Safe Havens, Hurricanes , Tipping Points and 44 hour Fastnet

(Lille based artist Stephane Cuchy’s www.stephane-cauchy.com kinetic sculpture CASCADE at Brighton’s Fabrica Gallery www.fabrica.org.uk on display until August 29th 2011.

Salespeople might care to look at this artwork and ponder on its metaphors of the tipping points in the financial markets, their sales pipeline, actions with unintended consequences – the daily body blows and windfalls of business life.

Scroll down for video of the artwork in motion)

Nautical expressions have been much in evidence from the Governor of the Bank of England and Chancellor of the Exchequer this week and meteorological counter expressions from the shadow chancellor during this holiday season of Cowes Week Sailing regatta.

Our politicians were called back to parliament to debate the riots and the financial crisis.

The Bank of England cut its growth forecast for the UK for 2011 from 1.8% to 1.5%, warning that "the headwinds are growing stronger by the day". A headwind is a wind blowing directly against the course of a ship.

Chancellor Osborne talked of 'safe haven's -a place where ships may shelter from storms.

He said that his austerity plan had made the UK a "safe haven" for the volatile financial markets. He conceded that due to excessive debt in the UK "the recovery will take longer and be harder than hoped."

Mr Balls the shadow chancellor claimed many in Britain would not recognise the message of reassurance projected by Mr Osborne.

"Families and businesses deeply worried about their jobs and mortgages will hear the Chancellor's talk of safe havens and conclude he is either deeply complacent or in complete denial about what is going on in this country," he said.

Mr Balls stressed once again that he believed Government austerity policies had gone too far, too fast. Such "reckless" decisions had "whipped out the foundations of the house and left our economy exposed to this brewing global hurricane", he said.

Meanwhile away from London I guess a number of business people have taken off the week as holiday to race their sail boats to wrestle with the headwinds and ' hurricanes ' of the Solent beyond the safe haven of Cowes harbour.

(One of the nine interconnected buckets ( In the Art installation “ CASCADE”) which through a combined pulley system and water pump system is suspended from the roof above a large rectangular pool.)

Aberdeen Asset Management sponsor Cowes Week (6 - 13 August 2011) claims it to be the World’s premier sailing regatta, with almost 1,000 yachts and 8,000 competitors taking part in top-class sailing.

Cowes Week attracts a wide range of competitors from amateurs to Olympic and World champions.

Other sponsors include Abu Dhabi ocean racing, Hugo Boss watches, Clothing sponsor Gill, Liz Earle naturally active skin care, Mount Gay Rum, Piper-Heidsieck Champagne, Sperry Topsider amphibious footwear ( out of Lexington Massachusetts) , Talisker the single malt whisky made by the sea, and Wight cable the island’s ( The Isle of Wight) leading telecoms provider and the Isle of Wight council.

Video Highlights http://www.aamcowesweek.co.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=cw11&ui=cw1&style=std&override=§ion=multimedia&page=video-highlights

"Time and Tide wait for no man" on Sunday the 14th August as it sees the start from Cowes of the Rolex Fastnet Race one of the great races of the sailing calendar with first signal for the start of the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race sounding at 10:50 BST.

(Water is pumped into each bucket until , at a critical point it empties, releasing its contents into the pool. There is a perpetual cycle of filling and emptying.
The resultant loss of weight changes the height from the pool of the buckets.
The rise and fall of the buckets are like church bell changes in this former church setting at 40 Duke Street Brighton.)

The ‘ Fastnet’ is more than just a race. When the British Isles weather conspires to deliver conditions typical of the time of year it becomes a true test of human endeavour.
It is for this reason that the 608-nautical mile race consistently attracts a large and varied fleet: man and machine set against the elements.

No doubt fast net speed on computers will give folks ashore updates on the race.

The main trophy for overall victory in the Rolex Fastnet is the Fastnet Challenge Cup.

