News from California State Floral Association

At this informative workshop we will explore new ideas for working with new wire products available to designers. We will also cover basic jewelry making techniques as well as tips for making fluid, modern wire work for flowers to wear and carry, in addition to exploring the use of cold glue with fresh flowers to enhance your creations. You will learn innovative techniques to embellish floral designs with color and bling while adding real value and unique flair to everyday designs and special event work.

Everyone will enjoy this introductory class and have fun flexing their creative muscle!

To further enhance your wire creativity, CSFA will conduct an advanced class taught in the Fall at Calif Flora 2012 that will build on the techniques we learn in this class. Bring a pair of round nose jewelry pliers, wire cutters, and come get wired with us!

Class fee: $95.00/Member ~ $120/Non-Member

For information and registration call: The CSFA Office at 916-448-5266 Or email inquiries to aquinn@cgfa.org

Click here for flyer and registration form

Registration open for ABCs of Horticulture Workshops July 25 and 26 San Marcos

ABCs of Horticulture (English Session)

Center for Applied Horticultural Research

2280 Tamara Lane, San Marcos CA 92084

July 25, 2012

7:30 am - 2:00 pm

Online Registration $65 per person

Mail/Fax Registration $65 per person (attached)

ABCs de la Horticultura (Sesión en Español)

Centro para la Investigaci�n Aplicada Hort�cola

2280 Tamara Lane, San Marcos CA 92084

Julio 26, 2012

7:30 am - 2:00 pm

Inscripción por internet Sesión en Español $65 por persona

Inscripci�n por correo o fax Sesi�n en Espa�ol $65 por persona (adjunta)

Presenters:

Dr. Don Merhaut, UCCE Specialist for Nursery and Floriculture Crops, UC Riverside (English)

Dra. Maria de la Fuente, Asesora Agr�cola, Universidad de California Extensi�n Cooperativa, Condado de Santa Clara y San Benito (Espa�ol)

Workshop Topics and Goals

This program will focus basic principles of plant growth and development, so that growers will understand how environmental and cultural practices affect plant growth and quality. There are five parts to this workshop:

Basic physiological processes of plant growth and development
Plant Hormones
Plant essential nutrients and how they are taken up and assimilated
Fertilizer, media, soil and irrigation practices to optimize nutrient uptake
Environmental and cultural practices impacts on plant production

A simple overview of key physiological processes and the plant hormones will be explained. This is essential for growers to understand how fertilization, irrigation, environment and cultural practices affect plant growth and development. In the third and fourth parts of the program, we will describe the plant essential nutrients, how much is needed in the plant, and how to calculate fertilizer rates. We will then teach growers how to troubleshoot production problems related to nutrient deficiencies, toxicities and how to correct these problems. In the final part of the workshop, we will review environmental effects on plant production:

Temperature - daily fluxes, seasonal fluxes, media vs. air temperature
Light - quality, quantity, duration and location
Environmental stresses - heat, cold, light, drought, poor water quality -salt

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

Identify symptoms of key nutrient disorders
Calculate nutrient content from various fertilizers
Identify cultural practices and environmental conditions which may impact optimum fertilize use
Customize fertilizer application programs to individual needs to optimize nutrient uptake and reduce nutrient runoff from nursery production facilities and landscapes
Have a better understanding of how various production practices influence plant growth
Develop BMPs customized to specific crop needs

Linda Dodge, SRA

Dept. of Plant Sciences, Mailstop 6

University of California

One Shields Ave.

Davis CA 95616

mailto:lldodge@ucdavis.edu

phone/fax 530-752-8419

cell 916-201-8989

University of California Nursery and Floriculture Alliance

http://ucanr.org/sites/UCNFA/

UCNFA News

http://ucanr.org/sites/UCNFAnews/

How Customers Decide to Buy

Before they plunk down the money, customers make these five exact decisions--in this exact order. Your job is to help them do so.

