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Product Management Hub

What’s going on inside Big Blue today? When I started my career, their navy blue double-breasted suit wearing account managers had the appearance of a zombiefied religious sect. In fact, their collective noun could well have been a ‘cult’ of reps. They still majored on the classic FUD tactic

Travelling Salesman Problem

It’s official. The humble honey bee has greater brain power [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/bees-route-finding-problems] than a field rep. How many sales managers will groan with agreement? Not sure how those of us pounding the streets will take this revelation, mind you. As the

Passion Before Reason

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume] At the start of my second ever day of sales training, the old sage conducting affairs wrote up on a flip chart the following teaser; the decision to buy is ____% emotional and it was open forum to fill in the blank with a

Black Swan Stress Test

I read the book that introduced this phrase a couple of years [http://salespodder.com/the-black-swan/] back. So was intrigued to find an article from HBR in September 2011 (by Flyvbjerg & Budzier) evoking the concept in the context of (IT) project success. If you sell in the tech space,

Steve Jobs Soundbites

When the man credited with disrupting at least three mega-industries died this week, the out-pouring of accolades was akin to that for a beloved rockstar. The most often played clip came from the above speech. Don’t settle. Only strive to do what you love. Stay hungry, stay foolish. It’

Falling Out The Sky

You hear it on documentaries. Even Malcolm Gladwell referred to it in Outliers. When a plane crashes it is seldom through one single, isolated cause. It’s usually because several small things happen. When one wrong turn occurs, subsequent issues arise which can compound it. Combined, these cue tragedy. [http:

Investor Red Flags

[http://www.startupsmart.com.au/planning/2010-11-22/10-reasons-investors-dont-invest-in-start-ups.html] Having been paid to write business plans, I’m always interested in the parallels between launching start-ups and selling new products. A young Aussie entrepreneur here provides his checklist of 10 reasons investors don’t invest in start-ups [http://www.startupsmart.

Buffett's Driving Forces

The Beeb were running a “how to be a millionaire” season I caught on iPlayer recently. I’ve blogged on the merits of Warren Buffett’s incredibly successfully investment outlook for the solution seller before [http://salespodder.com/buffett-value-approach/]. In the Money Programme [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/

Jackson Trial Slides

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2011/09/jackson-dr-prosecution-slides-body.jpg] It’s not often that a powerpoint presentation makes the front page of just about every news website on the planet. This week, courtesy of the prosecution team on behalf of Michael Jackson, that’s precisely what happened. As surely

Rent Turnover Ratio

I was doing a little job for someone that involved a customer profitability analysis. One element reminded me of the time in the Nineties when I spent a day with an office supplies salesteam in Torquay. A thoroughly enjoyable day ended with me keen to sample the nightlife of the