In addition, there are more than 30 additional trophies that will be awarded at the prize giving on Friday, 19 August at the historic Royal Citadel, Plymouth, home of the 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and overlooking Plymouth Sound and Sutton Harbour, where the majority of the fleet will berth after the race.


Mike Slade's Icap Leopard 3, set the new record of 44 hours 18 min in 2007

Can a faster Fastnet time be achieved?

On return to work the nautical order will be “Batten Down the Hatches” - i.e. Prepare for trouble. The securing of a boat, especially the covering with protective sheeting (tarpaulin), is called 'battening down'. A batten is a strip of wood used to secure the sheeting. 'Battening down' was done on ships when bad weather was expected.

The next G2O meeting November 3-4 will prove critical I guess. The 2011 G-20 Cannes Summit will be the sixth meeting of the G-20 heads of government in a series of on-going discussions about financial markets and the world economy.

The G-20 is the premier forum for discussing, planning and monitoring international economic cooperation.

The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) . Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which will help facilitate the increase of global trade.

At the 2011 annual conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos British Prime Minister David Cameron called for the Doha talks to conclude by the end of the year, saying that "We've been at this Doha round for far too long. It's frankly ridiculous that it has taken 10 years to do this deal.”

2011: Priorities of the French presidency of G20 at Cannes in November include:
o Coordinating economic policies and reducing global macroeconomic imbalances
o Strengthening financial regulation
o Reforming the International Monetary System
o Combating commodity price volatility
o Improving global governance
o Working on behalf of development


Well if this is all too heavy for holiday time - maybe it is appropriate to ponder on the song “ Stormy weather” and hear Ella Fitzgerald or Billy Holiday sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxrQ-O4-J70&feature=related



Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather, since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all the time
Life is bare, gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather, just can't get my poor old self together
I'm weary all the time, the time, so weary all of the time
When he went away, the blues walked in and met me
If he stays away, old rocking chair will get me
All I do is pray, the lord above will let me
walk in the sun once more
Can't go on, everything I had is gone
Stormy weather, since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all the time
Keeps raining all of the time
I walk around heavy-hearted and sad
Night comes around and I'm still feeling bad
Rain pourin' down, blinding every hope I had
This pitter and ‘ n patter and beating, spattering driving me mad
Love, love, love, love, the misery will be the end of me
When he went away, the blues walked in and met me
If he stays away, old rocking chair will get me
All I do is pray, the lord above will let me
Walk in the sun once more
Can't go on, everything I had is gone
Stormy weather, since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all the time, the time
Keeps raining all the time
Enjoy the holiday season

www.stephane-cauchy.com kinetic sculpture CASCADE at Brighton’s Fabrica Gallery www.fabrica.org.uk on display to August 29th 2011

Kejserens nye Klæd- Andersen’s short tale and Anderson’s long tail-- Is social media’s contribution to sales & marketing overblown?

Marketing Week’s http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/ (Volume 34Nos. 30 & 31) Mark Ritson has challenged what he sees as the overblown and oversold claims of social media’s contribution to sales & marketing in seven areas.

Like many marketing pundits he does not always get things right - his prediction that the i newspaper would fail has not be proven (yet?)

However Ritson is very good for us all because his provocative and quasi impertinence gets me thinking. His challenges to business effectiveness of social media include:-

1. Is social media really a relatively low cost?
2. What actual ROI do you get with social media?
3. Social media’s advocates’ dubious claims that it is about more than ROI - it’s about conversations/dialogue/community are erroneous.
4 The successful case studies of social media’s impact are far outweighed by the case study failures.
5. Social media is maybe a new platform but it does not change all the old rules
6. The role of social media as a research medium is a poor source of consumer insight
7. Many big brands doing it doing social media either out of naïve following of fashion or fear of looking out of touch.

Mark Ritson’s powerfully provocative articles in Marketing Week in the last two weeks have positioned him as the child in the updated story of the Emperor’s new clothes.

The original story is about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that are invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent.
When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

The contemporary story is about the weavers ( social media agencies) of the Web with their clothes of Social media and the Emperors are the marketing managers who buy their 'invisible' clothes.

