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Bernadette Doyle

I've always liked the film the Wizard of Oz. I particularly like the scene where Toto, Dorothy's little dog, jumps out of her arms to pull back the curtain and reveal that the intimidating, omniscient wizard is simply a little old guy pulling levers.

The truth is, I see myself as a Toto. I like demystifying things. I especially like taking things that are intimidating, awe inspiring, and pulling back the curtain to reveal the simplicity that lies behind. I love saying 'See! Anyone can do this. It's really not that complicated!'

Bernadette Doyle

Many of us put off creating or overhauling our marketing materials until we have 'time.' But with all the responsibilities we have, who on earth has time? In my experience, the time excuse is very often a smokescreen, covering the fears hidden underneath.

And what of these fears? Well let's face it. When you're selling yourself, there's something scary about putting yourself 'out there'. And putting yourself 'out there' in a tangible real piece of marketing, does seem to make it somewhat final. We worry about being misunderstood.

Bernadette Doyle

When I started my business back in 1996, I had just recently completed some training in the area of NLP, neuro-linguistic programming (with PPD Learning in London, who I highly recommend). I had worked as a salesperson for a few years and my plan was to provide sales training based on NLP.

Well you know the old saying…if you want to make God laugh, show him your plans! I quickly realized that I wasn't the only person in the world to have had this idea. There were already lots of people knocking on doors to talk about NLP to improve sales, and many of those people had more experience, and better contacts. What did I have to stand out?

Bernadette Doyle

Let me start by apologising for that title. I can't believe I just put marketing and weapon in the same sentence. Because I don't think marketing is a war, quite the opposite in fact.

But I did want to get your attention, and the fact that you are still reading indicates that I was successful, so let's get going.

Shelle Rose Charvet

Jamie was listening patiently to his potential customer. George had said what he was looking for, why he wanted it and what would happen if he didn’t solve the problem soon. Jamie was eager to close the deal but couldn’t tell if now was the time to ask for the sale.

Like Jamie, many sales people know there is a moment when people are ready to buy. They just don’t quite know how to identify it. Often it is because they’re listening for the clue, not watching for it. The tip off is more frequently in the client’s body language than in what he or she is saying.

Bob Janes

Reading John Varney’s note about the pervasive flood of the mainstream and the need to swim against it in search of the source I was curious about what led to the development of the mainstream. To mix my metaphors ~ where do the band get onto the bandwagon?

Bob Janes

The term feedback is taken from systems design where it means that we take some information and literally feed it back into the process. The classic example is a thermostat, a switch that turns the heating on or off. To work usefully it needs to ‘know’ what the temperature in the room is. There are three really important things about this: It needs the information pretty promptly – knowing the temperature six weeks ago is interesting but not useful. It needs relevant information – knowing the temperature right now in Paraguay isn’t useful. And it needs to know what to do with the information – turning the heating on when the temperature is high probably isn’t what is wanted.

In 2001, just a day or so after 9/11 I was in Pakistan presenting workshops for the British Council on 'Organisational Complexity'. As a part of my preparation I sought out some practical demonstrations of complexity that I could use with a group. Here are some of the ideas I received.