Is Everyone on Your Team Thinking Like a Salesperson?

The following is a recent article from my ”Sales & Marketing Minute” column that is printed monthly in the TIVA newsletter.  The folks at TIVA have kindly agreed to let me post the articles here on DRMS on a two-month delayed basis. TIVA is a fun and superb organization, and if you are a media professional and haven’t checked them out, then I highly suggest you do. – D

During this drawn-out recession, I have had the opportunity to counsel over a dozen people within my media “network” who have been searching for new employment.  When I have my first conversation with someone who is “looking,” they usually already know that I work in sales, so I off-handedly ask them, “Do you have any interest in sales?”

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Doctor Who . . . and me?

Actor Peter Davison, The 5th “Doctor” with David Ryan

So it was about a year ago that I arrived at work and opened a new email that said,

“Are you the David Ryan who was on assignment with the Doctor Who team in 1983 that produced The Awakening story?”

I smiled.  With the age of the internet, I knew it was just a matter of time before they found me.

Let me digress.

Back in the 80’s, when I was working at the Denver PBS affiliate, KRMA-TV, I produced a documentary on the then exponentially growing popularity in America of the campy BBC TV sci-fi series, Doctor Who, which at the time was being aired primarily by PBS stations.  Aficionados of the series will recall that actor Tom Baker played the Doctor at that time.

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Give it to me straight: How am I doing taking care of your biz?

As you can see on the menu on the left-side of this web page, I have a section that’s titled, “What do clients say?”

Sure, it’s all positive, and I am most grateful to those who made those sincere comments.

But how about you?  Has your experience with me been favorable? 

I invite you to complete a quick 4-question survey.  You can certainly keep it anonymous.  Even if you do, you’ll see that you will still be able to get $20 off your next order for completing the survey.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to be of service. – David  240-268-3504  dcryan7@videolabs.net

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Who inspires you to be a better writer? (Part 2 of 2)

(This is a continuation from Part 1.  I encourage you to read that first.)

As the quantity of my writing has expanded of late to include numerous blog articles, eNewsletters, magazine columns and eBooks, I am finding that I am drawing upon a new muse to further inspire my writing.

And it’s fitting to mention this as we near Fathers Day.  My new muse is my deceased father, John E. Ryan.

You may well ask why didn’t he influence me more when I was struggling with writing during my youth?  Well, it certainly wasn’t from his lack of trying.  My dad was a GE engineer through and through.  He would provide me with constructive criticism my writing, just as he would strive to receive concise and clear reports from his staff at GE.

My dad – with jacket on above – always encouraged his GE team to write clearly

But like any kid, I would roll my eyes, just as I did when he tried to get me to enunciate better,  use proper grammar, stand up straighter and practice my cello more.

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