Whether or not one feels Professor Ritson is acting as the child screaming ‘naked’ or as a reactionary curmudgeon he has ruffled a few feathers in the sales & marketing world.

His response to the challenge as to why so many big brands are spending so much time and money in social media is an uncomfortable swipe at marketing managers.

He accuses those under the age of 40 as naïve as they are attracted to anything new and cool to be usually irresistible and those of us over 40 as paranoid at looking out of touch.

Mark Ritson challenges Social Media as a weak form of research or consumer insight because he does not trust a research method that excludes 90% of the population? He says that social media provides entirely unreliable data and because that is the proportion who don’t use Twitter in the UK.

“Maybe you can use social media for some half-decent qualitative insights into a small minority of the market but you can get these insights without actually engaging in social media yourself. Three focus groups would be cheaper and more insightful.” Ritson says.

He challenges claims that Social media is a new platform that changes all the old rules. The facts don’t stand up to examination, its exponents have created new arguments based on nonsensical facts.

Ritson cites Columbia University’s Duncan Watts who points out: “There is an enormous tendency for marketers to only notice successful case studies of social media and forget the huge number that fail completely.”

Ritson disagrees with the claim that Social media is about more than ROI e.g. it’s about "conversations/dialogue/community."

He corrects that view by stating

“It’s about making money for your company.”

Last week, a leading supermarket’s new group digital marketing officer announced he wants digital marketing to “enrich and add value to the customer journey”.
What Ritson suggests is that that person should have said is how he can use social media to sell more tea bags and panty liners.

As Pepsi’s recent disastrous results have demonstrated, when you forget you are in the business of selling cans of soda pop and start spending your money on building communities and supporting causes- you get creamed by your red and white competition.
Most brands aren’t comparing the costs of engaging in social media with the opportunity cost of spending that money elsewhere on less cool media options.

In his crusade as the 'voice of sanity' to challenge claims on the effectiveness of social media in sales & marketing, he admits thatwhen Social media works there are some astonishing success stories from consumer goods, B2B and services marketing.

However Mark Ritson reflects on how poorly most social media campaigns turn out to be in terms of impact.

Here are four examples he uses to advance his views.

1. Deloitte’s recent report that only 20% of apps produced by major consumer and healthcare brands were downloaded enough to be meaningfully measured.

2.After eighteen months Best Buy have only managed a ‘paltry’ 15,000 followers on facebook and 5,000 Twitter followers.

3. Despite Seat car sales of 30,000 units in the UK barely 5,000 like Seat UK on facebook.

4. Despite selling more than 1 million tubs of ice cream every month only 5,500 consumers now follow Ben & Jerry’s on Twitter.


He warns

“ If you have opted for a social media budget that is going to be allocated exclusively on Twitter and Facebook, you are not budgeting or planning your marketing properly.”

Is Mark Ritson implying as in the original story of the Emperor's new clothes that we in sales and marketing are "unfit for our positions, stupid, or incompetent."?

Ouch!

Associate editor of Marketing Ruth Mortimer was rather calmer in her editorial piece of 4th august 2011 suggesting that enthusiasm always outstrips measurement and sense in the early days of any discipline in marketing. Soon we will see social media no longer as a stand alone channel but part of the overall toolkit.

She mentions that the much vaunted predictions from the dotcom boom with its predictions of the end of traditional bricks and mortar high street, banks or TV were a little exaggerated. The internet is just one channel among many communication channels. All need careful weaving in the overall marketing mix. There is no one killer marketing challenge.

If the recent markteingLive exhibition 2011 was anything to go buy- one may agree. I was taken how some of the oldest ways to communicate were used by exhibitors to attract attention, stimulate interest and promote desire and action ( AIDA) were used. The Sandwich Board (Wo)Man still seems to be a useful challenge beyond the Golf sale and apocalypse markets. See thes examples from Marketing Live 2011.

