Gavin Ross is one of those special people who seems never to be short of energy. Today, however, he is particularly animated. He’s relating the story of how, with the assistance of Justin Roff-Marsh Advertising (now Ballistix), he has shifted his business’s growth into overdrive. “Consider this,” he says – in an effort to justify […]
America Online and Body Express. At a glance, they mightn’t appear to have a lot in common. America Online (AOL) is the Internet service provider that recently acquired Time Warner – the world’s biggest media company – in a $US165 billion deal. And Body Express is a boutique gymnasium, in Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Look behind […]
"Incredulous. "Yep, that’s the best word for it", concedes Phil McGann. Phil is struggling to describe the reaction of fellow financial planners when he explains how things work at the Hudson Institute. "When they find out that our financial planners perform 8-9 consultations a day … that these consultations are all conducted over the telephone […]
From time to time, I come across managers who battle valiantly and unflinchingly to accomplish what appears to be downright impossible. To their credit, these noble individuals manage to notch up occasional successes! I even see entire businesses that owe their existence to the belief that, with enough passion, determination and brute force, miracles can […]
Following is the sad story of the entrepreneurial Harry Edgecliffe and his ruthless competitor Spot Pet Foods. Although neither Harry nor Spot exists, their tale provides a number of invaluable lessons for all marketers. Harry Edgecliffe is not a happy man! In recent months, the business he toiled for so many years to build has […]
I just had a call from a client who owns a make-to-order manufacturing firm (building materials) in New Zealand. Chris was agitated because he had just realised that, last week, across his sales team, 20 appointment slots had gone unfilled, due either to cancellations or a failure to schedule appointments. He had calculated that these […]
I spent a couple of hours with a Sydney-based insolvency practitioner last week. He visited to request assistance with his marketing. (Yes it’s okay, Ballistix is still solvent!) Because this was my first meeting with a potential client I waited a full 10 minutes before challenging the viability of his business model. Fortunately, my guest’s […]
Whose responsibility, I wonder, is client retention? Most organisations believe it’s the salesperson’s. Consequently, many salespeople spend a disproportionate amount of their time on account management. ‘Account management’ is a polite way of referring to a process that involves driving from client to client, drinking coffee and talking about the football. In the US, they […]
It’s often claimed that there are fundamental differences between major- and minor-account selling. Obviously, we’re not interested in the ‘selling’ here, so much as in the ‘sales process’. Here are some thoughts on this issue. If a minor opportunity is one that you can win in a single appointment, then a major opportunity is just […]
