The British Passport - a recent history
Just before Christmas 2017 the UK Government
announced that post-Brexit the colour of the British
Passport would revert to blue.
Why is this so important? To understand fully you
probably have to be British. With an increasing
‘overseas’ clientelle we thought we’d try to explain.
SB Jan 2018
Post-truth selling
In 2016 politicians
made some remarkable
‘sales’: Brexit in the UK
and President elect
Trump’s successful
campaign in the US.
What are the implications for 'ordinary' selling? Should
we adopt the techniques used by the politicians?
Be careful!
SB Jan 2017
The 21st Century Alphabet
Simon Cowell annoys me!
Every time I sign off a text
those smart folk at
Samsung tempt me to
impersonate the second
most annoying Briton
after Piers Morgan.
So if my phone tries to change my surname, what
other persuaders are there influencing our daily life?
Does ‘A’ still stand for ‘Apple’ or for ‘Am…?
SB Jan 2016
Sales forecasts made simple
Forecasting accurately is
tough!
Assigning a percentage and
using simple arithmetic
won’t work. There’s a
better way using 4 simple tests and a technique that’s
as simple as ABC.
Find out more and how the wisdom of crowds can
work … sometimes … if you’re careful.
SB Jan 2015
Sales & the ethics of Big Data
There’s zettabytes of data
available, enough to
stretch to the moon and
back millions of times if it
were in human readable
format.
•
Have we learnt how to handle the data safely?
•
Have we managed to turn all that data into
wisdom?
Sadly not yet and there are few guiding principles we
all need to follow if we are to avoid damaging our
reputation with customers.
SB Jan 2014
Sales & Marketing, Art or Science?
High tech start ups face a
challenge as they begin to
take their ideas to market.
How can they get the
market to buy their new
product? They face a difficult transition from being
R&D-led to becoming a business dependent on sales
to fuel future growth.
This is an extended version (the original had 7 slides
and 38 words) of a seminar delivered to the Harwell
Oxford Technology Entrepreneurs Forum. There is also
an A4 handout.
SB Feb 2013
Sales Ethics
2012 has left an
unexpected legacy to
Britain - a new ethical
climate.
As the press, politicians, the police, multinational
corporations and the rich come under increased moral
scrutiny, how will this affect the way we sell?
While the British may be wary of salespeople, a slightly
more open approach to usual sales practices such as
qualifying out are likely to deliver dividends.
(Over 4,000 views on Slideshare)
SB Jan 2013
Brand Britain
As we celebrate Queen
Elizabeth II’s diamond
jubilee, and following a
number of brand related
projects this presentation
reflects on the values of Britain were it a brand.
Does Britain rest on past glories, have we evolved our
brand values or does the country need a re-brand?
Now with updates following Brexit and the Scottish
referendum.
SB Jun 2012
Some think social media is a whole load of …
…or 6 steps to making
social media work for
business
I first led a project to
develop a web site in 1997
- things have moved on a bit since then. The latest
turn of the wheel is social media; some see social
media as another bubble fit to burst and others see
social media as a game changer. My view is:
•
it's all about people, not social media
•
but social media are changing the game
So I've put together a simple approach to making
social media work for business in a dozen easy to
digest slides.
SB Jan 2012
Would Nelson have made a good sales director?
…or an alternate analogy
to Sun Tsu and the Art of
War
Military texts have often
been used as analogies for sales and selling. One of
the most often quoted is the Art of War by Sun Tsu. To
quote Wikipedia(!) it "has also become increasingly
popular among political leaders and those in business
management." With the ascendancy of the Chinese
economy ... I wondered if I could find an alternative.
There are three basic ingredients to successful sales:
People, Process and Proposition …and for a sales
director I would add leadership.
Here’s my assessment of Nelson's potential as a Sales
Director in about 500 words.
SB Jan 2011
How customers think
Getting the message right
by addressing the buyer’s
cognitive sequence
Structuring your sales
message is important, particularly as social media
become more prevalent. Too often the way people
deliver their message ignores the thought process of
prospects as they take their emotional journey
towards making a decision to buy.
SB Jan 2010
Possibly the best sales letter ever, certainly the
most optimistic!
Certainly one of the most
ambitious
We received this letter from
an executive jet salesman at
the height of the onset of the recession when even
bankers were feeling poor. You’d think any rational jet
salesmen would have sold up, downsized, and flown
one-way to the Caribbean while there was still fuel left
in his Learjet.
An impossible market you’d think? Well yes and no:
here’s the best effort in the 2008 Marketing Olympics.
We have to admire AlexxHunter’s steadfast approach
to marketing. Sadly his list could have been better – we
don’t charge the rates which would allow its
consultants to use executive jets.
SB Jan 2009
Insights