Thank you!

Thank you all for the many congratulations for my birthday. I’m very grateful to all of you. I turned 65 last Friday and I am as active, full of energy and new ideas as I ever was. As I do not intend to retire in the coming 25 years my goal is to continue to do good work for our clients and partners. 45 years of my professional life I learned a lot and I hope to continue to share my experiences and ideas for at least 25 years to come.

My expertise built on trying new ventures, sometimes with limited knowledge of the outcome, learning from successes and mistakes, trying out the newest approaches, continuous learning and being an early adaptor, it all has helped me to develop myself into the person I am: every day I enjoy what I do with the people I interconnect with and there is never a dull day.

One more advice: embrace change, see the positive, dare to challenge yourself and avoid mediocracy. Be the genuine person you are.

If you want to have a chat, click here and schedule a call with me. I’ll be happy to listen to you.

Dragon’s Den: the pitch was excellent, the investors said “NO”!

A couple of weeks ago I watched Dragon’s Den, a program which originated in Japan, called Shark Tank in the US and in the Netherlands by its original name.

The episode was about a young man who pitched his new product range in hope to get investors interested. His pitch was good, the products well presented, the audience sampled and liked his products.

When the potential investors were asked if they were willing to invest, all unanimously refused! Huh…what went wrong then? It was the following:

He made two remarks that killed the enthusiasm: one where he expressed unwillingness to work hard and the other was his wish to sell off his company in a couple of years for any good offer.

Out of the panel of 5 only one person noticed this and brought it up. Slowly, the rest started to realise that this panel member had a very strong point. And all the investors dropped out.

The above-mentioned situation reminds me of what often happens when recruiting sales people. Conversations with the candidates go well but there are doubts and managers don’t know why. It takes sharp observatory skills to notice little details that can be crucial when you are to take decisions about people. A moment of distraction or wrong information and your company will pay dearly for the mistake in hiring the wrong sales person.

Avoid costly mistakes by applying a proven sales assessment and an effective sales hiring process. Peterson Company is there to discuss the best solutions which will work for you.

Want to know more? Contact me here or at +31 (0) 642713033