Topic

new products

A collection of 267 issues

Skeuomorphism

Here’s something I came across through a Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9283706/Jonathan-Ive-interview-simplicity-isnt-simple.html] interview with Apple’s English design superstar, Jonathan Ive. The word is pronounced ‘skew-o-morf’, and in this context means; > a tendency for new designs to retain ornamental features of the old

Expected Customer Demand

A survey of most damaging projects that a salesteam leader could undertake would create an interesting list. Crm implementation and territory realignment seem obvious table-topping minefields. Yet there’s a more silent sinister activity that also derails sales careers. Consider this quote from a 1997 academic paper; Adoption of new

Where History Begins

[/content/images/wordpress/2012/05/where-history-begins-loughborough-wallslogans.jpg] Here’s world-leading sentiments from Team GB’s main training camp [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9222204/London-2012-Olympics-Inside-the-medal-factory-of-Team-GB-at-Loughborough-University.html] ahead of the Olympics. (Remember, the country came a record beating fourth in Beijing through this thinking). > What we have tried to

Rhetological Fallacies

[http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/rhetological-fallacies/] As you may know, I’m a big fan of the infographics movement. There isn’t a solution sales campaign that cannot be distinguished by use of their approach. Top of the tree is David McCandless. One of his recent posts attempted to draw

Do Their Bad Way Better

Here’s a Harvard Business Review blogger that got me nodding along in empathetic acknowledgement. Umair Haque riffs about Strategy’s Golden Rule [http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/04/strategys_golden_rule.html]. He feels that > The single most common competitive mistake [is] striving to do slightly better what

n Things You Never Knew About...

I do like to restrict wherever I can my new products tagged posts to tactics that are solely related to such, and not, as is so easy the case, fall into the trap of merely reporting a sales technique that can be equally applied to any product at all. Here’

Forget The Trumpets

Although I’ve tagged this post for when selling ‘new products’, it is highly applicable to any new sales drive. In the context of a shift in the focus of a particular salesteam I know, the upcoming year-end was considered the ideal time to introduce a new structure. Ever closer

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

Dumbwaiter Pitch

After blogging recently [http://salespodder.com/do-their-bad-way-better/] on an idea gleaned from the “reconceiving capitalism” musings of Umair Haque, I came across another source of inspiration from him. He seeks to banish the Elevator Pitch in favour of a sole, singular word. You have to snigger at his choice of