Topic

grapevine

A collection of 650 issues

Do You Know Your Numbers Like Debt Management Shysters?

Here’s one live current affairs issue (quite rightly) outraging middle England. Pay-day loan companies have long been painted as unscrupulous villains. What with their thousands of percent interest regimes. When people get consumed by debt, payday or otherwise, another vulture emerges; debt management companies. Whilst services, mainly charity related,

Can You Close Presentations Like Finance Minister Budget Sign-Off?

Wednesday 19 March saw the UK’s annual Budget. Delivered by Chancellor George Osborne. At the end of his bullish despatch box turn, fuelled by promising economic climes for the first time in five years, here are his final words; > Mr Deputy Speaker, The central mission of this government

Are You Traffic Light-ing Your Progress Docs?

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2014/03/RedAmberGreen-doc.jpg] Here’s a document from a project management style approach to a progress report. I’ve redacted the text for obvious reasons. The point is simple. Each line is an action. And at its right, is the colour it is

Secrets From Inside A Busted 110-Strong Boiler Room

[http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/news-and-appeals/international-police-operation-targets-suspected-boiler-room-masterminds/Pages/default.aspx] The City Of London Police shone last week shutting down a massive boiler room. Based in Barcelona targeting mainly Britons, so far 850 ruined victims have been identified. As you can see from the pic released above, officers found a

Tata Climate Shows Way For Sector Specialism

I heard a wonderful tale from an accomplished Indian sales manager the other day. He used to work for behemoth Tata. One of the world’s largest conglomerates. I often rail against how too many a salesperson claims that they are a “sector specialist”. When in reality all they know

The Little Used Pricing Trick That Helps Your Proposal Win

Here’s a great reminder I got from The Atlantic mag the other day. Never put solely a single pricing option in your Prop. They use the example of Netfilx testing prices [http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-behavioral-psychology-of-netflixs-plan-to-charge-higher-prices/283367/] for their soaring video streaming services. The summary

What Every Exec Ought To Know About Selling Product Plans

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2014/01/markreussgm.jpg] As the 25th Detroit Motor Show began Monday, Jeff Randall interviewed a happy General Motors exec. At first Mr Randall seemed more preoccupied with what it’d be like soon for all those petrolhead fellas – for the first time in

Modern Call Centre Still Likes Old School Scoreboards

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2014/01/callcentre-landscape.jpg] Here’s Swansea’s third largest call centre. The right of those L-shaped buildings in the middle. I enjoyed the shows with them last Autumn, blogging [http://salespodder.com/call-centre-coaching-at-odds-with-message/] each week, and now I just caught the festive season

Donut Boss Fails To Dunk It

So eating my brekkie Tuesday I caught the boss (sounding rather English) of an expanding American fast food chain on an early morning tv sofa. Nigel Travis was bullish. 20 years after shutting down, Dunkin’ Donuts are back in England. They just opened their first store outside central London. His

Do Your Incentives Corrupt Salespeople?

There’s a big story in the banking sector this week all about sales. Specifically, “serious failings [http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5c944f8e-6249-11e3-bba5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2nA7szYXp] ” in sales practices. These have led to more multi-million fines and a further plummeting of the industry’s reputation and public standing.