Topic

quirky

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

Dead Cat Manoeuvre

Australian electioneer Lynton Crosby. A man who’s “business” charged £2.4m in fees when consulting the UK right-wing Conservatives to unexpected victory at last May’s General Election. He has a clear expertise [http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/lynton-crosby-wedge-politics-general-election-tories] in this area. Much of which has

Sarcy Stein’s Law Applied To Your Sales

So this week I caught a press conference with American Central Bank vice-chair Stanley Fischer. His accent combined with choice of words made him sound an interesting character. Quite a lifestory. Interest rates at zero. Growth crawling. Commodities plunging. The assembled economic hacks all gloom. He lightened the mood by

How Gaining Trust Of Favela Crime Lord Can Help You Win Prospects Over

A fascinating interview on SA tv revealed how a journalist got to interview in depth an imprisoned Brazilian major organised crime boss. Granted a meeting inside one of the countries four secure hi-tech penitentiaries, author Misha Glenny realised he faced a reluctant interviewee. One not just mindful of incriminating himself,

Fancy A Nibble?

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2016/01/folkcupcakesbree.jpg] Hats off to the lad with the sales nous at Folk Coffee Company on Cape Town’s city bowl Bree Street. There I was happily sipping an Elevenses coffee. Having turned down at the outset an accompanying offer of food

Use Fig Leaf Pitch Rather Than Go Nude

With the Australian Open tennis in full swing, I caught commentators use a term new to my ears. A poor, feeble serve is referred to as nude. One with nothing on it. I instantly thought how that applied to far too many a pitch I’d heard. Whether exclusively feature-ridden,

Industry 4.0 Applied To Your Niche

[http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/fourth-industrial-revolution/] The annual World Economic Forum big cheese shindig from Davos made its typically blanket media impression this week. I was struck by this year’s strapline; > The Fourth Industrial Revolution Forum founder Klaus Schwab; > “Ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing. Intelligent robots. Self-driving

Price List Crossover Winners From Coffee Shops

[www.peets.com] More retail-solution sales crossover. San Francisco. Peet’s Coffee & Tea House [http://www.peets.com] pre-dates Starbucks by five years. I got too tucked into their decadent raspberry mocha (above). Cape Town. The Creamery Cafe [http://thecreamery.co.za/]. Craft ice creams with coffee meant I

Sello Narrans And Your Memorable Fairy Tale Pitch

I couldn’t help but notice sales trends 2016 articles fizz through my feeds this month. They all seem strangely similar to those I skimmed twelve months ago. Embrace social media (‘social selling’), focus on (unconsidered) value, the splintering of sales ‘tech’ (‘sales development software’, anyone?), even adopt apps for

Why You Need Both Natural & Striver Origin Stories

So I caught a business telly slot on our unconscious bias towards natural talent over hard work. Which surprised me greatly. Research was presented by Chia-Jung Tsay. An assistant professor at the University College London School of Management. She apparently has a particular interest in hidden psychological biases. It seems

Are You A Genuine Fiat Lux-er?

Fiat Lux. Literal Latin translation; let there be light. I got into such phrases during a chat with an IT geek (or should that nowadays rather be IT expert?) talking about being an enigmatologist. This (apparently from the old Greek word ainigma), means “someone who studies and writes mathematical, word