Topic

new products

A collection of 267 issues

First-Mover Advantage?

I’ve attended several sales conferences where new products are ceremoniously unveiled. I’m regularly struck by the enormous desire to trailblaze. The rising triumphalism often aims to drum home how cutting edge the new offering is. How it opens up a whole new market segment. There’s nothing like

Top Five Regrets Of The Buying

Here’s a cheery thought. An Aussie palliative nurse that gave hospice care for those on their death beds made global headlines a while back. She published the list [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9049120/Losing-touch-with-friends-most-common-deathbed-regret.html] of her patients’ biggest regrets. Here’s the top five from

Lessons From Feature-Based Hotel Room Pitch

There’s a large English firm with fingers in many ‘leisure’ pies called Whitbread [http://www.whitbread.co.uk/about-us/history-of-whitbread.html]. They’ve grown from brewing and pubs through pizza houses to coffee chains and hotels. This week their chief exec [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/

Kawasaki's Top Ten Entrepreneur Lies

When lecturing at Cambridge University recently, my attention was happily re-drawn to venture capital guru Guy Kawasaki. Seven years ago he wrote this seminal [http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html] blog on the delusions of people that pitch him their new business idea. These

Google Keep Discarded

A salutary lesson. The average lifespan of a Google product is only 1,459 days [https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2013%2Fmar%2F22%2Fgoogle-keep-services-closed&ei=

6Ms of Coffee

Whoa! Steady on, coffee aficionado! I know there are supposedly five, not six, Ms of coffee, but there is fair discrepant thought on this, right? For those wondering what on earth I’m going on about, I only just discovered this ‘rule’. It seems that the Italians consider a number

Sheldon Cooper's Big Bang Process

[/content/images/wordpress/2013/02/sheldon-cooper-finding-a-friend-flow-chart.jpg] Big Bang Theory. Geek fest comedy heaven, hey. So in this particular episode I caught, Sheldon was determined to get a new friend. True to type, he’d constructed this flow chart (see above, a raw pic of my actual telly screen) of

Up-Goer Five Pitch

[http://splasho.com/upgoer5/] I was delighted to come across this meme [http://splasho.com/upgoer5/], albeit courtesy of a lefty [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/shortcuts/2013/jan/22/up-goer-five-thing-on-computer] rag! It extols the very simplicity buyers yearn for. And when deployed by sellers, it means they succeed.

Key Security Indicators

I came across Key Security Indicators (KSIs) from a former client of mine’s training workshops. They sought to develop customer retention policies, during the Winter of 2005. The idea was to identify potential areas of risk in their customer relationships. Could you pinpoint their strength, and then the degree

CES Vegas Poor Pitch Brits

So the Las Vegas global gadget-fest that kicks off the year is always good to fill the airwaves in a slow-news week. The Consumer Electronics Show may not feature all the big boys, but wannabes and wonders abound nonetheless. Smart tellies, some that wouldn’t fit through my front door,