Like Coca Cola, present only your best and sunniest pictures, products and conversations. Do not take negative talk to your customers. “Things are so bad, I have been without a job for five years, that is why I decided to try this. If it works out and I get enough money, I am leaving for the city immediately to look for better opportunities”. You add “this town is hopeless, people dont have money. Imagine I did not get a single customer the whole of last week”. As if that is not depressing enough, you add while yawning “Iam very tired and sleepy, ituura riitu andu mathirite ii, kwina machakaya micii itatu” translation, “people are dying in my neighborhood, we are currently attending three wakes in three different homes”.
Your customer offers you a soda in sympathy, which you quickly decline adding “nda yakwa ikoretwo itari njega, hariitwo kiumia kigima” translation “My stomach has been upset, I have had diarrhea for a week”. Mind you this is a prospective customer whom you have brought food samples hoping she can place an order for future supplies.
I can tell you here and now: You have already lost that customer before you even begin. People have enough problems of their own, they do not need their supplier of goods and services piling onto them. If you want to succeed, put your best foot forward. Be the positive energy that brightens the day of your customers. You may not feel like it, but present joy, hope, positive attitude and pride in your products and services. Let your customers know how excited you are about your work, about serving them and responding to their feedback for even better results. That is how you win customers and retain them for the long haul. Coca Cola has bad seasons too but you will never know it. Their drinks are consumed during sad events like funerals, in prison and other places they will never show you in their advertisement. Why, because that does not sell the product they are targeting you to buy.
Project success even when you don’t have a dime in your pocket. Dress well to look successful. Remember, people always align themselves with winners, that is why you have to look successful regardless of your current circumstances. If you plant maize seeds, you will reap a harvest of maize, not beans, not oranges. Similarly, if you sow positive, hopeful and uplifting confessions into your work, you will reap a harvest that bears similar qualities.
