and most important ‘bucket’ is your in-tray.  This is the starting point for all the ‘stuff’ that you have to deal with. Once your life is under control it will only contain items that have arrived that day but to start with it could be a towering heap that needs tackling using The System.  You may actually have two in-trays; one on your desk and a virtual one on your PC but the way that you move stuff along remains the same. Some people print out their e-mails and place them in the live system.

Let’s look at the first three buckets which are for stuff you are not going to action:

The Waste Bin – Seriously, if you are never going to action or refer back to an item, bin it.

The Tickler File – This is for things that you might do one day. Put them all in one place off your desk and clear it out regularly.

The Reference File – This is the place for information items which require no action but which you wish to keep for future reference. File them in a logical way so that you can retrieve them when you want them.

The 43 Folders system requires one drawer in a filing cabinet and more of that later.

There – the desk looks better already!

C is for Consciousness! Be conscious of time passing. Make sure you can see a clock! Better still use a timer to set yourself deadlines! Put yourself under pressure to get things done quickly. So, be conscious of the passage of time and how quickly it takes you to do things. Log how long it actually takes you to do things and cross reference with your plan. This will make you better at judging how long tasks take.
C is also for Chunking… i.e. break down big tasks into bite-sized chunks… “By the yard its hard, by the inch it’s a synch!” Within Dave Allen’s system this is about deciding if a particular task is actually a project – which needs planning. Once planned and “chunked” into smaller tasks – then these are put back in the system for processing and actioning.

D is Do, Delegate or Defer. Now, looking at what is left in our in-tray we need to make some more decisions.

If we can deal with something in 2 minutes or less, just do it. Simple

If there is a task which we should delegate, then delegate it using all the rules of good delegation, in particular remember that we delegate the work and not the responsibility.

There will almost certainly be some items that need to be done but not today. In order to get these off the desk you need a good diary system – the 43 folders. If today is 1 December and I have something that I need to action on 10 December it goes in the “10″ folder.  If I decide to defer it until January, it goes in the January folder.  At the end of December I simply empty the “January Folder” and move the items into the folder appropriate for the day it needs to be done.

We are now left with the items to be tackled today and these can be prioritised and worked through efficiently because all the clutter has been removed.

E is for Eliminate or, as we prefer: EXTERMINATE! Get rid of tasks that you do but don’t need to do. They might be fun but unless they are helping you achieve your Aims & Objectives then they are just wasting your time. Tidy up! Throw out all paper you haven’t touched recently! File your heaps into their appropriate buckets and remember to recycle where possible. It’s a great feeling getting rid of paper! And don’t forget to use the trash-can that comes with your e-mail programme. Set yourself a target of dumping 10% of unwanted e-mails every day!

F is for Frog. Yes frog. With thanks to another great book, this one by Brian Tracey called “Eat That Frog!” The point is here that in everyone’s life there are things that they just don’t like doing. For most of us that will include eating Frogs! In work terms it means that task which keeps getting put off because you don’t want to do it. For many people that could be planning and preparing for a presentation that they don’t want to give. Because it gets put off, it is often rushed and, as a result, is not a triumph so the whole thing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You may not want to do it but if the frog has to be eaten, do it, get it out of the way and you will feel so relieved to have it behind you. If you have two frogs on your desk, eat the ugly one first!

So, there you have it – our A-F observations on time management – just scratching the surface of a huge subject. If we could add another letter it would be O as in “Oh for Objectives” making sure your objectives are absolutely clear will enable you to assess the relevance of much of the “Stuff” you start off thinking you have to do!

If you’d like to see what we have to say about “Tie Management” then that’s another blog!

Happy Christmas 2011!

Hello – we’ve handcrafted our own e-card this year! TURN UP THE SOUND – CLICK and ENJOY!

We’ve used Apple’s Keynote (their much more versatile version of PowerPoint) which is our favoured presentation aid for creating the visual aids that accompany our talks!

