Graduation Gowns

Graduation Regalia

Graduation Regalia

Most universities use hoods, pasteboard caps, robes and other types of graduation regalia though each has its own rules regarding the regalia. Some schools insist that graduation regalia especially the robe and cap should be worn throughout the entire ceremony. Most schools use black robes. It is recommended or a rule in some schools that dress pants and shoes should be of the same color with the robe. A tassel, graduation regalia is worn on the right side before the awarding of degrees but after they are awarded it is moved to the left. This is not official and is not done in all schools.

Graduation Information On The Internet

Graduation information is available all over the internet. You’ll find multiple links which can assist you in your research. Gordon International offers a lot of information which can be useful to anyone ordering graduation regalia but if you’re looking for specific history please see the link provided below.
The Following Site Offers Great Information About Graduation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress wikipedia provides the searcher with a great information source for any type of search. You can go to their search wiki and place an random search in the engine and you’ll come across a few useful sources & articles.

Business executives and sales managers frequently complain about “80/20″ performance on their sales teams, where approximately 80 percent of sales are produced by approximately 20 percent of salespeople. Why do salespeople perform so differently? What is it about top sales performers that enables them to achieve such vastly superior results?

Certainly there are some sales skills that anyone can learn. For example, it is easy to learn how to ask reflective questions. These questions begin with the words “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why” and “how”, and tend to encourage more detailed answers than questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”.

You can learn how to ask reflective questions by participating in a simple role play. In this role play, every time you ask me a “yes/no” question, I’ll answer “No”. Getting stonewalled with a bunch of “no’s” will break you of the yes/no questioning habit pretty quickly!

Other sales skills are tougher to learn. A good example is teaching salespeople how to ask questions and “follow the thread” in the answers. To explain this concept, let’s use another role play. If you ask me a reflective question, I’ll respond with answers that contain some “pain points”. If you recognize the pain points and drill down into them by asking additional questions, I’ll eventually agree to engage in a sales cycle.

Do you know what my experience has been with the “follow the thread” role play? Some salespeople learn this skill easily. Others struggle, but they eventually master it. However, some just never get it, no matter how hard they try!

Why can some salespeople learn this critical skill, but others can’t?

Reason #1

In their book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton report that great managers and average managers have different expectations for their employees. According to Buckingham and Clifton, average managers assume that “each person can learn to be competent in almost anything”, while great managers assume that “each person’s talents are enduring and unique”.

Most sales books and training programs seem to take the “average manager” point of view. In other words, they seem to assume that anyone can learn how to sell. Their unspoken promise is that all you have to do is invest enough time, effort, and money to learn the skills they teach. If you make the investments, you will learn the skills and succeed in sales.

Unfortunately, there are countless examples of sales books and training courses not producing the desired improvement in sales performance. Think about some salespeople you know personally. How many of them are struggling to make their quotas? Why are they struggling?

• Is it the state of the economy? (If other salespeople on the same sales team are making their numbers, blaming the economy won’t earn much sympathy.)

• Is it because they don’t work hard enough?

• Is it because they don’t have enough product knowledge?

• Do they need to work harder on their selling skills?

• Do they need more coaching from their manager?

What if the “great manager” point of view is correct? What if everyone cannot become proficient in sales? What if success in sales requires a unique set of talents?

Reason #2

Herb Greenberg, Harold Weinstein and Patrick Sweeney report this very conclusion in their book, How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer. After correlating hundreds of thousands of assessments that were performed over several decades with actual sales performance measurements, they reached these startling conclusions:

• “55% of the people earning their living in sales should be doing something else”; and

• “Another 20% to 25% have what it takes to sell, but they should be selling something else”

Wow! Those are some sobering statistics! They indicate that more than half of all salespeople are NEVER going to make it in sales. Another quarter have some chance of accomplishing sales success, but only if they find the right job selling the right kind of product or service.

How can you identify whether salespeople have the talents required to succeed in your company’s sales job? That question will be answered in Part 2 of this article.

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, MySalesTest.com, provides specialized sales assessment tests that help business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by consistently hiring top sales performers. For more information and a FREE special report, visit http://www.mysalestest.com.

I spent one whole day in the vacuum cleaner business.

And it was long enoughto learn one of the best lessons.

The fellow I was attached to for my training day was a rumpled dumpling. He was the exact opposite of what you’d expect the company’s top salesperson to look like. He wasn’t cleanly shaven, didn’t speak well, and appeared in every single way to be pathetic.

He drove an ancient Chevy sedan with torn seats. If this guy was a moneymaker, a top earner, number one in commissions, then I was Superman, or so went my teenage thinking.

We knocked on doors, until someone answered.

Soon enough, a housewife straight out of Stepford, greeted us. He asked if he could have the privilege of vacuuming her living roomfree of chargesimply to dramatize the amazing Power Nozzle attachment that was exclusive to his machine.

She nodded, looking at me as if to ask, “Where did you get this partner, you poor boy?”

He revved up the one and a half horsepower motor and glided from one corner of the living room to the next, making small talk that no one could hear.

Then, he shut it off and said, “You keep a very tidy house, don’t you?

“I try!” she beamed.

Unlocking the back door of the hot dog shaped appliance, he deftly retrieved a full bag of soot and swiftly plopped it in a pile in the center of her rug.

This demo knocked the wind out of her, she became woozy, overcome by the revelation and humiliation that there was a ton of hidden dirt that her old standby vacuum was leaving behind.

“Oh, my gosh, look at that!” she gasped, reciting her role perfectly in this domestic drama.

Suffice it to say, he sold her this Cadillac of cleaners, and I walked with him to the curb, in a daze of my own.

We drove back to headquarters, and he and the big boss debriefed me. What did I think? Could I do this?

I said I’d think it over, and as we all parted company, I noticed that the frumpy salesman had changed his worn jacket for a snazzy cashmere sweater, and he suddenly looked two feet taller as he put the key into his off-hours car, his real driver: A brand new Cadillac.

His entire sales persona was a masterpiece, carefully calculated to make buyers feel sorry for him.

And it worked beautifully.

Although I didn’t feel I could do his act, I did walk away knowing one thing about selling: it is an art, a performance art, and some of the savviest practitioners don’t let their offstage identities interfere in the least with their onstage personalities.

That’s one powerful lesson.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman © 2006

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.