Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives
Buying Christmas presents in Cambridge's Grand Arcade reminded me how hard it is to take the decision and close a deal. All around me other shoppers were caught up in the same process, scanning shop displays in the hope of inspiration. I wound up in John Lewis, which is apparently enjoying record sales - although it appears that many shoppers don't need inspiration from browsing, since their internet sales are growing faster than most of their stores. But I probably wouldn't have bought anything without the strong incentive of a short-term deadline - doing nothing is an easy option.
This week in the Sales Special Interest Group we heard about the same problem in selling chemical detectors from Billy Boyle of Owlstone Nanotech. They can detect chemicals with a smaller, cheaper chip, allowing detectors to be lighter and more portable. Billy described about the process of helping a customer understand the cost of doing nothing, and the way that converts into a Return On Investment that helps the buyer justify the decision. From his own account, he has changed from a technical evangelist yelling about the features of his product to now trying to elicit needs from customers and help them compare the options in front of them. He and a colleague have started a second company, Acaso Analytics, and he was looking for feedback from the audience of Sales managers from local companies including Plextek and Taylor Vinters. There were also good presentations from Red Gate and Trinamo, but Billy stood out with his frank and vivid examples of sausage manufacturers needing to sniff products at different stages of production.
Next week we'll see more of John Lewis in the Green IT seminar on Wednesday afternoon. Gary Hird, John Lewis' Technical Strategy Manager, will be presenting on how they reduce the carbon impact of running data centres to deliver all those internet sales, stores and logistics. We'll also hear from Cambridge University Computer Lab and TTP who are actively working on the same issues. Being responsibly green isn't yet as important as "never knowingly undersold" - but it is getting there!
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