One of our better meetings In various ways. There were 24 members present including our most recent additions arriving for their induction. We also had a visitor, Elvy Kollasseril, so 25 in all.
The Performance League
September’s figures showed that approximately 3/4 of the members were beating 100 points and the top 4 in reverse order mustering as follows Howard Bullock 202, Toby Acton 205, Matt Barry 308 and, way out in the lead, Scott Griffiths with 436 points. An excellent month!
Education Presentation
Jane Malyon was into ‘double edged swords’ and ‘both sides of the coin’ metaphorically speaking. For example, you want to pass your exam and you don’t want to fail. Your focus is either ‘away’ or ‘towards’. We were then treated to a bit of audience participation which woke up everybody early on in the meeting. An entertaining start!
Membership Matters
Terry Maylin had good news and bad news for us. The bad news first; Paul Rogers has been obliged to leave the group for personal reasons and we are all sorry to see him go. Best wishes for the future Paul.
The good news of course was the induction of two new members. Clara Downton is our new mortgage broker and David Roberts our electrician. We welcome them both with high hopes of a successful relationship going forward.
The 60 Second Round
With the prospect of 25 contributions Matt Barry, as the current Oscar holder, got things underway in praise of Scott Griffiths who is involved with him in a big project for an ex-member and Mike Skinner also got a mention for his involvement by way of a photo shoot. It’s good to hear of members collaborations. They are a testament to the success of the group. A further example immediately followed Matt’s presentation, when Melissa Jackson told of an involvement with a client linked through Terry Maylin.
There was a rare sighting of the ‘lesser spotted’ John Freeman, fresh from completing a monster project for his brother and about to depart to Tenerife on holiday. EBF’s version of Oddjob is therefore not likely to be with us until the New Year but he has squeezed in a few jobs for members in the last couple of weeks and we look forward to his return fully rested and permanently available.
James Humphreys continues his quest for burly men and women. For this he will need introductions to potential policyholders in the Construction and Sports Club industries. Talking of the construction industry, Nick Cooke was on hand to remind us of his structural survey and design credentials or indeed his willingness to do things that are much less grand, like simply taking a wall down.
So what of our newbies? Well Clara Downton was celebrating her first 4.9% mortgage for a long time and David Roberts limited himself on his first presentation to reminding us of his basic offerings of inspection and testing. We look forward to more to come.
If we wanted a good news story Stuart Smallcombe was able to provide it. He took all of his team out for lunch and in praise of teamwork he referred to 2 of his employees who have just clocked up 10 years and 20 years respectively with the company. It’s all about sticking to doing what you do well and his company and staff’s longevity is a testament to this. Leann Reason was more inclined to emphasise not only the experience but also the passionate side of her approach to her business. Just as we were starting to feel upbeat Vincent Goode went all enthusiastic about order of service booklets for funerals. Smart-looking booklets containing tributes should not allow the prospect of death to prevent us from giving him referrals.
Terry Meylin had success this week when enforcing a debt for a client, he managed to freeze a bank account of the debtor which contained in excess of £4,000.00. Getting bank details from your customers can prove quite valuable.
John Hammond’s emphasis that price is not everything had this demonstrated when a customer left for a cheaper version of John. Notwithstanding this, he has been called out three times by the same client to deal with service issues. You only get what you pay for. The same level of service appears to have been demonstrated this week by Rosemarie who had a party of four on a Mediterranean cruise whose flight was cancelled. She rebooked and rearranged and sorted it all out for them without any problem. It’s all about quality of service. It’s not only service but also product that can be relevant and Jane Malyon was displaying her tease/teas. She was able to explain to us, I think, the difference between a tea and an infusion. As far as teas are concerned, there is a particularly smoky one that cigar smokers particularly like. Anybody under 14 is never going to know the complementary nature of this infusion if Mr Sunak has his way.
I could go on and on about the presentations this week as they were both numerous and good but you can have too much of a good thing. Subject to reporting that Howard Bullock’s presentation once again involved a massage I will content myself with confirming that the Oscar went to Blake Hammond who managed enthusiasm and a mention of Christmas amongst other things. A worthy winner.
10-minute presentation by John Hammond
It was John Hammond this week and we were treated to a quiz that helped demonstrate and make us recall exactly what John does. Ben Golding, who produced a quiz for last week’s 10 minutes was the winner of this week’s quiz. Not only do we know what John does but we also know that he does it very well and we can recommend him with great confidence. I don’t think it matters that he cannot stand gravy and custard. We all have our cross to bear.
Referrals and testimonials
As predicted by Scott Griffiths, it was an excellent round with lots of referrals and business passed. With a good turnout it is inevitable that referrals go up and if it needs demonstrating, the more members we therefore can attract the more business we will pass. May I therefore make a plea for continued good attendance and also maintaining the visitor count which has borne such fruit over the last couple of weeks.
Excellent meeting today great to see the new members and another guest as well as John Freeman who is like having a new member-lively 60 seconds session and with those numbers we need to keep the time tight
Let’s now get the referrals flowing again!
Great to see everyone there this morning (aside from Brian at least). Real lively fun meeting!
Very pleased to see there are new members and a good attendance.
I’ll be back next week. I can tell John that Tenerife is alive and well.
As the others have commented, what a great meeting this week.
Fantastic meeting ,very lively meeting with a lot of business referrals passed around. Great education slot Jane
Great meeting and so much input from all the members.
I can’t remember specifically what I enjoyed about this meeting, but suffice to say, I did. A full house apart from Brian tut tut