Topic

quirky

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

The Case For KPEs

There's a pair of control mechanisms with which you're no doubt familiar. MBO (Management By Objectives) have been around a lifetime. Courtesy of (who else?) Peter Drucker in 1954. Apparently back then (new to me) aka Management By Planning. Hoping to recalibrate management from supervision to measurement. Setting 'agreed' goals

Overview Overreach

'That 20-slide vendor corporate overview was really uplifting,' said no once semi-engaged buyer ever. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any potential customer being riveted by how wonderful you think you are. Unless perhaps they are in the serious consideration stage of formal supplier vetting. Yet time and again,

Watercooler Starters

Spare a thought for Middle England. If the gender switcheroo in elected leader-unelected head of state wasn't perhaps traumatic enough, there's the late onset shock from realisation how much the twin towers of Putin invasion and China shaped lockdown closures eventually crash into their world. One manifestation of such being

3 Front Talk Pillars Plus One

Looking back I perhaps first mentioned the minefield of Front Talk in 2008. Having then learned the most fertile trio for common ground. This month, I read that four minutes of small talk can better facilitate workplace collaboration. In a round-about sort of way. Four minutes feels quite a long

Moravec Selling

The complex is simple, yet the simple is complex. That's the basis of Moravec's Paradox around AI. A robot can solve the trickiest of calculations far beyond our brains. Yet cannot master the most natural of our movements. The difficult is easy, yet the easy is difficult. A concept hitting

Degrees of Change

My recent post on our Sales tips from conditions for the arrival of political change got me thinking. Most buyers can think in terms of 'change' when they want it. But they tend to focus on the one-size-fits-all impacts of it. Rather than considering the nuances from implications of the

Cook Up A Stirring Niche

How many times do you consider pursuing a deal outside your ideal? I recently learn of a £100 million British retail success "very comfortable flying below the radar" (their own words) that decidedly never does so. Elevating the longtime British culinary staple (first retailed there 1979), the ready meal. Dismissively

What's Your Epithet?

I wonder if the first name English schoolchildren hear featuring an epithet is Ethelred The Unready? So junior classroom friendly. There are surprisingly few such monikers in the collective canon. Overwhelmingly reserved for those long gone once lording it over their proletariat. Whether by 'god' or sword. Lately we've suffered

The Four Horsemen That Spell Account Management Relationship Apocalypse

What originator Dr John Gottman terms The Four Horsemen will crush any relationship. Research into marriages found that the presence of these four meant to split in 90 per cent of cases. Namely; criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling. Worse still, one stands above as over-riding worst offender to fatally poison our

Orange Flag Statement from Dating Expectations

"I Don't Have Any Expectations" According to Aussie 'matchmaking coach' Louanne Ward these five words sabotage any hope for a successful first date. She finds that; * these five words inadvertently drive people away in the beginning stages of dating * there are always expectations when dating, such as their date arriving