Desperado

I’ve said it before, desperation is a tough sell. I received an email last night from a company that I have not contacted directly. I used their free service one time 3 months ago. Now the desperate-sounding rep sent me an email pushing for business. See if you can spot his approach (I removed some names): We are currently at the end of another month and I promised to catch up with you to let you know about Month End incentives, pricing discounts and free services. Forget what you know about company’s pricing as it stands now. We have lowered all prices on all services and even lowered minimum commits… Read More

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When Photoshop is a Verb

At the risk of piling on about Katie Couric’s doctored photo in the news, I thought I would reference a prescient post regarding Work & Health. If you look at the article’s stats, perhaps Katie’s new anchor position is getting to her. Personally, I thought she looked great in the first picture. I’d write more but I am off to photoshop my own image before uploading it to this site.

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Fuzzy Phrases

I came across an interesting article on fuzzy phrases in this week’s newsletter from Sales Vault and it is well worth the time to read. The author’s definition of a fuzzy phrase is something that really says nothing. You feel like you might have heard something of substance, but after analysis (usually after the call is over) you realize they just said nothing. They are his pet peeve as I am sure they are for all sales people. His suggestion is to ask for clarification. When you hear any statement that is vague or wishy-washy, ask for clarification. If it’s something that needs to be done or discussed, I’ll always… Read More

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Radio Shack’s Junk Mail

Ok, maybe electronic communication has gone too far. I posted some Termination Tips a week ago that apparently were not read by Radio Shack’s upper management team. Before that, I posted about Text Message Terminations – an employee was fired through her cell phone text messaging. Granted, it was from a body piercing shop, but the approach was still laughable. Now Radio Shack has decided to enter this infamous club by using email to terminate employees. This is no joke: Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters received an e-mail Tuesday morning telling them they were being dismissed immediately.”The work force reduction notification is currently in progress,” the notice stated. “Unfortunately… Read More

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