Variations of sandwich boards included a traditional sandwich board , one using a LED screen, to post it notes made into a coat to be peeled off by passers by and a way to attract to the show by integrating a Social media campaign with Twitter take a photo on your smart phone and tweet it.

Pub Sales versus Shop Sales CAMRA's ongoing campaign -Great British Beer Festival 2011 Earls Court, London

Marketers, Salespeople and government ignore the voice of the customer VOC, and the voice of the voter VOV at their peril.
(Lining 'em up at the 2011 Great British Beer Festival , Earls Court , London)















40 years ago, well before the era of social media, one of Britain’s most influential consumer organisations was born. (For up to the minute news and TWITTER alerts follow @gbbf @realalelive @wbandbeer and on your MP3 player- gbbf.camra.org.uk/beercasts)


CAMRA – the campaign for real ale. www.camra.org.uk CAMRA is a not-for-profit, independent, voluntary body that exists to promote and defend access to full-flavoured and distinctive beer and the best features of the British pub. The membership is made up of individuals and currently stands at 125,000.


Real ale is a top-fermented beer that, following fermentation, is put into a cask with yeast and some residual fermentable sugars from the malted barley.
The beer undergoes a secondary fermentation in the cask to produce a gentle carbonation.

CAMRA believes that

beer which is still “live” in the cask has not been filtered or pasteurised , is naturally carbonated by secondary fermentation, has been well looked after and is and is served without the use of additional gas such as nitrogen or carbon oxide, is about as good as you get.

All British beers served at the Great British beer festival are classified as real ale under CAMRA’s definition.
( The crusty pie company www.crustypie.co.uk -one of many food stalls at GBBF -I had a pork and apple pie from this stall which was superb.)
CAMRA’s campaigning continues at a pace in its 41th year. CAMRA have serous lobbying clout. Following a letter to Prime Minister Cameron in October led to appointment of Bob Neill as minister for pubs. They meet with Government such as James Brokenshire on licence.

Campaigning has led to the Prime Minister to deliver a “ pub friendly government”. During February CAMRA launched charters for Welsh & Scottish elections support from election candidates by May securing support from 24 new Welsh Assembly members and 13 Scottish MSPs.

As the consumer champion CAMRA has been taking on the big pub companies. Their campaigns go beyond the simple consumer end of the market but also the supply chain and distribution chain. These big companies ban tenants buying beer on the open market and instead force them to pay inflated prices. The result is that many tenants with large companies make less than 10p profit per pint sold.

The Treasury’s hike in tax on beer means that for every 4.5% beer a drinker buys today at £3.20 the taxman takes 48 p in duty and 53p in VAT
.

Over the last three years duty has risen by 35% and VAT has increased from 17.5% to 20%. Despite these increases government revenues have remained static because people are abandoning pubs in order to drink cheap supermarket alcohol at home on which much less VAT is payable.
( CAMRA's current campaign to lobby the Chancellor George Osborne)

CAMRA believe pubs are the best place to enjoy a drink responsibly and pubs need all the help they can get at the moment – over 100 pubs are closing per month. CAMRA thinks supermarkets should be stopped from selling beer below the price of duty, VAT and crucially production – so no more 90p a pint.











(Recent converts to the real ale cause. Two recently qualified graduates from Imperial College , London - one a biochemist ,one a chemical engineer)






The result of CAMRA’s enthusiasm for support real ale has played an important part in the thousands of real ales from 800 brewers in the UK. Styles of beers include Bitter, Porter, Mild, Stout, Golden Ales and bottle-conditioned beer.

At this year’s GBBF there are 700 real ales, ciders and perries to choose from.

As a first time visitor to the festival one is immersed into a community of enthusiasts of all ages and sizes!

There plenty of CAMRA stewards to ask for advice as to what beers to try.

There were novices like me who like a just ‘nice pint and a chat’ to folk who have encyclopedic knowledge of beers and sophisticated palates of connoisseurs whose vocabulary of tasting notes descriptions is mightily impressive.