Do you ever wonder what's going on inside your customer's head? There's actually a pretty systematic process that most prospective customers go through, says Duane Sparks, author of Selling Your Price.

Before making the decision to buy, he says, customers go through the following five distinct "decision-making" thought processes:

1. Do I want to do business with this person? Who is this person, really? Do I trust him? Do I like her?

2. Do I want to do business with this firm? Are they reputable? Are they credible? Do I have a history with them?

3. Do I want and need these products and services? Is there a problem that they solve? Is there a goal that they make possible?

4. Does the value meet my expectations? Will I get a quick return on my investment? Is the price in line with other offerings? Is this a unique solution?

5. Is this the right time to make a decision? Is there a reason to buy now? Is the problem about to explode? Is an opportunity slipping past?

This pattern plays itself out in every sales-oriented conversation. Take cold calls, for instance, where the goal is to make an appointment for a more substantive sales conversation.

USDA Announces Streamlined Drought/Disaster Designation, Emergency Financing

USDA this week kicked off an immediate use of its disaster authority in the wake of the ongoing drought, announcing a package of "program improvements" and greater flexibility in getting disaster/drought aid to farmers. Among the changes are reduced rates for emergency loans and a payment reduction on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands qualified for emergency haying and grazing from 25% to 10%. In a briefing conference call during which he repeatedly reminded reporters the U.S. is in line for its third largest corn crop in history, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack did not address action under his emergency authority to modify the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates on blending of ethanol with gasoline, particularly corn-based ethanol. He said "we're not at that point," when asked by a reporter if the RFS would be "dialed down" based on continuing crop deterioration, adding the RFS is important to rural communities. Vilsack said that based on a streamlined disaster designation system employed by USDA, as of July 12, 1,016 primary counties in 26 states are now "natural disaster areas," qualifying farm operators for low-interest emergency loans. To qualify, a county must show either a 30% loss of production of at least one crop countywide or a decision must be made by surveying producers to determine that other lending institutions are unable to provide funding. Vilsack reminded farmers to be in constant contact with their crop insurance companies, and to keep thorough records of losses, including additional expenses for such things as food purchased. The full listing of updated programs and disaster services can be found at www.usda.gov/disaster.

Marathon Markup Yields 2012 House Farm Bill; Floor Action Uncertain, Vilsack Critical

Proof that House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) and committee ranking member Rep. Colin Peterson (D, MN) are dedicated to moving a 2012 Farm Bill, the two drove a 15-hour committee markup July 11, protecting the key portions of the bill from substantive changes and winding up at midnight with a solid 35-11 vote to approve the committee bill. Lucas' early morning July 12 reaction to the final vote was to describe himself as "overjoyed the bill is done in committee at this moment," with obvious relief at the "solid roll call vote" in favor of the bill.

While Peterson said he sees no reason why House leadership wouldn't bring the bill to the floor by August 3 - the beginning of the month-long summer recess - the big unknown remains whether House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH), a former ag committee member, will schedule floor time for the nearly $1-trillion package. Boehner said July 12, that while the committee "did an awful lot of good work," he's made no decision on floor time. In a press briefing the Speaker did not address an idea supported by some of bypassing the House floor and taking the bill straight to conference with the Senate-passed Farm Bill, a move employed by Boehner to get the federal highway reauthorization bill to the President's desk before its extension expired. Peterson isn't opposed to moving straight to conference, but said to skip floor action risks angering both GOP and Democrat House members who want a crack at carving back spending or reinstating cuts already in the committee-passed bill.

