Socialising sales
A mate recently picked up an great new account, on he had been trying to "crack" for a long time, through a piece of good luck, or good management depending on your perspective. All his product and market knowledge, sales skills and persistence had failed to get him...
Is the Government serious about Innovation?
Leaving aside the fact that it is an election year, and rhetoric is the usual fare served up, there remains an economy to run. Lots of space will be allocated to "Innovation" plans, the Manufacturing jobs announcements a few weeks ago, the Arts creativity and...
Lean accounting. An SME manufacturing lifeline?
Manufacturing SME's in this country (Australia) are under severe pressure, particularly in heavily trade exposed industries like food manufacturing. Yesterday, Windsor Farms was put into administration, a month ago, Rosella went the same way and is currently being...
Failing is not the same as failure.
It is often said that for successful innovation to occur, you must be prepared to" fail often, fail cheap". Early testing and prototyping speeds up innovation cycle times, the longer a project proceeds with issues unnoticed or unfixed, the harder they become to fix,...
Marketing Pareto
Italian mathematician Vilfredo Pareto's observations that resulted in what is now commonly known as the "80/20" rule, are well understood. As a young marketer, Lord leverhulme's wry observation that he knew half his advertising was wasted, he just wish he knew which...
A rolling retweet gathers lots of moss
Ever wondered about the credibility gathered and built by the tweets, posts, and content created that then become used, and shared, and re-shared? The opposite of the stone, the more something is shared, the more it gathers moss, the virtual credibility we all seek on...
Social media, a sales tool??
Most of my networks are small businesses, and pretty much everyone I talk to who is using social media in some way consider it as a part of their sales strategy, a tool to increase sales. Many would concede it is a marketing tool first, but why do it if sales do not...
The data or the story
I recently sat through what should have been a very interesting presentation. The proposition fascinating, the data extensive, the qualifications of the presenter exemplarity. It is a pity, but a few minutes after it was over, none of the data was remembered. All I...
The “welcome quotient”
Social media is a part of the marketing toolbox, an increasingly important one, so why does it so often get shuffled out to the side, assigned to the 20 year old intern, when it can have a profound impact on your customers and market?. Marketing is all about demand...
3 way framework for sales performance management.
Sales, or as I prefer to call it, "Revenue generation" is the core of every business. No sales, no business. However, the thinking around performance assessment and management of sales is generally pretty superficial. The demarcation of sales and marketing has also...