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Valley Of Death

To a salesperson, the phrase Death Valley usually triggers nightmares about the silence that can follow a final Board or closing presentation. For business plan pitchers, the Valley of Death could well mean something different. I was reminded of this extremely valid business plan pointer by way of a Harvard

Clarke's Chirpy Triumph

What a pleasure to watch Darren Clarke unexpectedly romp home to golf Major glory on Sunday. The record book updates are startling. No one has first won one of the big four after so many attempts. Only a handful of 40-plus aged players have a slam to their name, let

More Top Performer Traits

Here’s findings I read on Selling Power [http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?a=9273] gleaned from around 10,000 salespeople that you can benchmark yourself against. > How much time do you spend on prospect needs analysis? How early and for how long do you line up

So You Think You Can Sell (Video Arts)

Comedian John Cleese made plenty of videos in the Eighties with his business training company, Video Arts. One such feature came in 1985, So You Think You Can Sell. The accompanying script which I recently re-discovered is light on earth shattering insight, choosing instead to offer entry-level guidance. Here’s

Till Pressure Grows

I was wondering through a sparkly regenerated town centre the other day and passed a new store selling smart gentlemen’s “fine tailoring and etceteras“. In the mould of the explosion of such English outfitters from a decade ago (Pink, Hawes & Curtis, TM Lewin, Charles Tyrwhitt, Emmett, Hilditch &

Quick And Cheap Tests

Here’s a bullet from a list of business growth recommendations in Management Today [http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1023468/Eight-ways-design-better-start-up/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH] . > Find a way of testing out new products, services or markets quickly and cheaply Whilst primarily aimed at start-up design, this particular pointer has great

Kathy McAfee's Quick Pitch

Here’s a neat four-minute refresher on the arts of the quick pitch. It’s rare to hear humility from Americans, so when Kathy McAfee regales us with how she once was clueless on these skills you can’t help but warm to her. Her aim is to get people

Let Go Of A Mistake

A last thought as provoked by the tennis just gone. The undoubted turning point of the Nadal-Murray semi-final was at 15-30 Nadal serving, at 1-2 down and having lost the first set. It was beautifully illuminated by Boris Johnsonthus [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/8614808/Wimbledon-2011-Game-set-and-tax-why-Andy-Murray-will-always-get-clobbered.html]

Are These Your Personality Traits?

A recent HBR blog suggests there are seven traits [http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_seven_personality_traits_o.html] that top performers have. 36 separate virtues were tested to find where the biggest differences between high and low performers lay. The selling pool was from Enterprise Sales

Pressure Is A Privilege

A bonus blog having just watched the women’s tennis slam final in London. It turns out the title of this post was both a text sent by former champ Billie Jean King (to Maria Sharapova before she won the 2008 Open in Melbourne) and a book she co-wrote. As