Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Gladwell On Brand Extension

Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out. I’ve got his earlier two; The Tipping Point and Blink. That doesn’t mean though that I’m a number-one-fan, next stop stalker. His books lack flow and colour, making them a trial to push yourself through. In terms of prose he

The Perfect Phone Call

Many an old seller considers cold-calling an essential rite of passage for the budding rep. Most of us can remember one time being sat down and talked through how to dial someone that we neither knew nor was expecting our call. In my couple of decades of selling, one of

Inspiring The Tired Shopkeeper

As you might have picked up, in my downtime I’ve become a bit of an iPlayer surfer. It’s the BBC’s catch up service. Pretty much any show from the past seven days can be seen at your leisure. Like much of the Beeb though, its provision falls

Morphing Your Bonus Into Malus

O-oh. Not content with bringing the rest of us to our knees through their own tyrannical greed, are bankers about to spell the beginning of an unjust commission regime, or is it simply the heralding of a necessarily more altruistic, responsible approach to performance rewards? I’m referring to the

Dreamboards

Relaxing in front of the telly the other night, I smiled to see one of the peerless Louis Theroux [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Theroux]‘s Wierd Weekends being re-run. The entire world outside of America views their self-help protagonists, it is fair to say, negatively. From mildly amusing,

Focus On Skills Speeds Recovery

In all the papers a couple of weeks ago, quango The Skills Commission placed ads urging companies to continue with investment in training and the like. Their Chief Exec, Chris Humphries, quotes an alarming stat that firms which do not maintain their spend on improving skills are 2½ times more

Graphic Sensitivity Analysis

There I was watching Newsnight last night the old-fashioned way, when yet another gloom-laden report into all things credit-crunch was lightened up by some BBC lackey not being able to pop up a key graphic on cue. That’ll be a 5-day Powerpoint course in the Maldives rushing their way

Lengthen Shorter Days

I rib a pal of mine that he’s a painter and decorator. Not that there’s anything wrong with such a noble profession, it’s just that for the money spent on his education he feels he should be looked up to, not upon. Still, found a useful guide

A 1 in 7 Cross-Sell

I found myself in the bedlam that is Hamleys Regent St toy store on a half-term Saturday. Battling my way through to the tills, I plonked my fancy dress party accessories for that evening on the counter with a sense of relief. The bill came to £32.98. Only half

Crawling For Crumbs

There’s yet another reality show on telly devoted to business. Seeking to emulate success scaled by The Apprentice, Natural Born Sellers you’d have thought, by dint of title alone, would be terrific. Unfortunately, everything that makes the siralun show win has been jettisoned in this effort. Schedulers have