Salespodder (Page 330)

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A Swarm Buying Process?

I recently read a review of a management book [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7919177/Forget-highly-paid-CEOs.-Its-ants-and-bees-who-can-lead-us-to-the-economic-promised-land.html] , apparently one more along a trend of left-field provocateurs trying to get managers to think differently. This particular tome, called Smart Swarm, tries to build parallels between instinctive collective animal

Email Intro

So I received some pitching spam on email the other day. Whilst muttering shame on my anti-spam filter, I pondered whether there was anything to learn from my cyber assailant. Here’s what I received: > [my first name], I would like to schedule a brief call next week to

Lean Principles

Around two decades ago, Quality was the management buzzword. Since then we’ve progressed, from Business Process Engineering through to eCommerce. In the same way high street fashion recycles, so it seems do business fads. Quality makes a return in the guise of Lean Principles. As seen on the BBC’

True Or False Game

At a fundraiser for their local community initiatives, I came across a cracking idea for a moment of levity at an internal sales meeting. One which can also lead whoever introduces it onto making a serious point or two. At these Walsall Football Club events you pay a pound to

Big Picture Wordle

I came across this image in reference to what the creators saw as a disastrous Copenhagen cimate change summit. There’s just over a hundred words highlighted here. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-text-danish-wordle] I was immediately smitten. What a brilliant idea. Surely you must

Rumour to Fact

According to a talking head I caught as background the other day, apparently stockbrokers enjoy living by the phrase; > buy the rumour, sell the fact Intriguing, if a little cheeky. Yet it does introduce aligned thinking for the solution seller. Get a sniff of a ‘problem’, and you’re

Active Listening

I first came across the concept of Active Listening [http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm] back in the mid-90s. A sales manager led training session raised the question of its definition. I stepped up to successfully provide one. To me, it was always about gently summarising what you’d

Top 5 Toronto Presentation Mistakes

In the dung-filled field of abundant presentation skill insight on the web, here’s a rare blossoming rose. It comes from Canadian @jessedee [http://twitter.com/JESSEDEE]. His website is well worth a visit, in particular to view his slideshared You Suck At Powerpoint – 5 Shocking Design Mistakes You Need

Great Run Feats

Extreme athlete (and fantastic eco-warrior)Braam Malherbe [www.braammalherbe.com] recently ran 4,218km along the Great Wall of China. It took 98 days, at an average of 43km a day. It was the latest in a long list of fund-raising efforts and climate and inequality awareness projects. Also apparently

Chief Exec Involvement

The Miller-Heiman solution selling mailing list received an invite to participate in their annual best-practice survey last week. They teasingly included their favourite finding from last year’s [http://www.slideshare.net/alinutley/miller-heiman-sales-best-practice]. Only 7% of companies qualified inside their definition of “world-class”. I realise that you could cloud