9 steps to making cold calling work for you
I find cold calling really difficult, while recognising the potential effectiveness when the inertia is overcome. For me, it takes time and emotional energy far greater than the return I have ever got from cold calling, except when I have run out of options, then it...
How to make the hardest sale there is…..Yourself.
There are too many older people, men and women, but mostly men, who find themselves on the scrapheap somewhere north of 45. 20 years of working life left, and they struggle to find jobs that use their knowledge and experience, and end up mowing lawns or delivering...
How will grocery retailers leverage algorithmic pricing?
Economics 101 tells us that price is the point at which supply matches demand, a simple but infinitely variable graph. Throughout history, that equation has reflected the reality of a face to face negotiation, apart from the recent glitch created in the name of...
Will great marketing always powered by humans?
Great marketing has a strong visual component, even the great long form ads from the days before TV. Always has been, always will be. Sometimes that 'visual' are the pictures that you form in your mind as a result of hearing something, which is why radio was, and...
7 ways to avoid a hiring failure.
The small and medium businesses I work with are usually pretty wary of the recruitment consultants that chase them, promising to deliver the 'Perfect ' hire for just 20% of their annual salary. They are usually seen, usually rightly, as just short term 'body shops'...
In defence of United Airlines employees
United is the butt of everyone's jokes and derision, including mine, but it maybe useful to consider how they got there. Carlos Munoz was awarded the communicator of the year in March, a few weeks before the unfortunate Dr Dao booked a seat to go and see a patient...
The two faces of a successful brand
People relate to brands, see them as having characteristics best described in human terms Whenever I have done research over 40 years in this game and sought to identify the elements of a brand, the one constant has been that human terms have been used to describe...
Have you ever had a conversation with a ‘chatbot’?
Not sure? I do not blame you, they have suddenly become very smart indeed. A few weeks ago I had a cause to submit a problem I was having with a web service via their website. A very helpful bloke came back to me almost immediately with a response, and we interacted...
Leveraging the flip side of an elevator pitch
Honing an elevator pitch is something we all should do, and many spend hours writing and practising a pitch, following one of the many templates around, most of which are similar. Grab attention. Describe the product. Articulate the benefit. All in 30 seconds. We...
Can you shrink your way to prosperity?
There is the old story of the successful large business becoming an unsuccessful smaller one. Usually it is accompanied by stories of missed opportunities, poor strategies and a focus on cost cutting. The poster boy for this transformation in my personal experience is...