How is pitching for business like seducing a supermodel?
I’d always be very nervous when one of your team bounces into your office at the gloomiest of times and says, ‘There’s a £4 million opportunity at Lapsang Souchong Ltd, we ought to go for it…’
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Speak Their Language
I speak fluent french (mum was a french & spanish teacher). I lived in the South of France for a few months after university and I’m proud of my skill and accent, so when I’m in France and I speak in french to a frenchman (and it’s almost always a frenchman) I’m a little pissed off…
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How an embarrassing moment with a client helps you get real feedback on how you’re doing
He’s a great guy, Rodrigo. He’s a senior exec in a very successful European company. We’ve worked with him for a couple of years and done some good stuff, we’ve earned a place at his table, if you like. Rod’s a demanding, reliable and honest business contact and friend. So we were over in his city…
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Don’t be a diplodocus- Digital marketing is easy, cheap and (often) effective
Dinosaurs died out a few million years ago didn’t they? Why? Because they didn’t know what was coming and had no defence against the cold. How many dinosaurs in our business are dying from the cold right now? Millions I’d guess. Leviathans with fancy offices in London, New York, Paris Munich… (everybody’s talking ’bout….),…
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When telling is a dead giveaway: someone’s trying too hard
There’s a word for it. It’s called ‘a tell’. It’s when a speaker ‘tells’ the audience about something without saying anything. There are congruent tells, where the subtle message reinforces the real one, like smiling sincerely and saying ‘I’m really happy to be here’; and such congruence makes for a powerful message. Then there’s the…
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The confidence myth: why confident presenters often miss the point
I’ve got a friend called Quentin. He’s an actor and a good one too with a long track record of theatre, stage & screen roles behind him. Actors can sometimes be a bit full of themselves but not Quenty, he’s a no-nonsense kind of bloke and when he says something to me with that special look…
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Making the most of conferences
Conferences are hard work and can be sometimes a little soul destroying. Get the delegate list, identify your targets, book meetings, prepare for 2 days of squalid drudgery that comes to nought when you walk into the conference centre and decide that anything would be better than this and book into the spa for 2…
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What is the best marketing tool?
I know that sales people see marketeers as floppy-haired tossers, more interested in their clothes and teeth than selling, but even the most cynical salesperson would, on a good day have to say that when you’ve got a marketing director who’s conneceted to her front-line sales people, it’s bloody marvellous. So the question is valid….
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Speaking at a conference
As a professional, perhaps with a valuable technical expertise, the chances are that you are going to use conferences as a marketing tool to convey to the market that you are innovative, approachable and available for hire. If you are going to a conference then, get a speaking slot. You won’t get one if you…