What you do—or don’t—say on your voicemail can have a major impact on your business, considering the number of times prospects get your “message” before they get you.

Americans spend 3.2 billion hours a year talking to and listening to voicemail. If you don’t use yours as a promotional tool, you’re missing out on a major marketing opportunity.

Use your voicemail to provide information about yourself and your products and services, along with benefits that you offer your clients.

Ways to Add Value to Your Voicemail:
(excerpted from the “Superstar Selling Audio Download”)

+ Add magic to your message by including your “Only” (as in, “I’m the only award-winning local dealer who specializes in [fill in company name] products.”)

+ Offer options, such as your cell phone number, for those who need to reach you now

+ Provide regular updates (“Today is Thursday, and I’ll be in appointments all morning”)

+ Offer callback information, such as a promise to return the call within 12 hours

+ Include mailboxes with information about individual products and services

—Fred Berns coaches design professionals on how to dramatically increase sales and promote themselves more effectively. For his FREE report on how to “Supersize Your Sales in Challenging Economic Times,” click here.

Going abroad to seek new business opportunities, I imagine, can sometimes be a scary proposition, especially when the country of destination is still on shaky legs, economically speaking. But then again, Italian appliance maker Fulgor Milano and its parent company Meneghetti SpA aren’t exactly newcomers to these shores.

Never heard of them? Well, there’s a reason for that. The latter has spent the last 50 years producing high-end kitchen appliances for some 400 well-known global brands, while the former is a newly minted name for a company that has been around for 60 years and is credited with producing Europe’s first self-cleaning ovens and inventing the world’s first dual-flame burner. Incidentally, since the 1990s, its self-cleaning ovens, redesigned to U.S. needs, have been selling here under different brands.

So what can we expect from the company now that it’s stepped into the limelight? According to Gianni Meneghetti, president of Meneghetti SpA and Fulgor Milano, cooking products that boast “authentic Italian flavor in both functionality and design.”

These include its 300 Series of electric wall ovens, which come in 27- and 30-in. single and double configurations in stainless-steel, black and white finishes. All feature a 2,500W heating element and power fan to ensure even cooking, as well as eight cooking modes (available on convection models), concealed baking elements and a variable self-cleaning function. Don’t have wall space? The single oven is sleek enough to fit under a counter.

The company is also launching a line of 30- and 36-in. electric and gas cooktops available in stainless steel, black and white. Comprised of more than 90 percent recyclable components, the units have a distinctive wing design, which allows large pots to be positioned diagonally, and are equipped with European sealed burners that range in output from 450 Btu for melting chocolate to 18,000 Btu for searing meat.

Induction cooktops and the Largo Series (of what, I’m not sure) are slated for late summer.—Alice Liao

Last week I did a live webinar on green interior design on a virtual trade show website called GreenExpo365.com. I’ve done presentations and seminars at trade shows, but this is the first time I’ve done one sitting in my office in my jeans, so it was pretty cool. The presentation was called “Sustainability with Style” and I discussed how far we’ve come in the realm of green interiors in the past few years.

Green design in its infancy was all about bamboo floors and fluorescent light bulbs. And as far as finding green furniture and interior products, it was all very modern-looking, linear stuff that was arguably very pretty, but wasn’t for everyone. Today’s green furniture and cabinetry have many different looks and designs—from the modern to the traditional—so there’s no compromise in terms of style.

Also, defining “green” 10 years ago was very different from how it’s defined today. We’ve learned along the way that it’s not only about alternative products like bamboo, but it also addresses indoor air quality, sustainable forestry initiatives, water conservation and more. The green “playing field” keeps changing every day, as manufacturers are changing the way they design and produce their products. This is all good news, but trying to keep up with what’s going on out there can be confusing. For example, here are some questions that I’ve been hearing lately:

• If bamboo flooring is so much better than using hardwood flooring, how come it’s okay to have it shipped half way around the world? If we used local hardwoods, wouldn’t we also save by not burning more fossil fuel to get it to us?

• If I see a pesticide-free organic cotton sheet set that’s made overseas, should I buy it? Or should I buy one that’s made in this country but isn’t organic? How do I know it’s organic anyway?

