Wow, what a profound description of "Sales"

Sales — when done right — is more than a job. It is an art. It is a high-wire act. It is, as Arthur Miller immortally said, being out there “on a smile and a shoe shine.” It is learning the product you are selling, learning it so well that you can describe it while doing a pirouette of smiles for the customer and talking about the latest football scores. It is knowing human nature so well that you can align the attributes of your product or service cleanly with the needs and wants of your customers.

At its best, selling is taking a doubt and turning it, jujitsu style, into a powerful push. Selling is making the customer feel better about spending money — or investing it — than he would have felt by keeping his wallet zipped.

Source: New York Times: The Sales Profession: Attention Must Still Be Paid

Have You

... read Marketingly.com?



It's back online with some recent posts, and a new one every other week day (yes, my weekends are mine!)

Tell me what you think.

Absence makes the heart grow fungus

It's been a month since my last post.

I'm sorry. I really am. 30 days of waiting for something new must have really put you off.

The real story: I've been swamped with work in the run up to MNP.

But here's one real new thing:



A brainchild I'm kickstarting called Marketingly.com

Why?

I've always wanted to document the things I've learned in consumer marketing. Marketingly.com is a quick way to start. I'm also getting other marketing experts in my network to come on board as guest bloggers.

The aim is to post one lesson every day for the next 100 days. This starts from October 10.

In the meantime: please add this site to your list of RSS feeds, or sign up for an email newsletter. Tell me what you think.

Two other things:

• For mobile users: if you're still spending your hard-earned ringgit to sustain a Prepaid / Postpaid line with Maxis, Celcom or U Mobile - it's time to switch to DiGi. With MNP you get to keep your number, e.g. use 012-YRNUMBR on DiGi. Seriously, you will save money and enjoy more.
• For music lovers: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus is a real song. Not my type though.

FedEx's hidden arrow (rules!)

Can you spot the hidden arrow?



I can't believe I missed it all these years.

Related links:

• The man behind the FedEx logo
• Arrow in FedEx logo is not a fluke

*p/s: Look between the E and the X.

Rubik's Cube

Here's an "insight" from the Customer Analytics & Consumer Insights conference that I am attending in Singapore this week.

Rubik's Cube is back in fashion again. It was invented in 1974. I last played with one in my teens, many (many) years ago.

When Toys"R"Us started marketing the cube at its stores, they realised that consumers walked in, and loved playing with the product. But they weren't buying it.

Upon conducting a study, they realised that people were more likely to buy the Rubik's Cube if they knew how to complete it. Toys"R"Us then came up with a 7-step guide to completing the cube. Sales spiked in no time. Neat, huh?

So, when was the last time you solved the Rubik's Cube?

Samsung BlogMob(ber)

So here's the deal. I'm one of 16 bloggers in the BlogMob programme organised by Samsung and Mobile World (the magazine).

They gave me the Samsung SGH-i450, after I drew a black 7 of spades. Had it been a red card, I would have gotten the SGH-i550 which has GPS, WiFi and a 3.2MP camera. I wanted the latter, but luck is quite a rotten thing.



What do I have to do? I've been asked to use the phone and blog about it, although I am not obliged to (mmm hmm). I think this will be a tough task. For me, the mobile phone = Nokia (remember subsets in Math class?)

This is a form of peer-to-peer marketing. It's great to see brands such as Samsung experiment with these type of initiatives. It takes a little bit of guts, as the average human being (blogger) will always have something negative to say. Multiply that by 1,000 readers, and you might end up with a Marketing Massacre.

For more about the BlogMob, and the other 15 bloggers, check out:
http://blogmob.mobileworld.com.my/

Would you do this for 100k?

If this appeals to you (tummy or wallet), drop by 1U between April 11-13. 100k cold hard cash if you eat the snake. Alive.(Gimmick? Perhaps. I'm not sure either!)

Micro Marketing

These days, it's possible to sell ad space everywhere. Even on a tiny spots in a lift.

Well, I'm off for a workout on Level 3. It's been one Mad Monday. Hope yours went well :)

Do you C?

Part 4 of the 6-part series: Photos I Wish I Had Posted In October (PIWIHPIO)

Spotted these stickers somewhere in Bangsar. A mysterious Project C and Professor Nabeel Laleewala: http://profnabeel.blogspot.com/. Some context over here.

Smells like viral marketing =)



More: View all photos from the PIWIHPIO 6-part series

Everybody has somebody

Are you Happy?



Happy is a no-frills prepaid service by DiGi that was introduced on December 7th. Here's a gist of what it has to offer:

• Per second billing at 1 sen - so your short 5-second calls will only cost 5 sen
• Maximum of 99 sen per call - so your long 20 minute lovers quarrel will only cost 99 sen
• 10 sen per SMS to any operator - so you can keep in touch with ALL your friends
• 60 days validity - so that you can spend your money over a longer period
• RM5 starter pack with RM2 preloaded airtime - so that you can have fun playing with it right away!

Sounds fantastic? Well, it gets better - buy it online, and have it delivered to your door step for FREE.

It's nice when things work.

Maybank ROMPAK bonus pekerja

Spotted outside Maybank in Bangsar, earlier this morning. Someone's obviously unhappy about something. The sticker is in Malay, and translates to: "Maybank robbed their employees bonuses"

The next revolution for images on the web

Sometimes it's the simplest innovation that sparks a (gold)rush. I like this new technology from AdBrite which is aptly called the BritePic. Likewise, Techcrunch claims that the technology will redefine the img tag. Check out the demo video below:



What all this means is that you can now embed additional *stuff* on images / photos, which would mean more ways to monetize one of the greatest bandwidth-hogging items on the Internet. Watermarks, logos and ads beneficial to advertisers / copyright owners, and additional community features such as sending to friends, linking, embedding and zooming (nice!)

Here's one I just created. This is a photo of my buddy, Edmund, who celebrated his birthday yesterday. He had a blast of a party in KL! Try zooming in to see his sweat beads.


Related links:

• TechCrunch: Redefining the img tag
• BritePic: official website
• AdBrite: official website

Want a Joost invite?

Update: Ivan got the invite for being the first one. Thanks to everyone that sent me an email. I'll be sure to dish out invites to you as and when it's made available to me.

---

Prashant reminded me that I can invite friends to Joost. I've got one invite left. Keen? First person to emailme [at] praveenrajan [dot] com, "wins" the lucky invite.



Marketing 101: Scarcity is a great way to create buzz!

Nice spin to a private beta

I like how Flikzor has added some fun to the private beta application process. Everytime you hit http://flikzor.com, you will see a counter indicating the number of passes left. That's a nice spin, even if it's trivial. Here are some screenshots of the application process that leads to a registration page.








I've registered and explored the range of features in the beta -- they've got some good stuff brewing. I haven't been able to publish my personal video greeting yet, as the playback seems to be timing out frequently. Will post one of their widgets once this issue is resolved.

Related links:

• Techcrunch: Flikzor Could Get Viral In A Hurry