Common-sense sales & marketing: What works?

Covering a wide range of topics find fresh ways to approach and apply your sales and marketing. Posts reference: meetings; pitching; networking; dealing with people; closing; planning and strategy; research; ideas; branding; targeting; pricing; product development; distribution; marketing promotions; export and more.

Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | De-mystifying finance and making money | Get yourself the job you want... | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs | Understand yourself and read behaviour quickly

Top 10 Entrepreneur Websites
ByPeter Harrington January 30, 2013June 4, 2020

To discover the top 10 entrepreneur websites, I polled the views of over 500 people involved with the industry. All respondents worked in an advisory/business support capacity in academia, and/or the public/private sectors. Some people ran their own businesses. To keep things simple, I asked the single question: “What websites do you recommend entrepreneurs use..?”

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Get yourself the job you want... | Practical 'How to' business guidance and advice | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs | Understand yourself and read behaviour quickly

Go Screw the Pitch
ByPeter Harrington November 15, 2012March 14, 2022

No one ever sets out to screw the pitch or screw up their presentation. But so many people do because they don’t prepare properly and/or assume (falsely) what the audience wants. But for anyone who wants to screw the pitch (or for anyone who has suffered in the audience) here are my top 10 fulfilment…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Get yourself the job you want... | Great teaching: Entrepreneurship, enterprise & business | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs | Understand yourself and read behaviour quickly

Commercial Comedy is Serious Business
ByPeter Harrington October 22, 2012February 7, 2019

As our plane readied for take off to Cape Town, the stewardess commenced the well rehearsed health and safety briefing. Little did we know that the airline’s approach to commercial comedy meant the ordinary was about to become extraordinary. “In the event of the cabin losing air pressure, oxygen masks will drop down from above…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Get yourself the job you want... | Practical 'How to' business guidance and advice | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs | Understand yourself and read behaviour quickly

Effective Salespeople avoid Crap Meetings
ByPeter Harrington September 29, 2012May 21, 2020

Once upon a business life I self-published a ‘book’ for the caravan market. Knowing little about these boxes on wheels and kidding myself the product was half-decent, I led a telesales department (me) and phoned UK caravan outlets in search of orders. And then I thought I had struck gold…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Get yourself the job you want... | Great teaching: Entrepreneurship, enterprise & business

Why is the Most Important Entrepreneurial Skill Seldom Taught?
ByPeter Harrington May 6, 2012January 30, 2019

Globally, little evidence exists that business start-up and survival rates are improving. Data released by Experian (November 2011) showed 70% of start-up businesses fail within 36 months of starting. So it’s a mystery why the most important entrepreneurial skill is seldom taught. If entrepreneurs are to survive & thrive we need to provide the right…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Practical 'How to' business guidance and advice | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs | Understand yourself and read behaviour quickly

Teenage Love Fires Entrepreneurial Spirit
ByPeter Harrington March 5, 2012May 31, 2020

To describe one of my first loves as a ‘big bag’ might be a little misleading, but it is quite true. Like any other 16 year-old, relationships were important to me. I wasn’t necessarily looking for love. But back then I had no idea how or why teenage love fires entrepreneurial spirit. Fast-forward. Thirty years…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Great teaching: Entrepreneurship, enterprise & business | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs

Take students to the darkside
ByPeter Harrington December 22, 2011September 18, 2018

Pink Floyd’s chart breaking 1973 album ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ brought a legendary band together in a highly creative and entrepreneurial manner. The music was rich and expressive and importantly tangential to the popular but increasingly bland ‘Glam rock‘. Charting for over 740 weeks, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ opened the door to world fame…

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Common-sense sales & marketing: What works? | Get yourself the job you want... | SimVenture: Global impact of a business simulation | Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs

Game on for back bedroom passion
ByPeter Harrington December 10, 2011September 18, 2018

Reading anything by Bill Bryson makes me smile and laugh out loud. As a young man, Mr Bryson discovered the joys of hitchhiking. Driven by a thirst for adventure he spent two summers travelling around Europe with the aid of his thumb. He didn’t know it at the time, but the accumulated experience when combined…

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