Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Unsocial Hours Calling

Enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining lunchtime watching English sport in Brooklyn the other Saturday. I was in the company of a New York based technology seller. Over a brunch bagel, he let slip quite a revelation. He had spoken to Warren Buffet. On a cold call. That lasted 45 minutes. It

The Money Tree

I love hearing stories about sales management (suffered?) when people first started out in sales. This one comes from a New Yorker. He began in telesales, a fair few years ago. His boss used to pick up the telephone and wave it about. > This phone is your money tree. And

Is Price Pitching A 20% Loser?

Working with a technology sales team recently, they were bemoaning that a contract won today would shrink by a quarter by the time of renewal next year. Yet in a world seemingly fixated on cheapness, they felt the value they provided gave both a merited premium and an offer of

New York School

Here’s two tips I picked up from a one-time New York commodities broker. First, he’d developed a one-line approach to emails. The question would be in the subject line. Below, he’d simply type; > Yes, No, Maybe So? And went on to tell me of a huge deal

Walk Into Reception

Here’s a story I just heard from a delightful Kiwi chap. He’d tried the usual cold calls and emails to opem up a particular buyer at a mining concern. He reckoned ten email messages had gone unanswered. Yet he was convinced they had a need which he could

Misplaced Customer Focus

One of the most provocative, contrarian pieces in a long while, the HBR blogs recently featured results of a five-year study in customer service. Stop trying to delight your customers [http://http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/stop_trying_to_delight_your_cu.html] pleads us to think again

Chasing Obsolesence

There’s been reams of writing on Kodak’s demise. Here’s a cracking insight [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-moment-it-all-went-wrong-for-kodak-6292212.html] from one such lament. For a firm then obsessed with ‘film’ the bosses were shown a new product. Which today we’d call ‘digital’; > “In

Tim Harford's Success Prep

[http://timharford.com/2011/05/failure-its-everywhere/] In the run up to the release of his latest book, The Undercover Economist shared [http://timharford.com/2011/05/failure-its-everywhere/] why and where he feels failure leads to success. Key finding; > I’ve concluded that adapting in the face of failure is absolutely

Check Solution Belief

[http://www.inc.com/sales] Small business information for the entrepreneur. That’s how America’s Inc. pitches itself. They have a section devoted to sales [http://www.inc.com/sales]. Unfortunately, it leans towards the kind of vagueisms that the rest of its articles steadfastly avoid. Rather than hear

Testimonial Structure

[http://www.bcg.com] Consulting behemoth BCG offer up testimonials on their website. They are unfortunately shorn of any real punch or memorability. Nevertheless, the structure they employ piqued my interest. When I regale glowing references, I like to lather the full story on nice and thick. The crises, the