It is ‘National Pizza with the Works, except Anchovies Day’ which puts you in mind of takeaways and the fact that today we were Greggs reliant.
It was also a good turnout day with a return visitor from last week and a new visitor introduced by Paul Booth. We were 21 in all.
Performance League
We’re only one week in and Terry Maylin leads with 52 points followed by Lee Banks on 49 and Catherine Foley at 48
Education Slot
It was Jane Malyon this week and her theme was specificity. Once she had pronounced it the rest was downhill! The specificity that she was talking about relates to 60 second presentations and the regular reference to the referrals that will be suitable for us on a week by week basis. She tried to blind us with ‘weak ties’ and ‘six degrees of separation’…… what it came down to was that we should not be afraid of asking if anybody had any contact with a specific target company or individual. Our further challenge was for us to be more specific next week.
60-Second Presentation Round
Matt Barry was our Oscar winner from last week and kicked us off.
Paul Corrigan, was it pains to point out that his company would undertake plumbing work of any kind for anyone. By way of illustration, he has been ‘hands on’ this week rodding a drain where pipes had become blocked. He created an image none of us could easily dispel.
Mike Skinner maintained the theme of ‘anything for anyone within reason’ by telling us of his exploits in providing video footage regarding swimming pools and socks. If you’re looking for a connection, then just accept that there isn’t one!
Catherine Foley has been immersed this week in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire, and ‘The Inspector Calls’. An eclectic mix from Mr. Williams and Mr Priestley. This is the territory one inhabits guided more by the choice of exam boards than our own natural inclinations.
Stuart Smallcombe was talking the security side of IT support and warned us that hackers tended to go for the low hanging fruit and so we should make sure we have the basics in place
Toby Acton deserted the metaphor to explain the importance of working out what you can stop doing in your business rather than what else you can be doing. The significance is focus.
Shannon Savege emphasised that as well as the generality of mortgage work Downton Mortgages were finding themselves doing quite a bit of equity release aimed at the over 55s.
Scott Griffiths is getting more and more involved with AI in the design of his websites. This week he has been looking how to flip AI. He’s trying to interest the BOTS that visit our sites. If you think that was interesting, note the realisation that Dave Roberts, in fitting garden lights, is not only involved in bringing light to the garden but also the ability to switch it off. If that strikes you as important, John Hammond also had a message about making sure that your fire alarms are in good working order….. don’t give your insurers the chance to renege on the policies.
Blake Hammond was very pleased to announce the opening of his new website, and he invited us all to take a look – https://voidshift.co.uk.
Paul Booth was particularly interested in the self-employed and the digitalisation of accounts, particularly for landlords. The threshold for this compliance is reducing by the year, and it doesn’t take much to be caught.
In the end Matt Barry’s award went to Lee Banks’ replacement this week. As a maiden voyage Eddie (whose surname currently is a mystery ….at least to me) made himself known to us and indicated where he can help us. His confident performance earned him a well-deserved Oscar.
Meeting Secretaries Report
This week there were 10 new referrals and £21,000 worth of business recorded
Visitors Corner
Progress this week, two visitors in attendance including Paul Booth’s successful invite to the jeweller’s category which was last month’s target. Well done Paul there were other prospects mentioned by Terry Maylin, Catherine Foley and Scott Griffiths. Well done to all of you that have made the effort this week. If the rest of you could just put half an hour into doing a visitor chase this week, we will hopefully have some more positive results to report next week.
10-Minute Presentation by David Roberts
Dave Roberts was this week’s presenter with lots of props. Different types of wiring, testing meters and all the other accoutrements that go with his business.
Testing remains central to his acquiring effective referrals, but he covered the ground that he needed to inform us effectively of areas where we can chase referrals for him.
The most revealing piece of information provided was from this bio sheet where he described riding up an escalator handrail backwards at Paddington station when his clothes got caught in the mechanism. It’s the stuff of nightmares even though he now thinks it also falls under the category of something that makes him laugh.
A very entertaining meeting and great to see 3 new faces with a couple of new visitors and sub for Lee.
Great presentation from Dave Roberts and ed slot from Jane, keep the numbers up!
Great meeting all. Thank you to Dave and Jane for the 10 mins and ed slot.
Hope you all have a great weekend
Great to have some fresh faces in the room. Especially with such an excellent Ed Slot and 10 minutes