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The Quick Call Trap

It's generally a bad sign when people use the adjective "quick" to describe something they want you to do. Have a "quick call" for example. It means it will be unpleasant and thus not lasting long is a feature. — Paul Graham (@paulg) August 22,

Slot Grope Protection

A couple of fellow sellers running significant shows of their own alerted me to the ballooning of this latest most unsavoury digital direct mail tactic. A wholly unsolicited calendar invite appears in your schedule. Blocking off a specific, freshly allotted slot. The event titled with brazenly cold-call bombast. You cancel

What Big Four Consultant Cliff Edge Means For Us

Here's a screenshot of the FT splash 1 Sep '26. Ouch, that pull quote; "The traditional consultant as we know them today will have to change. Fewer and fewer will be needed." Not many a tear shed, I grant you. Then behind the gleeful comeuppance

Setting New Starters Up To Fly Or Fall

It was largely with indifference I casually read of Apple's handing of the baton. No-one seems untouched by their astonishing rise these past three decades. Bursting from the Jobs re-reign. Treading water perhaps, albeit of the most sun-blessed azure kind, yet growing twelvefold since through Cook. Now there&

When To Use Excessive Colour

I was thinking about how I recognize AI writing, and one big tell is excessively colorful verbs. A handful of journalists might write that a proposal "drew" 100 votes, but any normal person will just say "got". — Paul Graham (@paulg) August 19, 2026 I've

Possible Calamity Awaits

A flyer through the letterbox. As you likely guess, from a home insurance provider. A new player, as it happens. Choosing to go Old School. This piece of direct marketing holds remarkable solution sell parallel. Of the classic FUD type. Spreading Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Where there's risk, bring

Using Columnist Brilliant Tactic in Props

"He even developed a trick which he passed on, which was to plant some obvious firework into a column which would have to be removed, but leave a depth-charge in the hope that nobody noticed before it went off. It was a brilliant tactic." - Douglas Murray on

Ensure Best Idea Wins

These whippersnapper creative sparks are discussing their indie-pop track, Love Me Right. Sung by the young lady (top) and the vibe from its canny producer (bottom). Kudos to anyone baring their sticky drinks cabinet on a zoom call. Always with a keen ear for the creative process, I got struck

Sales Lessons from South African-born Briton Who Kept Gates Awake at Night

Dr David Potter died recently aged 82. Back in 1980 the 'maverick academic' founded an English computer company, Psion. Quite the legacy, it begat Apple VPs, revolutionary chip makers and the world's first hand-held computer with market-making digital personal organiser (PDAs as then called, pre-smartphones). I

Gotcha Forewarned

When asked to host a Sales forum over video recently, my brief from the leading salesperson involved included to create an environment that elicited the most intel from those assembled. This desire swells beneath many a sales-orientated call in general. I prepped. Discovering what those involved wished to achieve. Or