Category: Sales and Marketing

Words that sell

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Interesting info-graphic John Caples book Tested Advertising Methods talks in detail about how words work as well.

Ten 1957 copywriting rules for 2013

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“Styles change, times change, customs change, and tastes change – but human nature, never”  G. Lynn Sumner 1957 His book “How I learned the secrets of success in advertising” is full of lessons as relevant today as when they were written. Drayton Bird always attributes his success to study and growing up in a pub … Continued

Search the world and steal the best

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David Ogilvy famously improved the Pearce Motor cars advertisment to create a brilliant advert for Rolls Royce. Here is an example of one of the best direct mail letters ever and could this be the advert that they got the idea from written about 50 years before (approx 1915). Drayton Bird writes that this sales … Continued

Linda Gratton’s future of work and careers

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In Linda Gratton’s new book, The Shift: the future of work is already here, she talks about the forces that will shape work and careers in the future and what we should do to build a career that will stand the test of time. Her ten top tips are here: 1. Don’t be fooled into walking … Continued

How To Convince Others – Communicating

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Convincing others that your idea is the right one can be frustrating. Sometimes, no matter how good the idea is, words get in the way and people fail to catch your drift. So how do you get other people to listen? Firstly you need to understand about different psychological types. Writing in 1921, the psychologist … Continued

The Ultimate Question – Net Promoter Score

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Net Promoter is a customer loyalty metric developed by (and a registered trademark of) Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. It was introduced by Reichheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article “The One Number You Need to Grow”. (and expanded into a book The Ultimate Question, 2006 HBS Press) Companies obtain their Net … Continued

The importance of minding your ‘p’s, ‘q’s and commas

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This appeared in HRZone and it’s a useful reminder about the devil being in the detail….. Posted by Peter Cook on Wed, 13/06/2012 – 10:01 HR often finds itself at the edge of the business and the outside world. As such it is responsible for the external image that the business portrays. I want to … Continued

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

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Each February the Edelman Trust Barometer comes out and it really should be read by all involved in employee communications. The Trust Barometer studies the concept of trust as it relates to business, corporate reputation and corporate communications among a very specific audience: college-educated, top quartile of income by age group, and follows business/news media and policy … Continued

The “significance trouser”

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A recent case study on how WD-40 was launched in Germany introduced me to the “signifigance trouser”  The company was Mayer de Groot. This is a serious study and the results were very good. Winston Churchill said: “Use simple words that everyone knows, and then everyone will understand” The current vogue of inventing your own … Continued

Having an impact with CEOs

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This is a useful podcast on how to have an impact with CEOs: CEO’s work on referrals so you need to be networking and working in their patch You need to listen and not worry too much about getting your pitch across You need to be big enough to admit when you don’t know something…… … Continued