However, given the size of the 10-year price tag, protecting the bill from amendments on the floor, particularly if Boehner allows an open rule where any and all amendments are in order, means at least two full days of floor action during a tight legislative calendar with no guarantee the bill would pass in a form acceptable to House ag interests. A separate strategy to delay consideration of the bill until the late November lame duck session, rolling it into other must-pass tax/budget legislation, was opposed by Peterson because of the "quagmire" it would create, a scenario where "control of the bill gets taken away from us." Boehner tempered his praise for the bill by saying the legislation contains "some good reforms," but also called out the "the Soviet-style dairy program," a reference to the Peterson-authored feed margin risk insurance component of the bill, which also carries milk production limits.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack slammed the bill for its 2% or $16.1 billion in cuts to the federal food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Vilsack said the proposed cuts mean 280,000 children in low-income families will be denied access to school meals, while farm income is reduced and economic growth is "stunted." He also criticized cuts to conservation and energy initiatives.

Ace Customer Service Every Time: 5 Rules

Little things often make a customer interaction a success or failure.

This week, I went to two shoe stores in the same chain and inadvertently did a little experiment. The first store I visited had plenty of styles I liked, but its employees did customer service all wrong. I chose to go out of my way to the second location in search of a better buying experience. The team in store No. 2 was at the top of its game, and I ended up making my purchases there. This got me thinking about how it is often little things that can make a customer interaction a success or failure.

Get your team ready to win by focusing on these five rules of customer service and sales:

1. Hustle
Workers who drift around the store or office are slow to react to a customer's presence, and this slowness gives customers the impression the employee is uninterested in the customer's needs. The salesgirl in shoe store No. 1 took forever to wander over and ask me if I would like to try something on, even though I had shoes in my hand, and was the only customer in the store. In store No. 2, the salesguy greeted me when I came in, and explained how the store was organized. He let me browse, but stayed close enough that he could easily help me when I was ready.

Ask your staffers to always be looking for things they can do to make the sale happen, either by helping customers directly (finding a size) or indirectly (making sure samples are returned promptly to their place).

2. Focus
When a customer speaks, every word she utters is an instruction to be carefully noted and, ideally, carried out. I showed the girl in the first store four pairs of shoes I liked and gave her my size. She glanced at them and then brought me only one pair I had requested. When I wondered where the others were, she told me she wanted to first be sure the size was right. If she really had my interests--or her company's--at heart, though, she would have brought me all the choices at once. Of course, shoes vary in fit and size. In the second store, the guy noted my size and quickly retrieved all the shoes in stock.

Pay attention to how your staff listens, and point out ways that listening closely can drive sales performance.

3. Notice
Important details are not always spoken. They also come in the form of silent subtext. I picked out four different types of shoes--that is to say, not all sandals, or all heels--because I was looking to purchase more than one kind. In store No. 1, the salesgirl ignored this clue, showing me only the styles I asked for, even though she was out of one of them. In so doing, she automatically lost 25% of my potential business. In store No. 2, the salesguy brought me an alternate choice when he realized he did not have one I wanted in my size; he kept his sale possibility at 100%.

Teach your team to pick up on the hidden meanings in transactions so they can move your business forward fast.

4. Anticipate
Closing a sale requires foresight. In the first store I visited, I had chosen a pair of shoes, but noticed they were damaged. The girl informed me it was the last pair in that size, and put the shoes back in the box, ending our interaction. She could have offered to call another location, or even to give me a discount on the damaged pair. In store No. 2, the employee offered to call store No. 1 for a missing size I wanted. When I asked him not to, he checked to see when the next shipment would arrive at his location.

Make sure your team has the know-how to be one step ahead of the customer, so that no one walks away empty-handed.

5. Communicate
Even in a transactional business, in which a customer is likely to purchase only one time, building a relationship is key. In store No. 1, the girl barely looked at me, asked me no questions, and sold me only on the idea that I would never come back to her store. In store number No. 2, the guy was surprised when I told him not to call the other store for the missing size, and he asked why. I told him that I would not go back to the other store because the employees there were lazy and unhelpful. This provided him valuable feedback for his company, as well as for his own sale. He seemed unhappy about what I said, and did his best to make my experience with him a good one, by informing me about other models soon arriving, giving me a catalogue to take home, and even offering me a free upkeep kit for my shoes.

Emphasize to your employees that making the sale is not only about dollars spent, but also about the long-term value they create.

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