There were tables with regional flags where enthusiasts of their local brews could educate others to try the beers from their region.
( Coopering)






















Marston’s Pedigree were demonstrating the traditional art of coopering.

The various bars were named after eminent medical heroes past and present.


The festival is held at Earls Court which has taken on a wonderful buzz on conviviality.

There is a family area, a great games zone where traditional pub games were on display and to have a go on. There are associated food stalls of first rate good pub grub.

The Official Charity for the Festival is SUE Ryder www.sueryder.com. This charity provides care for those people living with conditions including cancer, stroke, dementia, and Multiple Sclerosis.

Another important charity CAMRA associates with www.drinkaware.co.uk .

The festival continues to August 6th 2011 at Earls Court.
Next year’s festival in Olympic year will be held in London’s Olympia Hall.

Next time I visit the local pub close to my office, The White Bear at Rickmansworth , I will also appreciate a little bit more what is behind producing my favoured lunchtime pint of Greene King IPA - a 'nice pint'.

Selection of video clips showing traditional pub games at the Great British Beer Festival

The Ian Bell Test match Cricket run out /in - a lesson in DISCERNMENT in Sports for Selling?

Years ago the post second World War Industrial Scene in UK was much mocked.

Our press labelled the country as “the poor man of Europe”.

Strikes were called strikes in those days – meaning labour was withdrawn and work stopped.

We had not learned today’s language of spin with its ‘industrial action’ which actually means inaction.

British industrial culture was mocked abroad for its tea breaks –

“Everything stops for tea.”

Well tea breaks were back in the news again at an international Cricket Test match at Nottingham’s Trent - England versus India in the last few days.
( The site of the start of Cricket, the original Lord's ground in Marylebone,London)

Perhaps it is baffling to those who believe in winning at all costs that the India cricket team took a moral decision to withdraw their appeal for the run out of batsman Ian Bell who thought the ball had gone out of play and walked to the pavilion to ‘take his tea break’.

Was this appeal by the Indian Cricket team- the India of driving Tata and the world’s call centres?


To the English cricket team’s bafflement Bell – who should have played to the “whistle” and was guilty of being a bit dreamy – was given out after replays had shown that the ball had not gone for four. ( for those readers of the blog unfamiliar with cricket see explanation of the game below)

After tea ,the umpires were booed as they took the field but then the boos turned to cheers when Bell resumed his innings, Dhoni withdrawing the appeal over tea.


Sportsmanship had prevailed after all.


But ( as the Guardian newspaper asked) had the right decision been made?

Former captain Nasser Hussain said he would have appealed, just like Dhoni: "Putting myself in that position I would have done exactly the same." And another former captain, Michael Vaughan, added: "I would have done the same."

I am reading Pierre Sarda’s & Mike Burke’s book “The Silent Revolution” ISBN 0-927015-33-1 at the moment. Maybe modern Test cricket has something to teach selling concerning those powerful ‘feminine values’ as the co-authors define them.
(The silent Revolution -The emergence of feminine values in the work place - an international perspective. This book describes how a managerial style based on feminine values could be applied to create "win-win" opportunities both inside and outside organisations in their selling projects. Professional salespeople and Sales managers can apply a value standard that works best in modern business situations.)

Two of the 5 key principles come to mind:-
1.Concord with values such as forbearance, reconciliation, circumspection and

2. Psychological strength with its associated values such as listening, sensitivity compassion and empathy are significant changes to modern businesses.

Certainly the sporting leadership displayed by Captain Dohni would suggest this.
The Fruits of Selling success can and maybe should be about both the striving to win and the ‘how’ we win.

( A slide from Pierre Sarda's keynote address to the 2011 TACK TMI World Congress in Vilnius , Lithuania)

Like the game of cricket - morals and ethics in selling matter.

(Although I might fail the Norman Tebbit cricket test and be accused of treachery; I would love to see Tendulka get his special hundred whilst the Indian test team are gracing our country with their presence this summer.)

