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quirky

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

80/20 Really 54/6?

One for those with particular interest to wholesale environments and in general keen on the sniper’s rifle rather than blunderbus on their territories. Is philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb one of an emerging band of thinkers who believe Pareto’s long held principle does not apply? He suggests that instead,

Taking The Black Shilling

This was a phrase uttered to me during the mid-90s. I was self-employed for a couple of years, doing various sales and strategy projects for small growing firms. I loved it. Then I went full-time inside one of my customers. The chap that knowingly mentioned this to me was himself

How To Make An Apology

I was never on the receiving end of severe dressing downs from management in my sales youth. Yet I did partake in several raging ding-dongs with them. One surrounded the fall-out from a key meeting, cancelled clientside. Our ‘champion’ hadn’t quite been able to execute our plan for progression.

Don't Increase Infrastructure Capacity

I am of the long-standing firm belief that you never solve a problem by simply throwing money at it. I saw a brief interview with author Greg Mills discussing his latest bookWhy Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It. As his publisher’s blurb explains, he “controversially

Pop-Up Rep

A hot marketing fad involves so called Pop-up Shops. Depending on which colony you’re in, you might also know this trend as pop-up stores, pop-stores or pop-up retail. From Olde Worlde once-off market traders selling Christmas Trees, to fireworks outlets springing up the week of Bonfire Night, the concept’

How Do You Give Directions?

I was off somewhere new the other day. I didn’t know the precise location but as these things often run, I was familiar with the rough area. All that eluded me was the final drive up to the destination. So the person I was meeting emailed directions. Only a

Contract Dispute Approach

I recently bore witness to a post delivery dispute. Work had been fully complete. Most payment had been settled. Then at the death, internal customer politics appeared to stall the concluding payment. With the top man client-side seemingly intent on withholding this final sum, a document was requested to shed

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

A Brush With Failure

A retail experience of mine just now is a microcosm of how poor selling skills can compound a stuttering sale to meander towards oblivion. I wandered into a chemists and was greeted cheerily by the manager. A good start, he asked, > “What are you looking for?” Mini-emergency, I was

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