Topic

new products

A collection of 276 issues

Couldn't Care Less Whimper

A cheeky ‘weekend’ type post. I learned today that I was once an early adopter. I had the world’s “first portable digital music player“. I bought mine in 1999. It was snappily called the MPMan. Even with the biggest extra memory card I could buy for it, it could

The Bootstrappers Bible (Seth Godin)

This is a book written by marketing author Seth Godin. I’ve recently read the updated November 2004 manifesto [changethis.com/8.bootstrappersbible]. He implores that having no cash is not a valid barrier to prevent a great idea you have being turned into a new business. A noble cause

Ponzi Madoff Plausibility

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoff] Billion dollar fraudster Bernie Madoff is of course the face of all that’s wrong with the Finance industry in the aftermath of the recent recession. Documentaries have progressed since the crime was uncovered from merely explaining the extraordinary scale of robbery to trying

Buyer Makes Their Point

Here’s a delightful insight into how buyers think. They too have to ‘sell’. Ideas, new ways of doing things, and sometimes they even have to pitch our proposals in our absence. How do they fare? [http://www.supplymanagement.com/resources/knowledge-zone/2011/get-to-the-point/] Well, it seems there’s a

Coffee Dynamos Entrance

In Cape Town, I learn that in the multitude of cafés, the brands of coffee most prevalent are Illy and Lavazza. One group of young friends, headed by an Italian devotee, sought to gain a foothold for Bristot beans. They position themselves as a young, dynamic new entrant. Their first

100 Word Story

I only ever seem to see the Reader’s Digest in health centre waiting rooms. I recently discovered their intriguing 100-word story competition [http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/magazine/179-Reader's-Digest-Main/1382-Web-Exclusives-100-word-story.html] . It alerted my sales antennae for two reasons. I’d blogged before [https://salespodder.com/political-elevator-pitch/

4-Hour Workweek Middleman Exclusivity

Here’s a fascinating example of a successful new product launch. I got it from my copy of 4-hr work week [www.fourhourworkweek.com], pp145-6, and is my second successive posting based on this book. It’s from the wholesale trade. The supplier pushed a single item into a major

8 Word Mission

A recent HBR blog post underlines the importance of ‘message’ brevity. Anchored in strategic management, The Eight-Word Mission Statement [http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2010/10/the_eight-word_mission_stateme.html] has wonderful connotations for the salesperson. In the same way as it’s vital a company gets across

First New Daily Since 80s

Newspaper sales are in decline [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11623514]. > The UK’s 11 major national daily newspapers have seen their circulation shrink an average 5.75% in the last year to 10.3 million copies a day, according to industry figures. By size of readership, broadsheet

Removing Unpalatable Choices

A young small business book-keeping duo collected a £30,000 start-up prize on Sky News [http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Lucy-Cohen-and-Sophie-Hughes-Of-Accountants-Mazuma-Named-Sky-News-HSBC-Start-Up-Stars-Winners/Article/201010315761144?lpos=Business_First_Buisness_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15761144_Lucy_Cohen_and_Sophie_Hughes_Of_Accountants_Mazuma_Named_Sky_News_HSBC_Start_