For those who read this blog and are mystified by the game of cricket as much as I am baffled by Baseball; here is the game of cricket in summary. It is almost as confusing as the classic Abbot and Costello “Baseball sketch – Who’s on first” from 1945 but still amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

Cricket (as explained to a foreign visitor.)

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each player that is in, goes out and when (s)he is out, (s)he comes in and the next player goes in until (s)he is out.

When they are all out the side that’s out comes in and the side that has been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.

Sometimes you get players still in and not out.

When both sides have been in and out including the not outs – THAT IS THE END OF THE GAME.

HOWZAT?

Source: Adapted from a tea towel ( drying up cloth) I got at Lord's cricket ground years ago.

So readers of this blog please raise your tea cups or mugs of tea and be upstanding to toast Captain Dohni and share with me the civilising and conciliating benefits of tea and the tea break where problems can be solved and friends made. Cheers!

Other tea time diversion links
Interpersonal Psychometric Selling at tea time

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2010/11/client-personality-matrix-simple-tea.html

Dave Kurlan OMG at TMI TACK World Congress 2011

Dave Kurlan OMG http://www.objectivemanagement.com/

(Kostas Hatzigeorgiou of PRC live in Vilnius, Lithuania at TMI TACK World congress 2011 and Dave Kurlan via video link in USA)











In the song from the musical “Grease” - Summer Nights there is a chorus form the Pink Ladies and from the Thunderbirds “ Tell Me more, Tell Me more “.

This chorus was resonating in my mind when Sales guru Dave Kurlan linked up with the TMI TACK World Congress via video link to present his talk originally billed as “ 10 Bad things that happen when you leave your sales people alone.”


The conference delegates had had the morning energiser at 9 a.m. but for Dave it was some unearthly early hour in Boston , USA.
(Kostas Hatzigeorgiou live in Vilnius, Lithuania and Dave Kurlan via video link in USA)












Dave slightly changed his presentation into ‘10 Great Sales Mistakes when Selling’.
In some senses of course there was not much core information that was nreally new BUT as in so much to do with selling

“When all is said than done; more is said than done !!”


What was new, fresh , exciting and not a little provocative was the brilliant way Dave conveyed his messages.


Perhaps as followers of this blog we know that selling matters.
We may know a sales process, we may be familiar with drill down question methodology, we may recognise the vital Sales DNA of Listening in a business directed but conversational style and uncovering those unanswerable questions.


But that knowledge is only akin to boy car racers revving up their engines- a lot of noise and bluster- what only matters is engaging the sales gears which is what Dave as a F1 Grand Prix sales driver not only can talk about but demonstrate.

As in sports talent is not enough. There is plenty of sales talent out there but earns you the yellow jersey in the tour de France cycling, the Green Jacket of golf, the Gold medal is to reduce or eliminate mistakes. That is the mark of a sales champion.
So here are Dave’s top ten sales mistakes to eliminate:
1. Failing to make a case.
2. Failing to summarise on those unanswerable questions
3. Failing to instil urgency
4. Sales peoplelove talking about deliverables ( but are they compelling to the client?)
5. Waiting for buy in.
(The Munsk Team's flip chart of the Dave's learning lessons at the Sales Boot Camp Vilnius)
6. Getting the money question wrong
7. Not seizing the short moment of a CEO’s time
8. Seeing the wrong people
9. Allowing yourself to be sent away after the first visit with the CEO
10. Not offering a Compelling enough case

















(Kostas Hatzigeorgiou live in Vilnius, Lithuania and Dave Kurlan via video link in USA)












