Have some Fun

Here at Merchandise Mania we have a set of Key Beliefs and Values. Each member of staff has a plaque on their desk which reminds them of what these values are. There's nothing particularly surprising in there - you know the sort of thing - work as a team, win as a team, attitude is 90% of the game, Paul Rose is King, etc.

But there's one value on there which is my particular favourite, and it's the last one on the list. Quite simply, it is to Have Some Fun. It makes sense really - if your job wasn't fun then you wouldn't want to do it right?

Of course, it's not going to be fun 100% of the time. Let's face it, even those lucky folks working at Disneyworld feel a little put out once in a while, and that's supposed to be the happiest place on Earth.

Now just yesterday I met with a couple of people that are looking at their merchandise choices for the year ahead. They'd been through our catalogue but I pointed out that the real value in working with my company is that one of our people comes along and gets creative. Any idiot can sell a pen or quote prices based on items that the client has already chosen, so you don't need me for that.

The meeting itself turned out to be a lot of fun, and the reason was because these people were not simply looking at the product - they were looking at the message behind it. They were thinking about what the products said to people once they were handed over, and that is absolutely key when it comes to looking at promotional merchandise.

The company in question are part of an NHS team that provide support for people looking to quit smoking. Now certain people in the team wanted to offer up merchandise which talked about all of the negative aspects of being a smoker. That seems logical, except when you consider that the average smoker is not wandering around in blissful ignorance, completely unaware that they are doing themselves any harm.

No. The smart thing to do is to offer up merchandise which amplifies the positive aspects of not smoking - the money you save, the improvements to your health and energy levels, the return of your sense of taste and smell, and so on. As I sat there, I was amazed at just how many benefits there were, and what's more, as we continued having fun in our meeting, I actually found myself coming up with benefits that they had not even considered!

And that's the point of this week's blog - fun sparks creativity, and can take your sales processes in new directions, possibly even breathing new life into a project which was looking stale.

How you inject fun into the workplace is entirely your decision. I can heartily recommend a book called "Fish" by Stephen Lundin - it's a very quick read and real eye opener. I myself took quite a few lessons from it and a lot of my positivity comes from what I took out of that book.

So go and have a laugh, and then go and turn that joy into revenue. It doesn't need to be some wild gesture - just a little bit of fun can go a long way.

Now speaking of going a long way (see what I did there, clever eh?) I am once again hitting the streets in the name of charity. The Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon takes place in October of this year and I am running as part of the Help a London Child Team. If you would like to sponsor me (yes you would, you know you would - I give you all this stuff for free so frankly you owe me, and the money isn't even for me) then please visit www.justgiving.com/paulyrunsagain for more information.

Have a good (and fun) week.