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quirky

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

Commitment Tax

A universal way to understand someone’s continuing commitment to you is to ask them for yet more money. Many companies try to tie-in customers (and lock-out competitors) by setting up programmes that add extra value, typically for a small ‘service’ charge for membership. The software trade somehow got away

Attention Scarcity

Here’s a thought-provoking concept I read from a Frenchman’s blog, Macro Principles [http://www.macroprinciples.com/2009/04/user-adoption-risks-are-growing-rapidly-for-it-projects/] , quoting Herbert Simon: > What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a

Can You Cut A Sliver?

I was reminded just now of a thoroughly decent chap called Dylan. I met him around twenty years ago whilst he was doing a PhD on how small businesses make strategic decisions. He is now a leading academic [http://dylanje.blogspot.com/] with specialisations including how such small enterprises become

Standing On The Shoulders Of CEO Expertise

I’ve spent time lately helping salespeople understand the kinds of topic that CEO-style people want to hear, specific to when they permit a prospective rep to sit before them for five minutes, and do not ‘appear’ directly involved in your decision process. I was reminded of a time fifteen

Managing Dissonance

In the rarity of English sunshine last Sunday, three of us were ambling around a village in Pennine foothills when the woman among us decided it was ice cream time. Clearly, there’s no argument when a lady demands such a treat so I was forced to join the hunt.

Forward Agenda Disruption

It’s incredible how many sales tips I pick up from people on Newsnight. I am one of the almost two million Brits that apparently hold this single beacon of quality news analysis (as opposed to the diet of rubbish served by the rolling news obsession, this century’s new

Change Success

A mate came ’round last night to sample some cheeky Islay malt. We were due to pop out to a nearby juicer, but I’m not ashamed to say I’m a little smitten with Mary Portas (no, not in that way, I’m not her ‘type’!), so insisted we

When Small Amounts Outweigh The Large

London’s Daily Telegraph stole an incredible march on its rivals by publishing the expense claims [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/] of UK MPs. Whatever your moral or political stance on whether the elected representatives are underpaid and overworked or cosseted fraudsters, you cannot deny that three

Corrective Repetition

Presentation skills training is a rare privilege in the career of a rep. I myself had a solitary half-day course in some central Birmingham hotel given as part of a national roadshow by a national training company. And the truth about their views are that they added for me practically

Double-Bubble Barter

How desperate for you is your prospect? It’s an interesting question because the more they need what you offer, the swifter you should be able to close and, even better, the less you will be required to discount which, in these credit crunch recession times, could define your year.