So Plan and prioritise,
Research at the global, market and client level; set clear information based and decision based Objectives; State clearly the
Purpose of your meeting; grab your client’s
Attention quickly in that small window of opportunity granted to you; surpass that love of so many sales people to talk about deliverable early on but seek out those unanswerable questions (‘ Tell me more, Tell me, Explain to me, Describe for me… more’) i.e. ensure You investigate by Drill Down deep and Listening hard for what is said and unsaid establish the facts of the case, elicit the issues/concerns/problems/opinions/attitudes ,draw out the net effect of these from your client and finally develop the solutions with your compelling case (F.I.N.D.); then and ONLY then present your DVP with its
Benefits but make your DVP stand out by being relevant unique (compelling) point of difference. RUPOD; should there be any objections or objections appreciate them and
Answer them persuasively; then
Commit your client to your compelling case by instilling a s true sense of urgency in their terms and finally
Keep developing the business.
That’s it PRO-PAYBACK, FIND and TED in action. ( Sales Models and Processes of TACK)
In sales boot camp terminology it is not about swamping ur clients with our wonderful deliverables, research and implementation that is like the foolish soldier FIRE-AIM-READY.
No!
Dave got us to get the sequence right it’s READY – AIM –FIRE !!!!

Other related links


Dave Kurlan’s Blog http://www.omghub.com/


PRO-PAYBACK Selling

http://www.tack.co.uk/course_details.php?cat_id=72&co_id=48&col=F6082E

5 dangerous trends facing B2B Organisations today in Sales MoSoLo or SoLoMo.

The businessman Sir James Goldsmith once said ' If you can see the bandwagon , you're probably too late. '

Never has that quote been so pertinent for Sales with regard to today's social, local and mobile media.

(The investment curve of opportunities for SoLoMo -MoSoLo running out? ?)

Ed Charvet from Trovus http://www.trovus.co.uk/ was a key note speaker and 'spot on' at the TACK TMI World Congress 2011 held in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Ed had similar warnings for the audience to avoid missing the opportunities.

Ed began his speech quoting another businessman,Aristotle Onassis- the Greek shipping magnate who said

“The secret of business is to know something nobody else knows.”

Trovus is a specialist business intelligence provider that walks the talk of this quote of Onassis by profiling B2B website visitors via IP address.

Trovus have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Marketing Week, B2B Marketing, Computer Business Review and by the Institute of Direct Marketing.

They advise leading B2B organisations on strategies to win more customers and increase your profits using the power of data from IP address profiling.

Through accessing and taking action with a wealth of business intelligence which exists around their client’s business, they use this intelligence to power up their client’s business with increased revenue and profits by developing strategies and behaviours to leverage and exploit this intelligence to the full.


In essence Trovus help with 3 vital areas of their client’s business

• Growing profits and revenues

• Uncovering new opportunities

• Working smarter and saving time

(Ed Charvet taking the conference through the five dangerous trends for B2B)

Ed outlined 5 key points in his keynote address to the audience in Vinius.
1. Failing to embrace technical innovation
2. Dismissing the value of social media
3. Not listening to the Voice of the Customer
4. Acknowledging the value of Social Media but doing nothing
5. Not having the courage to invest now.



Ed cited the rapid growth of mobile in such products such as iPhone, iPod and iPad which had 30 million units sold in the last quarter apparently.

Businesses would do well to focus on the niche, the local and the specific.
Mobile and the social side of the web is irrefutably the dominant side.
Facebook advertisements have increased by 75 %.


Many, too many companies dismiss Social media with ‘can’t see the point’. Ed suggested the audience considered KPCB’s John Doerr model.

The venture capital pundit John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers coined the acronym SoLoMo to sum up this convergence of 3 major powers and acknowledges they are affecting all aspects of business faster than most business managers have realised.

(Trovus' Ed Charvet)

So Lo Mo ( ‘SoLoMo’)
Social Local Mobile.

Mary Meeker, at KPCB formally a leading investment banking analyst with a 15 year veteran covering the internet and more recently, the mobile internet and related technologies. She re-frames Doerr’s model as Mo-Lo-So.

Mobile allows you to be active at any Location and at the same time to be connected to your entire Social network and their opinions, advice and buying power.

The implications for Marketers are Mary Meeker suggests -a dramatic paradigm shift which will disrupt almost every business.

What you are doing well can be

• communicated faster
• more credibly
• and with more impact

through Social Media than through conventional transmission media. (What you do badly, the same!!!)

