grapevine

5th Quadrant seems the name of a Croatian Interim Management provider. I came across a page they’d posted [http://www.5th-quadrant.com/en/selling_structure.html] about the demands on someone running a sales function. Unfortunately, none of their quoted figures has a source. Nonetheless, it’s intriguing to

One of the hardest things about sales management is how to handle one of your charges when they lose a deal. Fear of failure can drive some people to spectacular success. Fear of making a mistake usually freezes someone in terror. When I first started to learn my trade I

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal] What must the French think. For the past few years the best chefs in the world herald from beyond L’Hexagone. Heston’s Mission Impossible [http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hestons-mission-impossible] follows one such cooking-star as he tries to transform truly awful and

Here’s an entertaining nugget from the Economist. How to tell when your boss is lying [http://www.economist.com/node/16847818] lifts the lid on the language people use when they lie, based on an incredible 30,000 conference calls. With typical Economist brevity it’s only five paragraphs

A quick blog on a mid/late Nineties survey into how the average sales person spends their time. Attributed to sales trainerCargill [http://www.gilcargill.com], it encompasses five straightforward possibilities. > 34% Admin tasks 32% Waiting, Travelling 15% with Customers 14% with Prospects 5% Service Calls Recognise these figures

My final of third reference to the “life-hacker bible” as lived and preached by author Tim Feriss. An easy reading manifesto for ditching the Nine-to-Five trudge that urges the pursuit of experiences over cube-dwelling, one fascinating section discusses the appropriateness of goal setting. [http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/] Its System Reset