Posts By Dick Davies

Baseball

Julie of the Web Managers Roundtable and I were discussing Spring Training and the Grapefruit League at her Mobile Event yesterday. “Sales,” she said, “is like baseball… “You pitch an offer… “And catch a sale… “Don’t ever try to pitch a sale…it just doesn’t work. “That’s like throwing a bowling ball down the gutter.” TipsRead… Read more »

Kid’s Books

Right after I finished reading Pirate Cinema, the United States Congress passed the six strikes law to take people off the internet. I guess they hadn’t read the book. I was looking for some reviews of the book because I wanted more context about the story. Good criticism is supposed to either explain more fullyRead… Read more »

Great Science Fairs

Dannielle commented, Curious what do you think makes for a great science fair? Top 5-10 elements. Really good question. The Junior Academy of the Washington Academy of Sciences provides judges for many school science fairs every year. I started as a judge in the program and succeeded the founder several years ago. I am proRead… Read more »

Listening

I started by “selling like an owner.” That’s not bad because owners of small businesses do most of the selling in the world. However, selling like an owner tends to be more effort and desperation than craft. After I sold that business, I started working at a marketing firm, working with customers, writing copy, andRead… Read more »

Integrity Is A Low Cost Option

We met with a prospect who had an interesting offer, a real need, and a cheerful outlook. That is rare. Only later when we were parsing what we had been told, we realized it couldn’t possibly be true. There were some order of magnitude inconsistencies between the inputs and the outputs. Oops. There are peopleRead… Read more »

Controlled Fall

Different perspectives… A walk is a controlled fall. Leaning forward increases speed. We are generally failing right up to the point of success. It’s healthy to learn to appreciate failure and be able to use it effectively. The only time you have excess money is when you no longer have something to apply it to,Read… Read more »

Practical Science

It’s Science Fair season and judges from the Junior Academy of the Washington Academy of Sciences were evaluating projects at Washington Mathematics Science and Technology Public Charter High School. What has changed in 2013?The baseline projects are getting better. There are books and websites for improving science projects and the students are using them. ThatRead… Read more »

Imaginary Relationships

A marketer was telling me how people used her product. I actually do use her product (not that she asked), and I sure don’t use it the way she said “they” do. She told a helluva story. It was much more colorful and important than the way I use it. I kinda wished I hadRead… Read more »

Spam Marketing Moving Forward

I was looking in my spam folder yesterday and read a new offering Postmaster Undeliverable I shall wait for your answer. I have a pretty high opinion of spam-meisters. They pay attention to optimization, and iterate along profitable veins of babble. They are professionals. I just think we should take all we catch and bundleRead… Read more »

A Label Is Not A Solution

I hate when a CEO asks for an opinion of one of her people. First of all nobody asks for my opinion of a happy situation. When it’s happy, they want to TELL me. Not that we will disagree. How people are perceived is pretty straight forward. However, if we come up with a differentRead… Read more »