Sales Perception and Reality

Is it a sale or have you been talking to an individual who just likes talking to sales men. One of the things you must get away from when making a sale is the making of patterns in the air and the importance of telling the difference between false positive from false negative. Personally I believe every sale is different, depending on the level of trust and perception especially how your perceived, so all the Sales Funnels and Sales Processes can't help, it experience that counts. Making a sale is not about how good you are in identifying your users needs and requirements, it's about chemistry how well you relate with a buyer, digging up of his/her business aspirations, ever heard of the old saying people by people and not things and Items.

I especially like the short movie below which I stumbled upon on my exploration of TED, and how the propensity to make patterns self deception increases with the increase in difficulty one is faced with. I especially like the bit about false positive and false negative the difference between what you perceive and reality and how your judgment of that situation can get you into or out of serious situations. Click on below:

Marketing Your Business by influencing people

Found this bit of video really entertaining and educational at the same time, a true thinker who has mastered what Marketing is all about. I find a lot of organizations go out of their way to build huge Ad campaigns around their products, while it would only take that one simple idea to get people talking and following your products, Virgin Group is one such example of a Business built on this principle. see the video below and get some insight on influencing people and keeping them thinking and talking of your product.

Create for Dummies

Marketing something you've created is one thing, making it sell is another thing, I've always been a firm believer of developing and creating for dummies. What is that you ask? what has made Google Web applications sell over Yahoo(my first public email was on yahoo and I believe for almost everyone at least born before AD1985), why more and more users prefer the latter and fundamentally they are the same, email is email, Chat is Chat. Some years ago Apple was a none existent company but now its the largest technology company in the world surpassing Microsoft in the stock market two weeks ago simply by selling Hardware!. You can say they have large marketing budgets- okay that's true they are money rich, however you can put up the best Ads on the web and billboards, get people talking about it but it never sells- oh and by the way they did not start out money rich.

I believe in living by one simple principle as my Computer Science Teacher once said "Keep It Simple Stupid" KISS, programming 101 don't over think the solution there is always a simple way out. Now back to Google and Apple, the main reason that their products sell is the simple fact they are easy to use, no training needed you just buy one and get on with it emailing, chatting, itunes, texting. look at the iphone, a recycled HTC phone but with no buttons no crazy OS running on it , no stylus, just simple.

Corporates have for years suffered trying to upgrade their staff from Office 97, Office XP, Office 03, Office 07 and now Office 10, don't get me wrong,  I love Microsoft products they make the best office productivity tools in the world, but they can be so dumb complicated some times even for a developer it takes some serious will power and time to get moving or even change over (we know everyone has a degree of resistance to change- rule of thumb). Half of you reading this Blog have either a blog site, twitter accounts or are a Facebook account (oops! apart from the security settings craziness), why? because they are simply made any dummy can use it.

So next time you Develop or Create anything keep "KISS" as your motto, remember your trying to create a solution not another problem, so invest in some good User Inter-phase.

Loosing Everything in a Night

Just got off the plane the sun is setting, been away for weeks and still don't feel like going to your one room studio apartment- breakfast, dinner dishes waiting for you the stench. No family to go see everyone is busy or your last embarrassing spat is still fresh and your keeping well away. All your boys are at work -picking up that overtime or away on this and that project and either way you don't really feel like meeting up with them today.

You decide go through you phone book looking for just the right date for such an evening, and your met with a number of names Monicah, Yvonne , Janet... that leave you shattering from memories of the last experience - don't think your in the mood for such today. Oh finally you land on that one number hmm... haven't spoken to this one in sometime, so you go ahead and ring buzz buzz buzz , no answer well that's the first set back, so you go ahead an try three more numbers till you get lucky.

Jump into your car and throw your luggage bags and your laptop bag - filled with my projects proposal, emails 4GB worth off- "safely" in the trunk and zoom off into the sunset thinking of all the prospects the night has in hand. Get to town enjoying the shiny new glare of vehicles and trying to stretch to see what's the latest import around- the economy doing well or is it the banks giving unsecured loans like candy.

Finally at the venue, and no parking space for miles tension is building haven't seen this new conquest in 3 Months, she is also eager my phone is ringing off the hook. See a parking don't even get a second glance of the area and just dumb the car and off I go for my evening sheen dig. An hour later and I'm thinking how did I get here can't stand the complains and issues coming out of my eagerly awaited date, cut my losses and come up with a story of how long the trip was- this point my house looks more attractive.

Start navigating my way back to my car all the way back thinking where the h**l did I park it, was I drunk on some cheap tequila, or the many mini bar give aways on the plane got to me- at this point your trot have broken into a jog. Get back to the car and my worst fears are confirmed, the doors are unlocked, could have sworn I locked them get in only to find My Stereo Is Missing! Jump out and head for the boot and there it is I'm met with the most terrifying site no LAPTOP! my projects, my emails, all my info, my investments. How do I tell my boss- dead man walking.

If only I had got with the cloud my life would be still be on track, go ahead give it a try and free you life for other escapades  click hear

Get with the Cloud

Have a business plan, thinking of selling your goods or services or even better consulting, have a good marketing plan, tired of your current job and just thinking "why I'm I taking so much s**t for this welfare cheque". No body taking your ideas seriously in the office any more as they are busy on budget, CEO project, xyz meeting and your wondering why your hanging around doing nothing.

Haven't we all been there one time or another countless times and you just think you can actually do this on your own, the world is a hash place and even hasher when you are out looking for that next cheque, friends watching to see if you'll really make it, Family being so ever supportive for the first few missed cheques at least.

Then your phone rings you get your first call, that tender you applied for finally went throught, that old business acquittance finally came through, your persistent calls to that corporate finally yielded fruit. So you spend the next two weeks or so ploughing through your old college books, doing research - googling, calling up your mates to know what's the latest device, technology, ideas and getting some company to co-tender all to come up with the perfect proposal.

If your lucky they call you again, they need you to come and present to the panel on your solutions, ideas and finally that break has come through. So you go for the presentation and the first question is where is the rest of your team- They can't believe that 30 paged proposal can come from one individual. Anyway your there so they go ahead and give you the chance and you dazzle them with your presentation, you know your stuff and ideas just roll off your tongue.

Then Finally they just need your contacts and you produce your newly printed and branded business cards (cost you an arm and a leg on your shoe string budget) on glossy paper and the panel lead goes "you don't have a domain" and your left their stuck for words remembering your email company xyz email xyz@gmail.com

Email has become such an integral part of doing business and trust in the world, so next time do some quick search and check ups on the internet for some easy to setup mail options, but most of all do try Google Apps for as little as $10 you could save yourself some embarrassment.

Next time carry along your Domain! just click here