Salespodder (Page 350)

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Cutting The Ribbon

> “When [the CEO] is standing up there and cutting the ribbon what we need to have made sure is…” This was a joyous phrase I heard in a post-sale project management meeting I was involved with the other day. There were two elements to this that impressed me: 1.

What's Changed

One terrific way of opening a meeting, whether during a first-time campaign or as part of an account management process, is to start off by asking “what’s changed” since you last got together. Yet the other day I was in a meeting where our last get-together was only the

Darwinian Difficulty

There’s all sorts of wonderfully produced BBC documentaries celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of the Species publication. One such programme focused on what Darwin did not know at the time, and pondered whether it added or subtracted from his proposition. One base

Brad Sugar's 5 Ways

Flicking through the Entrepreneur mag [http://www.entrepreneur.com/], I came across a fella peddling his ownfail-safe system [http://www.bradsugars.com/page.php?page=5ways]on how business owners can generate crucial extra profit. It’s not without merit, and reminded me of the simplistic approaches sales managers like

Tactical Surprise

Over the past few days, Afghanistan dominated rolling news. Initially it was the awesome exploits of its fledgling cricket side qualifying for the World 20/20 Cup in the Windies in April (although, ICC take note, what we need is a 20/20 series akin to the IRB Rugby 7s

Concept Doc

Many, many solution salespeople I met get frustrated by what they perceive as unappreciated effort. Spending hefty chunks of time crafting proposal-style documents often goes unrewarded when the pdf emailed over does not get read. Where it even exists (which is in a surprisingly small amount of cases) standardised documentation

Another Golden Rule

I was involved in one of those informal, first-meet handshake, style introductions over a bottle of excellent red the other day with a chap that ran a firm specialising in writing business plans on behalf of prospective corporate funders. He thought that there was an unhealthy attitude prevalent among the

Think Fluid Mechanics

A chap I met recently was moaning about the seemingly never-ending roadworks around JoBurg-Centurion-Pretoria. One day it might actually be finished and a good thing, yet he feared that they hadn’t taken into account one simple rule from fluid mechanics. Being his forte, he was delighted to elaborate. Liquid

Getting Luckier

One of sport’s most well-known quotes is surely from 9-time golf major champion, Gary Player; “the more I practice, the luckier I get“. So I was intrigued to catch a CNN chat with him alongside 20-year old Northern Ireland prodigy, Rory McIlroy. Player was asked to pass on wisdom.

The Right Target

Premiership managers are often heard talking about how they must first reach 40 points. It is at such a mark that they feel they preserve their prized status for another year. Gain 40 points, so the theory goes, and after all 38 games are done and dusted, you won’t