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Who is Your Best Promoter?

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Author: Gilbert Griffiths

To get anywhere in life, you must keep your name in everyone's mind. In this way, when they are considering anyone for promotions or to take on prestigious tasks, they will think of you. You must be your own advertising agency.

Unless you pay someone to do it, no one will promote your good points, your strengths, your abilities, your education, your values or anything about you. If no one promotes you, you don't stand out from the crowd. If you don't stand out from the crowd, you could miss out on a lot of things that you deserve to have.

When I was a junior member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1962, an old sergeant came to our detachment office. (A detachment is a rural geographic area of the country policed by a group of officers stationed at a police office - similar is structure to a district for a city police force, except that a detachment often covers several hundred square miles).

While the two of us were having a coffee, he asked me what my aspirations were for my career in the RCMP. I told him that I wanted to work toward becoming a Staff/Sergeant-Major, which at that time was one of the most senior Non-Commissioned Officers positions in the Force. In a business, this would be equal to the top of middle management personnel in a large corporation. Unfortunately, they discontinued this position before I got to that point in my career.

He said, "To get anywhere in life you must keep your name in everyone's mind. In this way, when they are considering anyone for promotions or to take on prestigious tasks, they will think of you."

I asked how you did this and he replied, "You must be your own advertising agency."

He went on to explain that in any large organization where you are not on a first name basis with everyone else that you must find a way to let everyone know everything you do - good things you do on the job, the courses you take on your own time, the community activities you're involved in, the clubs you belong to and the hobbies you have. He further advised that you should help your fellow workers whenever you finish your own tasks. Not only will you earn their thanks but you will also learn their jobs making you more valuable to your organization. Try to get the task of completing scheduled reports that must be sent to the head office. Not only will your name appear on the report, but it will keep you informed about everything being done in your office or department.

An excellent way to get everything about you known by senior personnel is to regularly write memos to file. For example:

Memo to file:

Sir:

As per your instructions, I'd like to inform you that I recently completed a course in...

I improved my sales in the men's department by observing my customer's taste in sports jackets and when they tried one on I brought a couple more in different colours for them to try on. I also brought complementary shirts and ties for them to look at. As a result my sales are up 300% over last year...

If you help someone outside of work and they would like to do something in return, get them to write a letter of thanks. Attach this letter to one of your memos.

Now, you and I know that no one instructed you to write these memos, but in a large organization it's very difficult to know who got what. Usually each person has either an assigned mail slot or someone delivers personally addressed correspondence directly to your desk. It is therefore quite possible for you to receive instructions from some executive member without your supervisor, or even his supervisor knowing anything about it. It's surprising how far up the management chain these memos will go. Since you made the first sentence of your memo "As per your instructions" your supervisor will not be sure whose instructions you are following so the memo will be forwarded without question. This snowballs up the line. So, if you do these memos on a monthly basis, your name is always on management's mind.

Another way to keep your name on everyone's mind is to apply for every job opening in your organization. Be careful with this one though. Sooner or later someone is going to challenge your qualifications for the position. If you do have the qualifications or you can learn them in a short period of time, you'll be ok. Otherwise you could be looking for a new job.

If you are the owner of a business, there are several ways you can get free advertising for your business. If you hold only one or two sales a year, you can send news releases to the various news media in your area announcing your sales. This works especially well if you take a worthwhile product from inventory and raffle it off during the sale with the raffle proceeds going to a favourite charity.

Another way to get free publicity is to join the Chamber of Commerce and get elected to the executive of the local chapter. You will get a lot of media exposure as a Chamber executive member so people will get to know you.

If you treat your customers well and give them a little extra, not only will you get them as repeat customers, but they will tell their friends and relatives about your business and that will generate more customers. When I get good deals and good service from a business I tell everyone I know about that business. Word of mouth advertising is the best type of advertising you can get.

Treat your staff well. Suggest to them that, if they can generate more sales by their service and attitudes, you will share the extra profits with them. Employees who have a stake in a business are more loyal and better at sales than employees who only work on a salary. Sales staff that work on commission cost you less when times are slow, but they tend to be pushy with your customers and when times are slow you want your customers to come back. Sears has very few salaried sales staff; almost all of them now work on commission. Since they went this way, I seldom shop there any more. I find that they are so busy trying to sell you something that they don't listen to what you are trying to tell them. I feel that commissioned sales staff is not the way to go because it produces a false sense of economy. They may cost you less in relation to your sales, but the could cut down on the amount of sales you get by driving away the customers with their aggressive techniques. Have you ever shopped at a Best Buy electronic's store? Their staff is on a salary. They are very courteous and helpful. They don't rush away and leave you standing even if you are not buying something but only interested in getting information. My experience there has made me a repeat customer. This is the way you want your staff to treat customers.

In summary, show and tell your employer that you are their best employee by your hard work and attitude. If you are an employer show your employees that you are the best employer to work for and that you have their best interests at heart. In this way, everyone comes out a winner and so does the public you serve.