The key to exploiting all this is for firms to look at their talent pool. Talent is the catalyst they may well need to bring in the knowledge.

For many companies today key areas to their business include a. Customer service, b. corporate Profit and c. Sales Performance. All these Ed explained can be enhanced by integrating intelligence. Increasingly marketing needs to measure every tool available to them.
The Web gives one that platform.

Ed suggested the activities the audience should start to develop if they have not already undertaken them.
Under the heading of Intelligence Ed included:-
• Web presence
• LinkedIn Profiles
• On line presence
• Twitter profile
• Facebook

Other Links

MoSoLo Sean Andersen, director of interactive services at Six Flags http://www.sixflags.com/national/index.aspx

MoSoLo Mary Meeker http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?Mary%20Meeker

Sales Boot Camp at TACK TMI Congress 2011- A time for ' Old Lamps for New' for a change?

('Your'e in the Army now" Delegates working at the Sales Boot Camp in Vilnius)

Probably the first time I became consciously aware of a thing called ‘selling’ was as a child when I was taken to see a Christmas panto based on the story from the book of One thousand and one nights - ALADDIN.


The sorcerer in the story gets his hands on the precious old lamp and its Genii by tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of the lamp's importance, by offering to exchange "new lamps for old" in the market place.



He orders the Genii of the lamp to take Aladdin’s palace to his home in the Maghreb.
Fortunately, Aladdin retained the magic ring from a previous adventure and was able to summon the lesser jinni. Although the genii of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the genii of the lamp, he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer.


The tale has many lessons for sales but one lesson in particular is to appreciate those ‘old things’ that are still very valuable.


The Aladdin tale itself has been made 'new' for example for the next genration through the video game Sonic and the Secret Rings which is considerably based on the story of Aladdin, and both genies appear in the story. The genie of the lamp is the main villain, known in the game as the Erazor Djinn, and the genie of the ring, known in the game as Shahra, appears as Sonic's sidekick and guide through the game.


(Nushi Stach taking Private "Hugh Appeal" through his paces in Sales Drills.)

Likewise, the ring genie is conspicuously less powerful than the lamp genie in the story.

So it is once in a while a good discipline for a Sales Team to take stock and invest in some time-out to get back to the basics of the job (those old sales lamps of great value).

It is good for our sales mind, our sales body and our sales soul.

We can all get a little too proud about the condition of our selling crafts especially if we have been selling for some time. Of course there are the NEW lamps the NEXT ‘BIG’ THING , consultative selling , solution selling, NLP ,strategic account selling plus the latest version of new lamps for old entitled


“ Common sense made complicated programme” from the University of Life.



We all like the next new shiny programmes, products,systems, processes…… yet they are ALL based on the precious old selling lamps based on those fundamentals.


('The theatre of operations' Base Camp Command Room "Theta " at the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, Vilnius")



Why? because human nature has not changed so much over the centuries even back to fabled times of Aladdin. We all sell to human beings after all .
The Old Sales Lamps we needed get shiny again at the Worldwide Conference for were the basis for our boot camp programme in Vilnius.


(Sales Boot Camp HQ)


• The Market Place 2011 and beyond.

• RFI /RFP Really Fantastic Proposals in response to requests for proposals.

• How to better leverage your website for your sales.

• How to make effective appointments on the telephone.

• Working with different personalities ( Decision makers and Influencers) using Psychometrics

• Revisiting Your Differentiated Value Proposition – RUPOD

• Selling Internationally – Selling Locally

• After you’ve gone – managing quality

• Selling the Brand – selling the service

If you would be interested in having your own sales boot camp facilitated by TACK to boost you company's sales - contact Mike Davis miked@tack.co.uk



To warm up us up on Day Three of the TMI TACK Congress 2011 we were inspired by the vibrant energy of a Lithuanian dancing troop. Their choreographer then taught all of us a dance routine. This was great fun and a good drill for accelerated learning in the Sales Boot Camp.