Happy Birthday Cupcake

from a batch of fifty made in what may have been Malaysia for a Dyson engineer possibly by the wonderfully talented baker, ‘azlita masam manis‘ (sweet ‘n sour Azlita?)

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I was delighted to taste this sweet tidbit of proud insider knowledge.

At England’s Dyson factory it’s not only staff who get cakes to celebrate birthdays.

Products have them too. 6,000 employees get to munch birthday cupcakes for what they make and sell.

I really hope this actually happens.

Because if true, it is a wonderful example.

Given the amount of time I spend devoted to quickening salespeople’s selling of new products, such an observed anniversary has great ramifications.

I have never come across this idea played out anywhere before.

I wish I had though.

When does a product move from new to old?

Is a mere time-stamp is less relevant than place on a journey, like the traditional product life cycle or adoption curve?

Dyson’s way is to (also?) party up the traditional yearly marker.

And why not. Landmarks such as hitting generic deanery sales numbers, new territories breached or competitor displacements are commonplace across the Sales world.

Something as arbitrary as a birthday, not so.

Yet it could be an ideal place to take stock. Look where we’ve come. Envision where we’re still going even farther.

It can stand as a lovely place from which to refocus, rebuild, regroup. Or simply to keep steadfastly on the current winning track. Jelly, ice cream, balloons, blowers, streamers. When was the last time your salesteam celebrated a product’s first birthday?