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Nancy Marshall
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10 tips for doing business in Maine
By Nancy Marshall
My father was a sales engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corp. throughout his entire career. In 1977, he was transferred from the Hartford, Conn., sales office to the Augusta sales office. It was actually a transfer he had requested because he loved Maine and all of the recreational opportunities it had to offer.
What he did not realize until he started working in Maine was the difference between doing business in Connecticut and Maine. He discovered that in Maine, people want to get to know you before they do business with you. It’s like there is a ‘trial period’ where they are deciding whether or not they like and trust you.
Maine is a big small town where it’s easy to grow your network of contacts, but it’s also easy for a bad reputation to be known broadly in a real hurry.
In Stephen R. Covey's book “The Speed of Trust," he wrote about the discovery that my late father made when he moved to Maine. Sometimes you can’t speed up trust, you have to slow down in order to get to know a person.
That’s exactly what my dad did. When he met a new customer, usually the buyer for electrical equipment at one of Maine’s paper mills, he would chat about family, hobbies, origin stories (Where did you grow up?) and kids (How many kids do you have and where are they now?).
Eventually, my dad made great friends with his new customers in Maine, but he quickly realized that he had to slow down in order to speed up.
Courtesy / Nancy Marshall
Nancy Marshall's father, Frank Briggs, started his career with Westinghouse Electric Corp. in the 1950s.
As a PR agency owner who has worked her entire career in Maine, I have taken the lessons my dad learned and applied them in my own agency and client relationships. Here are 10 lessons I’ve learned from my dad’s time in Maine, and my own career here.
- When you first meet someone, ask them to tell you about themselves, and listen to what they say. Really listen. Pay attention to the details about the kids, the pets, the hobbies and favorite sports teams, restaurants or vacation spots. If you need to write it all down so you can remember, take notes after the meeting so you can bring up some pertinent details the next time you see them.
- Don’t just start right into talking business. Show you care more about the person than the money they will spend with you.
- Make sure you say "Thank you" for a meeting, either with a follow-up email or better yet, a letter in the mail. I’m not sure my dad sent letters in the mail to his customers, but it’s a habit I embraced from the start of my career because I have always loved writing letters.
- Be interested, and also be interesting. If you enjoy skiing at Sugarloaf or paddling the Allagash, share some of those details with the person you’ve met. They will remember you as an interesting person.
- If someone is “from away,” ask what brought them to Maine. If they are from Maine, ask what town they grew up in, and what high school they went to. Bonus points if you know the name of the sports teams at their high school or a factoid about the lakes or mountains in their hometown.
- Caution: many people in Maine are related. The person you say bad things about might be your customer’s cousin or in-law. Best not to badmouth anyone at all. EVER.
- Maine has many helpful people and organizations! Use the resources and networking opportunities offered by local chambers, SCORE, Maine International Trade Center, Maine Technology Institute, CEI and so many others. They all offer a wealth of help, and the people who work there truly want to help you!
- Read and/or watch the local news. Knowing details about the city or town where you’re doing business (or calling on customers) is important. For example, if you start doing business in Lewiston but you’re unaware of the horrors suffered there in October 2023, you’re going to be out of touch.
- Look people in the eye and say thank you for meeting with you or choosing to do business with you. Be sincere and authentic. People in Maine have an astute BS meter.
- Don’t hold yourself above anyone else. In Maine, everyone has a place and everyone must be respected, whether it’s the person at the front desk, the janitor, the Uber driver or the CEO of the company. My dad always made friends with the person at the front desk, and I believe to this day that was one of the biggest reasons he was so very successful at his job.
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