Topic

quirky

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

Prebunking Malinformation

I came across this phrase very much of the modern landscape through a professor of evolutionary biology. Talking about his visit to the migrant trains running north from the infamous Darien gap. Destination, U S of A. It appears the vast numbers of Latin Americans fleeing dictators and the lesser

Preparing for War

"... grasp the big lesson of history: If you do not prepare for war you shall not have peace." A subeditor's preferred take on historian Niall Ferguson's view of the current warmongering climate around the world. The man himself first used this prose; One of history's oldest maxims is Roman: Si

Horses, Courses & Jockeys

From those long ago first forays into sales management, among many facets, I quickly learned to impress upon sellers an order in which they ought, namely; sell yourself first, then the company, then the product. Whereas most seemed to get these the wrong way 'round. Pitching product upfront is not

Poetry vs Prose

With so much of the Free World going to the polls this year, I was reminded of the old electioneering adage; campaign in poetry, govern in prose. This in part builds on the power of emotion. And the pitfall of how the solution seller can misplace importance instead on facts,

Fact Division

Because fact into doubt won’t go. Whatever that means. The punchline I noted recently of a broadsheet journalist set-up. You can switch 'doubt' to several other words and sum up the solution sale. Particularly where we're up against a (naturally less suitable) alternative which seems to garner significant support

Tactical Pause

I came across the term of this post's title through assessment of where the battling Ukraine armed forces are at with the potential next Spring Offensive just the other side of the harsh Winter. It suggests a tactical break in fighting so that you may re-organise. With materiel from the

Discretionary Effort

In all the years of blogging, I've mentioned the scandalously utterly dysfunctional monopolistic state health system of Britain many times. As beacon of what not to do to deliver a service. 'Envy of the world' it most certainly ain't. With a general election imminent, I read a broadsheet assessment of

Your Magnificent Seven Riding Into Town

Move over 'Fangs', there's a new crew in view. The Magnificent Seven; Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook-Instagram-WhatsApp), Microsoft, NVIDIA, & Tesla. A recently coined collective for the supposedly most-influential, highest performing tech cos. Indeed, their valuation growth dwarves the sector; 2023 returning a staggering 78pc gain, compared with 12pc for

Resolution Replacement

Down the years I have occasionally felt urged to relate the practice of making New Year Resolutions to our Sales pursuit. Generally, given that keeping to them is setting yourself up for failure in an overwhelming - plenty of studies regularly suggest - 95 percent of cases, is there ever

New Year Build

I've ran a fair few sessions lately involving assessing performance management when over video. Whilst there are structured ways of making this trickiest of topics work, all the way from formal reviews to off-the-cuff snapshots, there's a safe path for this in the guise of Year Wrap or SKO mini-session.