Management Stories

A sales manager was deciding which of two salespeople to recruit. Passing over a ball point pen, he said, “Sell me one of these.” The first salesperson took the pen, examined it and said, “This is a very good pen. You will note the transparent barrel which indicates the color of the ink as well as showing when it is about to run out. There is a stopper at the end to prevent the ink seeping out. The top fits well on the pen and covers the nib so that you can clip it in your inside pocket without fearing ink will stain your shirt. When you remove the top, it fits neatly on the other end so ensuring that you do not lose it. It also balances the pen well for writing.”

The sales manager was impressed and passed the pen to the second salesperson. He took it, snapped it in half and said, “You need a new pen.”

Source: Ken Langdon | TheWorkingManager

1 Comment » Posted by Administrator / Marketing / Sales

Like many photographers before him, Richard Zaltman was visiting remote areas of the world to capture images of people living lives far removed from those in the United States.

Here’s what made his experience different.

One morning, while walking through an isolated village in Bhutan, he suddenly got the idea of turning his camera over to the locals to see what they would consider significant enough to show others about themselves.

Later, when he looked at all their pictures, he noticed that most of the photos cut off people’s feet. “At first, I thought the villagers had just aimed wrong,” Zaltman says. “But it turns out that being barefoot is a sign of poverty. Even though everyone was barefoot, people wanted to hide that – -which is an important message to see.”

You never really know someone until you see the choices she makes.

Source: What’s Not Revealed is Often Most Revealing by Kare Anderson / CEO Refresher, January 2007

2 Comments » Posted by Administrator / Customer Related and Leadership and Management and Marketing / Sales

There’s a cardboard box company in Illinois that I ran into years ago. It was just phenomenal in terms of responsiveness. They were always on time or ahead of time, and they took on the tough orders. Their track record was brilliant. About a half dozen years ago, the guy who runs the company added two simple, innocent little columns to the end of the invoices. They stated “order requested” and “actual delivery date,” which pointed out, in black and white, that the company was always on time. It sounds corny, but it literally led to about a 20 percent instant overnight boost in business.

He was tooting his own horn; he was not bragging. One must be terribly careful because braggarts are the world’s biggest pain at age 22 or 72. But letting people somehow or other know that you have come through on a regular basis — subtly — makes all sorts of sense to me.

Source: Tom Peters / Business Finance, January 1997

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Management and Marketing / Sales