Topic

quirky

ideas and experiences with a selling angle that come from left-field

Check You're Not Seen In As Bad A Light As Your Bank's "Advisers"

I cannot hide it. I hold banksters in utter contempt. Not just down to their casino capitalism and its obvious atrocities. I’m also thinking of my own personal and business banking. I have been ripped off and misled over the past quarter-century so many times. On only one occasion

Do Your Cubicle Walls Inspire?

I remember my first ever cubicle. It was grim. The person next to me was a right muppet too. On my two-foot high blue velvety-clad desk dividing wall I was greeted with posters of such corporate banality I knew my time there had to be short. My next cubicle was

Can Your Big Bid Take Hold Like Snapchat?

Well, photosharing phenomenon Snapchat may have just turned down a $3bn buyout from Facebook. For a firm derided for buying allied concept Instagram for a mere $1bn, that is serious Zuckerberg cash. Snapchat’s appeal appears primarily in the sharer being able to stipulate how long the pic stays visible,

Does Your Prospect Yearn To Make A Difference?

On a longhaul flight I often enjoy listening to the on-board spoken word offerings. There’s pleasure in unearthing a hidden gem when, inexplicably, there’s no Bruce Willis movie to be found. So I was intrigued to uncover an ‘essay’ by a founder of SAS. A huge software analytics

The Best Time Of Day To Talk To An Evasive Customer Is...?

> buyers are liars A old-time adage of the hardened salesrep. Just imagine what buyers say in turn about sellers. Ouch. In a widely reported survey this week (here’s a brief summary [http://www.popsci.com/article/science/youre-more-likely-cheat-afternoon]) people are more likely to be deceptive as the day

Are You Too Precious About Your Own Branding?

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2013/10/boktownbar.jpg] Here’s a shot taken waiting at the bar of the Springbok Pub. A watering hole of renown, if not quite of the latest in decor, next to the railway line along from Newlands rugby stadium, just the other side

Your Pitch A Key Runway For Leverage?

…I bloody well hope not. Reading the wires in downtime this week I came across two entertaining pieces on the ridiculousness that is management speak. So there’s this book out next week (Who Touched Base In My Thought Shower?: A Treasury of Unbearable Office Jargon by Steven Poole) for

A Reminder To Channel The Wisdom Of Crowds

This is something I often do in conference presentations. It’s a winner when you have a large audience. I was reminded of it when catching the engaging Robert Coles of Reuters discuss the recent Royal Mail privatisation. For those to whom this means nothing, shares in the UK’s

When's A Meeting Got Too Many Attendees?

Music to the perennially puerile male ear. No less a light than top psychology Professor Robin Dunbar this week states that for the sake of our wellbeing [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2469485/Mens-wellbeing-depends-meeting-friends.html] , we men must spend more time in the pub with our mates. The man’

Sheeps & Goats

No, that isn’t a typo. Just a bit of “Singlish” (Singapore English that adds the ‘s’ to ensure sheep gets a plural). This was a phrase that came up in conversation about whether sales people should concentrate only on new business or account management. This is a classic debate.