• If I buy a water-saving toilet that’s made in Australia, am I really saving anything? What about the fuel it takes to get it here and the CO2 emissions?

Many manufacturers are quick to tell you that their product is green, even though you have no way of knowing that it is. How do you find out? Navigating through the maze of green products that are out there can be so confusing that you might just give up and stick with what you’ve done in the past, green or not.

In my opinion, it’s all about tradeoffs. We are in the business of selling products, green or not. We are all trying to make a living, and it certainly is challenging in the current economy. It’s NOT a perfect world, and being perfectly green may or may not happen. What I try to do is to achieve some sort of a balance between what I think the client should have vs. what they want vs. their budget. It’s that simple.

Let’s look at a “not so perfectly green” kitchen remodel:

• MDF doors on maple plywood boxes painted with low-VOC paints. The MDF and plywood have no added urea formaldehyde

• Cabinetry is made locally

• Soapstone countertop is a natural product but comes from Brazil

• Fluorescent pendants over island

• FSC-certified hardwood floor, waterborne finish

• Energy Star appliances

Here’s the tradeoff: The client always wanted a soapstone top, which is a mined product (not renewable) from Brazil. So it’s not only about the fact that the countertop is taken from the earth and doesn’t “grow back,” but that it’s also shipped from a long distance, burning fossil fuels and adding to CO2 emissions.

But that’s OK. It’s a natural product, one that can be re-purposed after its initial usefulness is over and won’t leach out any toxic chemicals into a landfill. It’s sealed every 6 months with food-grade mineral oil, so there’s no chemical additives, which is great for the user, and also doesn’t off-gas fumes and contribute to poor indoor air quality.

Also, because it was something the client really wanted, I asked her to try to use the highest-tier Energy Star appliances available as a tradeoff to the imported countertop. And the FSC-certified wood floor, fluorescent lights, etc. So one non-green item isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker.

We may never be able to achieve perfection in green design. I honestly feel that anything that’s well-designed, enduring, high-quality and well-built is halfway there anyway. As far as I’m concerned, the worst thing you can do is the “quick fix.” Too many of the TV shows you see on design involve quick, temporary fixes, satisfying the user for a short period. Then what? It’s the trip to the landfill and buying more STUFF to replace the stuff you just threw out.

My advice is to THINK—just think about each product and what its impact will be, and decide from there what you want to do. It’s not that difficult if you tackle it that way.

So sit back, relax and enjoy what’s ahead. It’s all good.—Patricia Gaylor

A designer judging our Product Innovator Awards once said of a THG faucet that photos did not do it justice and to fully appreciate its exquisite craftsmanship required seeing it “in the flesh.” Although the faucet did not take top honors that year, his comment stuck with me and was the reason why I jumped at the chance to attend the press day at Maison France.

What is Maison France? Billed as a showcase of “haute décor” from—where else?—France, it’s a three-day luxury home furnishings event that opened yesterday at the Felissimo Design House in New York City. Organized by UBIFRANCE, an international business development agency, and the French Trade Commission, the event features 30 (or so) companies whose wares span the range from furniture, lighting and textiles to tableware, decorative accessories and plumbing.

THG was there, of course, and, as noted by that designer, the faucets on display did not disappoint. They included offerings from the Bernardaud, Lalique and Jamie Drake collections, as well as its newest line, Bagatelle. One that caught my eye—because I’ve seen it in photos and they didn’t fully convey its appeal—was Mossi. It’s elegant enough in chrome with clear Lalique crystal spherical details, which is how it was pictured when the image crossed my desk. But it’s pretty stunning in this version, which is on view at Maison France:



Another company worth checking out is Volevatch, which makes traditional and contemporary bath faucets, including Jonas, a somewhat startling shower system inspired by 19th-century needle showers,

and custom products such as this avian-themed lav set.



A few hardware companies were also on hand. The Verreries de Bréhat showed a modest selection of glass knobs (shown below), pulls and accessories, while Bronzes de France exhibited an array of metal cabinet and door accessories.



Tomorrow is the last day of the event and also happens to be the day when the showcase is open to the public. Hours are from noon to 5 pm.

Felissimo is located at 10 West 56th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenue). If you’re in the area, why not stop by?—Alice Liao