Topic

quirky

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

Toe Dip Time

I’ve read the reporting by the BBC on ten UK small businesses [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7777861.stm] and their travails in the current credit crunch conditions. The problem with the Beeb on matters like this, is that they’re pitifully poor when it comes

The Services Dilemma

Watching the live stand-up show of Frankie Boyle in London the other night was therapeutic in the sense that you allowed yourself to laugh at things that ordinarily society would not permit you to. One (perhaps the only) clean story he told related to cultural differences in reactions to change

Salesrep Created 'Packages'

These thoughts begin with a friend-of-a-friend tale. I was pondering how to add choice to my offerings in these credit crunch, now recessionary times. Although potentially going against the grain (the one that suggests more choice leads to customer confusion and so lesser, not more sales) in my line I’

The Number One Is?

I caught a business reality show on telly which had recently inspired me to blog on an earlier episode [http://salespodder.com/inspiring-the-tired-shopkeeper/]. I was struck by the difference between this installment and the previous one. To encourage soaring sales, each of the three independent retail outlets were in effect

Learning Balance From Media Training

Any lover of the kind of entertainment provided by the peerless Paxo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Paxman], will have an interest in what media trainers get paid for. Many years ago I worked for a body that sent a few of my colleagues off for a day’s

Got A Trophy Product?

I came across this thought-provoking concept half-reading an article [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/3539900/Recession-is-no-menace-for-publisher-Dennis.html] in a coffee shop provided newspaper. The Economist weekly mag is, apparently just such a “trophy product”. Half of its sales go unread. Instead, they’re left in swanky reception

Don't Rely On Email

I found my head nodding along with the sentiments of a recent LA Times article documenting the backlash against email [http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-email31-2008jul31,0,6067177.story]. Here’s three (of several eligible) quotes to give you a flavour: * email … stimulates forward motion but doesn’t necessarily mean

Centrally Sidelined

I spoke to a client of mine as he was working from home, desperately trying to attend to a fixer from the water board to repair his meter. He was explaining how like any such business, their ERP-add-on reporting software user-base experienced an element of attrition each year. Yet for

Is There A Buyer's 'Five Tests'?

I note that the issue of Britain’s embrace of the Euro briefly reared it’s head for the chattering classes just now. I’ve always felt this a non-issue, a political dead-end, because whatever your stance, it is impossible to imagine a time when the required referendum would ever

Who Guides These People?

You know the story. Sign up for an enticing freebie report online. Read report. Consider it inconsequential. Receive pleas for dialogue from reps via email for next millennia. Normally these get spam-filtered out, but here’s the main body from a dastardly one that sneaked through. > “I hope these