Price v's Value

I’ve been intrigued by a recent discussion I’ve been following on the Sales Playbook! group on LinkedIn.  (It’s a closed group, so you need to be a member in order to see the full discussion.)  For those of you who are members, the title is “Doesn’t price matter a little bit?”  For the rest of you, this is the scenario:

“I totally understand that it's not about being the lowest price and you get what you pay for and all that. I think it is also true that there is a point where cost outweighs the value or quality.

Case in point, I just got a quote back and found out that my price was literally 5 times more than my competition. I don't know how I am going to justify the additional costs.

Thoughts anybody?”

Business and Twitter

Read an interesting article today on “How Twitter will ruin your Customer Service” but it left me feeling that the author was shooting at the wrong target.  Indeed, this was the gist of at least one of the comments made on the article.

I have participated in a number of similar on-line discussions which ask why PowerPoint is so bad.

Neither Twitter nor PowerPoint is intrinsically bad.  They are tools and, like all tools, they will perform best in the hands of someone who knows how to use them.

This is Your Life

This is the Holstee Manifesto, which I encountered in a distant colleague’s blog for the first time today.  (If you’re interested, here is the blog: http://bsix12.com/  It’s much better than mine!)

OK, so the Holstee Manifesto is not revolutionary nor is it profound.  However in my humble opinion it does encapsulate what life should be about.  So many of us (myself included) spend precious time doing things we don’t want to do, seeing people we don’t want to see and generally letting life, in the grander sense, pass us by.

Of course, for all its apparent simplicity, the manifesto may not be that easy to follow!  For me, the real toughie is “If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV.”  I wouldn’t like to begin to count the hours I’ve wasted watching meaningless drivel because it’s the path of least resistance.

It’s also very easy to say “if you don’t like your job, quit” but not so easy to do if you have a mortgage to pay and you want to eat once in a while!  I’m trivialising for comic effect, of course.  The seed of the idea is the important one.

I guess the whole of the manifesto could be summed up as ‘carpe diem’ but it is stated so much more eloquently and elegantly in these 18 (or so) phrases.

What’s your toughie?  What’s your favourite and why?

If Music be the Food of Life...

Yes, yes, I know.  Apologies to Mr W. Shakespeare for stealing his lines and then misquoting them.

Mrs F and I are the proud owners of a Squeezebox radio which some very good friends bought us for Christmas a couple of years ago.  It pretty much does what it says on the tin “A compact all-in-one network music player—that lets you rock the house with digital music.”

I’ve been listening to it at home today.  I started off listening to Radio Paradise, which is just the best radio station, internet or otherwise, I’ve ever come across.  Reader, get yourself over there and listen!  Your ears will love you forever.

Is Selling about 'manipulating' customers?

I’ve recently been following, and occasionally participating in, the discussion “Is selling about ‘manipulating’ customers?” on the ModernSelling.com LinkedIn discussion group.

There is a fascinating range of opinions centred on the concept of manipulation and whether or not what happens during a sale should be termed manipulation, influence, managing the situation or something else.  I thoroughly recommend reading the piece (it’s an open group so you should have no problem if you’re already on LI) for the very learned and thoughtful approach of the contributors.

It got me thinking along two divergent lines – firstly why selling has such a bad reputation and secondly about life in general and all of the transactions that occur on a day-to-day basis.

Simple Pleasures

At the time of writing (which was a few weeks ago!) , I’ve been in Australia nearly 22 hours after a 28 hour trip door-to-door. That’s not the pleasurable part!

It’s Sunday and I’m staying at the Stamford Grand Hotel in a northern suburb of Sydney. After a good sleep and a good breakfast I thought I would take a walk down to the local shopping mall just opposite Macquarie University. I’ve been there before and it’s a good way to kill a couple of hours when you are recovering from a long flight.

It’s summer here so it’s warm and humid and I started grinning to myself as I walked down the road. No, I’m not mad (well, not too mad) but I was loving the fact that I could walk down the street in February in a t-shirt and jeans, I could hear the birds squawking unfamiliar squawks and I could smell the eucalyptus trees.

Business and Social Media

I work for an international company that had revenues of slightly less than €76 billion in 2009/10.  This puts it firmly in the Top 50 largest companies in the world by revenue.

In contrast, the Coca Cola Company had revenues of slightly less than €26 billion, so about one-third the size but by no means a small company.  (Bear with me, I am going somewhere sensible with this!)

Whilst there are many differences between the two companies, one that I have recently become aware of is their approach to social media.

This was prompted by a blog posting in the Harvard Business Review by Joe Tripodi, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer of the Coca-Cola Company.  So, quite an important guy.  You can see the blog post here: Coca-Cola Marketing Shifts from Impressions to Expressions

Seasons have a reason

I recently had my first British asparagus of the season, in an asparagus and hazelnut risotto served with roast chicken, Chantenay carrots and spinach.  (Anything tell you I like my food?)  Sadly, the season is short, lasting from now until the end of June so I will be stuffing my face with asparagus on every possible occasion!  In my humble opinion, British asparagus is the best around; certainly far superior to the white spears they favour in mainland Europe and don’t even talk about the stuff you can get from Peru all year round.

This got me to thinking about how much and why I look forward to the start of the asparagus season.

21st Century Man

Having got to grips with Twitter and LinkedIn (mastered would be far too strong a word) I’ve decided to dip my toe into the world of blogging once more.

I first tried in the mid-2000’s but I failed to follow Steven Covey’s advice to ‘start with the end in mind.’  End result – I ran out of steam very quickly.

This time around, I’m hoping it’s going to be different for a number of reasons.

• My better understanding of the interconnectedness of things
• The wider usage and acceptance of social media
• The idea that, whilst it is incumbent on your company to promote their brand, in these troubled times it is incumbent on you to promote your individual brand.  Then, if you are unfortunate enough to lose your current position, you are already ‘out there’ for new employers to find.