Selling your services

You’ve got something to offer to customers.  

You’ve purchased whatever you need to be ready  to meet orders when they come in.  But they don’t come in.  

What do you do next?
                                                               
You’ve got rent to pay, bills to meet, mouths to feed.   If you’ve got any get-up-and-go, I guess you’ll get out there and tell people directly about your product or service.

  That’s exactly   what “A Gypsie’s wife” thought, and she described the cold, wet, chilling experience it can be better than I ever could.  Please note her "good practice guide"!   

"So you knock on a door; stand well back, smile and with a ‘sorry to disturb you’ ask for the work. Don’t push: point out the job and ask if they’d like a quote.

If they say no; back off, politely.

If they display a notice telling you not to call; then don’t. "

Please note also that she knows the need to allow a "cooling-off" period for the customer that says yes right away.  

I was reminded of her blog recently after I’d got my own business online, tweeted and facebooked the news, and written to potential contacts.  For me, the next step may be sending a few more e-mails, writing some letters, making phone calls, but at some point, I’m going to have to go out there and meet people.  Not an easy thing to do!

As I’ve done electoral roll canvassing for the District Council, I know how many doors have “No hawkers” prominently displayed, and how careful you have to be not to make people feel threatened.  Also, they’re sure to unload onto you all their feelings about any bad experiences they’ve had in the past, so you need endless tact and a tough hide!

Looking at it from the other side, I hate people cold-calling me.  So what’s the answer?

All I can suggest is that we always try to remember that the other person, whichever side of the desk or door they may be, is only human like you, and good manners, even in saying “No” cost you nothing.  Or you could say, “Leave me some details, and let me think about it.”

       

The Chaplain

That's Adrian, the Chaplain, on the left in a dog collar.  He is Chaplain to Gypsies, Travellers and Showmen for the whole of the Diocese of Salisbury.  The picture shows him meeting with the group that supports him in this work.

Adrian's top concern at present is the education of Traveller children.  I've written before about how Traveller children underachieve in our school system as it is at present, but Adrian has identified a personalised teaching method that can be delivered either in school or by distance learning, and hopes to get it implemented locally.

Other concerns we discussed included the need for people travelling through our area in their seasonal nomadic journeys to have somewhere legal and safe to stop, where they will not be seen as a "problem" by anybody. The group is deeply unimpressed by the process currently going on to identify suitable sites, which is unlikely to conclude before the end of 2016 - and that's before anyone identifies funding or seeks planning permission!

I also want us to bear in mind the huge difficulties faced by Romani people in prison.  Not a great experience for anyone, I know, but to a Romani, being with his or her family is more than half of their personal identity, and they are lost without the culture they know - especially if they have lived nomadically - and especially if there are difficulties with communicating with family and/or with visiting. It is not possible to get figures from the Home Office for Gypsies in prison, because the Home Office stats don't have Romani as an ethnicity. So it is really important that we have a link with the prison service in some way, and can respond when there are difficulties.

The other problem that arises is that the Parole Board is very unwilling to allow people to be paroled to their family, and many Gypsy prisoners say they would rather serve their whole sentence than live in a parole hostel, which they perceive as being a hang-out for paedophiles and drug addicts. (Yes, that's how our culture looks to them!)

The good news we heard today is that Adrian has developed an excellent presentation for clergy in-service training or public talks.  We scanned a picture from "A Time to Travel?" which he plans to include in future.  It does a wonderful job of challenging the stereotype of the "New Age Traveller".  We see a young man with dreadlocks, wearing a jumper with the words "Special Brew", combat trousers and US Army surplus boots.  It is entitled "Is he a Traveller?" and is surrounded with words like Crusty, Drongo, Brew Crew, Dole Scrounger, New Ager, Hippy, and Cheesy Quaver.  Underneath, we read: "Actually it's Adam wearing a pullover his granny knitted him."