​We’ve talked about Presentation Zen before, but there are times when you have to deliver detailed messages to a senior audience and for those times, a pretty photo and a single line of writing just won’t hold up.
 
But avast! as any PowerPoint pirates might say, there be danger ahead!
 
Too many detail-type presentations fail when the rep has so much detail to explain that he ends up reading his heavily bulleted slides to the audience - and the audience duly responds by catching up with some z’s behind a craftily positioned laptop screen.
 
However, there is one way to structure your deck to capture the attention of the most senior person in the room for enough time to put the message across and ask for action, even if the slides are stuffed with detail.
 
And it’s something that’s even more important if you’re planning to use the same slide deck as a giveaway after the show is over.

​No sales meeting this Monday as it’s a public holiday here in the UK – which means that we’ll have to find a way of shoehorning that workload into conference calls while on the motorway tomorrow.
 
Which means I have a free choice of topic today. Tech related and life changing? With that title? Let me explain why I think that software might change the concept of beauty forever.
 
It started, as so many things do nowadays, on Facebook.  I've spent a bit more time than usual there this weekend, and I’m starting to get frustrated by its algorithms that tell me what I want to see. 

​Hiring the perfect SalesOps leader is a bit like looking for a rugby player that has played both in the scrum and as a fly-half.
 
The scrum is the operational end of the rugby business. All tactics.  Putting your body on the line.  The headgear they wear - scrum-caps - was invented to stop ears from coming off in the battle for the ball.
 
The fly-half is the team’s General. He stands behind the forwards as they fight each other for the ball, identifies weaknesses in the opposition and calls the plays to ensure the team scores. His job is predominantly strategic - and requires vision, alertness to change and the authority to get the other 14 players to follow his direction.
 
There’s not many who have both skill-sets - and those that do usually end up in the tactical, dirty end of the business.
 
Because in rugby, unless you can win the ball in the first place, the strategic stuff doesn’t really matter.

​For a consumer, the “ultimate proposal” is when you see exactly what you want, put it in your shopping cart and then pop a few other items in there while you’re at it. Five minutes later you’re on the sidewalk with a couple of bags, a slightly bloodied credit card, whistling a happy tune.
 
Online, Spotify does it for your ears. Amazon does it brilliantly. And Netflix does it on your TV.

They all tailor their offers - their proposals - specifically to your previously identified needs and tastes.
 
You tell Spotify about a couple of bands you like and they’ll find similar ones that you’ll also like.
 
And Netflix uses your film choices to suggest flicks you’ve never heard of but which are in a similar style in their highly segmented catalogue.
 
Amazon is the master of cross-selling and uses previous buying history, what’s in your basket and tracking cookies to figure out what you’ve been searching for elsewhere and to magically offer you just what you need when you’re in the mood to buy.
 
So we know what the segment-of-one marketing concept is - and how it translates to building the best possible proposal in the consumer world.
 
But how does this translate to enterprises?

Effective recruitment strategies are critical to the long term success and growth of your company, especially when it comes to strategic hires.
 
And as I’ve said before, anything that has the word strategy in it is all about being blunt and accepting about what’s real with your company and its current positioning, not believing in some aspirational goal as reality. Only then can you make strategic changes.
 
Recruitment strategy is the reason why Manchester United needs José Mourinho* more than the “special one” needs Man U. Without the magic of his name, they won’t sign the top players they need, because top players want European Champion's League opportunities, and Manchester U isn’t in that competition.

​Again.

So let’s be blunt about your recruitment approach to strategic hires. It probably sucks.