quirky

When men get together here’s proof that it’s not just sport, the battle of the sexes and general nonsense that we discuss.  My friend Murray and I were reminding ourselves that our heydays of cuemanship were well behind us when, upon my missing an easy straight pot, I

In a recent clearout of ancient files, I could hardly believe my eyes that I still had a couple of mags someone had given me from 1993.  Such hoarding would normally be inexcusable, but on this occasion they were part of a box crammed with sales advice I collected from

Picture the scene.  You’re in an internal sales team meeting and people are moaning.  Product, marketplace, environment, marketing, competition, support, pricing, production, commissions.  Take your pick.  You know you shouldn’t get involved, but the herd mentality kicks in and the downward spiral destructively crashes ever deeper. I recall

And another sales tip from Newsnight (!) this time from a fella that worked inside Number Ten under Blair.  He made the interesting disclosure that on the wall of the Cabinet Office was emblazoned the quotation: “Quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot.”  This apparently comes from the Gilbert & Sullivan opera

Yesterday I found myself in a store well-known to my generation for it’s ability to provide fantastic crockery [www.whittard.co.uk] when the emergency of moving home renders you, almost literally, potless. Currently in an old-school state of culinary disarray, I noted that their display was more teas

Until the past few months, Estate Agents regularly topped polls seeking to shame the ‘most hated profession’.  Then bankers came along.  Here’s a reminder as to how those old poll findings came about. I’ve a friend renting a flat out in London.  Against his better judgement, he decided

So the IMF made news yesterday for doubling its relief provision to poor countries during this recession from its “exogenous shock” fund.  Not normally much of sales worthiness to report there, although it’s certainly not an everyday phrase and consequently alerts the ear. My memory of what that actually

I read an article in a strategic management mag [http://www.strategy-business.com/press/16635507/18637] from a few years back with timeless resonance for salespeople.  It discusses ten books that unmask story-telling as a definitively powerful tool in persuasion.  It must have been a buzz-topic of the time, as

I experienced a pleasant surprise the other night; excellent service in a London gastropub.  Over the past few years, the usual antipodean supply of waitrons and bartenders has been supplanted by eastern Europeans who, whilst laudably keen, are suffering inevitable confusion from not fully understanding colloquial, real-time English and accompanying