quirky

Met a chap called Steve with the grand-sounding title of Head Of Strategy.  We got to talking about all the ‘menial’ jobs that marketing should do for sales, but don’t, simply because they think that they’re beneath them. In reality, they are not menial, but they do suffer

My pals consider me a bit of a poptart.  Despite my advancing years, I firmly believe it’s perfectly acceptable to be into ‘pop’ music.  My playlists encompass a broad spectrum, from the heaviest rock, to the smoochiest of divas, but pure pop pleasure is the centre of my aural

Back in London, I met up with a pal for a couple of cheekies down the juicer.  As can often be the case, we got to talking about former girlfriends.  My mate recounted a tale from some years ago that gave me a neat sales insight. He was out one

Well, there I was sitting at a desk near the front door of my Cape Town office, safely away from the Winter cold and rain talking away about a customer project, when in walked a women in a beret, with a huge black cotton holdall slung over her shoulder. Unused

I guess this must be happening to several salesreps, and is likely to gather pace.  You’re supplying someone that all of a sudden, decides to take what you’ve been faithfully selling from a far flung land instead. One of my customers told me today about a famous story

Been reading quite a few mags now that I’ve a bit of R&R downtime on my hands during Cape Town’s Spring evenings.  Reluctantly I was drawn to Men’s Health [http://www.menshealthsa.co.za].  Lazily thumbing through, realising what I was invited to read could

Watching Sky News Sunday afternoon I was alarmed to watch a piece explaining that the average worker wastes 49 minutes every day on email management.  In addition, a recent anaylst reckoned that interrupting your current task in response to a new email alert creates 4 minutes of disruption [http://news.

Here’s a wonderful phrase my Cape Town pal Paul passed on to me over the weekend.  Ever bemoaned the lack of progress from a pre-sales helper-cum-techie, supposedly helping you with vital prospect prep?  In my case, I was trying to work out how to rush-up a local supplier, who’

Most of the sales teams I meet cite one specific competitor with whom they enjoy (or endure!) locking horns, where intense battles often focus on their opponent’s inferior product at cheaper cost stealing away business. Then travelling to Heathrow to catch a flight I picked up a deshevelled paper