To Prezi or not to Prezi

The Presenter as Projectionist?

As Presentation Skills trainers we do bang on about the appalling use of the ubiquitous projector to blast screens full of words at long-suffering audiences. Using PowerPoint or Keynote is certainly slicker than the dear old overhead or indeed 35mm slide projectors but the ‘wow factor’ has long since vanished to be replaced by a weary, ‘Oh no! Here we go again’. In an attempt to the up the excitement, the animation and transition options have become ever more dramatic and ‘whizzy’. In practice the effect is even more wearying as the audience are now expected to marvel at the creativity of whoever put the show together. The presenter has become a projectionist.

Whilst it would be great to step back to first principles, and propose that Visual Aids MUST ONLY be used to help the audience to understand, to remember or to pay attention, so few presenters these days seem to have the time (or the inclination) to work from (to my mind much more professional) cue cards. We are probably stuck with the Visual Aid – not as an aid to the audience – but more as an auto-cue for the speaker.

So how can you (for a while) stand out from the crowd. Well there is a product called Prezi that you can find at www.prezi.com. This works on the premise that you start with a work area of infinite capacity and simply drop or import words, pictures, movies etc. onto the work area. Once they are in place, they can be rotated, moved and their size can be altered. They can also be grouped by placing them in frames. Once all the elements are positioned, you connect them by a path through the presentation. The presenter then simply moves through the presentation in the normal way. Interestingly, however big or however minute the text or images appear on the home screen, which shows the whole presentation, when projected they, or the frame they are in, will fill the screen.
There is a free version which allows you to create your presentation online and then either present from the web or download and present from the laptop. If you use the free version your work is available to be viewed by anyone and you cannot edit offline. The paid version allows you to create and edit on your PC.

The advantages of Prezi are that it is quick and easy to use  and you can be reasonably creative without being naff. Since it is not being used by many, it is still quite quirky and has some novelty factor. It’s brilliant for showing how elements fit into a bigger picture. The downsides?  The choice of fonts is limited  and that the programme does swoop from one element to the next. If you elect to set up the main screen with the elements rotated to fancy angles, the combination of spinning them back to horizontal and swooping combined, with a rapid transition, can engender nausea in the audience! Still, at least they’ll be awake while they’re vomiting!

There are some excellent ‘Prezis’ that you can view on their website and it is well worth playing with the free version to see if it suits the type of presentation that you deliver before electing to pay the modest user fee.

You could of course use a flip chart!

Great Service from GO Outdoors

What a joy to find a retailer that really gets customer service right!  As you may have gathered from our previous posts on the subject (How far do you spread the word… and Seven Ways to Lose your Customers Parts 1 & 2) we are passionate about customer service.

My trusty walking shoes finally gave up the ghost and so I took myself off to Go Outdoors in Oxford to buy a replacement pair.   Go Outdoors offer a huge range which is brilliant but choice can be overwhelming. Luckily their brilliant staff is there to help.  After the warm welcome I received on entering the store I took myself off to the footwear department. Once there a very knowledgeable sales assistant asked questions to establish my needs and price range and narrowed the choice down to three shoes. He explained the features and, more importantly, the benefits of each and helped me to decide on the shoe that met my needs. He was able to recommend from his own personal experience – which, to my mind, is always reassuring.  With the shoes selected it was off to the till where one of his colleagues was just as helpful and friendly.

As a trainer in sales & service this was all music to my ears. It’s a pleasure being “sold to”, when you are “sold to” well. So, I was happy to tweet about the service using our #bestservice hashtag and just as happy to pen this blog.

I enjoyed the whole transaction so much that I actually found myself standing in the car park wondering what else I could go in to buy!  I resisted the temptation on this occasion but, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’ll be back!

So, people, who presses your “happy button” when it comes to #bestservice or, conversely, who gives the opposite #surlyservice?? Leave me your comments – I’d love to hear them