quirky

I was reminded today of the technique attributed to John Lennon.  He apparently thought some of the best inspiration for lines and songs came from random people on TV, so took to having a notepad permanently by his side as he watched the box. Flicking through a S African mag

I took time out from my normal day-job for a meeting on a fresh endeavour yesterday.  It was a strange forum in the sense that depending on what transpired, I was potentially both selling and buying. I hadn’t convened the meeting, so I didn’t “own” it, but I

Rocked up for a meeting with a first-time prospect, only to be ridiculed for wearing a flasher-mac.  And I was sure it was trendy.  Thankfully, whilst our fashion sense differed, our sales-sense converged.  One key area we discussed featured objection handling. The frustration with reps not self-analysing enough cropped up.

I received a robust reminder of reality yesterday when I was trounced by someone.  I’m currently running a beauty parade of suppliers for an aspect of a fresh endeavour.  I want to deploy that best-practice procurement irritant of getting down to a shortlist of two.  Achieving this means contacting

I caught a snatch of a female-orientated glossy with thumbnails of clothes designers depicting their routes to success.  Being a rep you’ll understand, I was reading it upside-down, as a woman in a cafe sitting opposite me tucked in.  One quoted a former fashion-maker, Jean Muir, as providing a

I sent a brilliant email earlier this morning.  I’m sure you know the kind.  You spend a good few minutes planning it in your head.  Then fire up the word processor.  Re-editing makes sure your killer points are to the fore.  Headings are added and emboldened, bullets introduced, italics

A customer of mine had a right old rant, going off on one when speaking with me late last week.  He runs a sales effort.  In England, such people are called Sales Directors.  Elsewhere, titles may differ (VP Sales, CSOs) but the role remains the same. He was flummoxed.  Why

I tried to run a client jolly once.  As my customers have always tended to be sales people, I thought they’d really appreciate the TLC.  I myself have enjoyed these treats, especially geting to play the Belfry’s Brabazon course just before wallopping the Yanks in the Ryder Cup

A customer of mine shared some winning insight during a delightful half-hour chat late last night about how to avoid problems with seasonal downturns.  There is a month in the year during which none of his prospects ever find time to see him.  For ease of description, let’s call