Christophe LANGLOIS (first version)

UK: Pushy sales pitches "cost firms dearly"

Sales people, the cliche
Sales is a highly interesting topic. Most of the time, when they think about Sales, people think: "pushy, biased, products, intrusion"...

Hard-selling: a costly sales strategy for UK businesses
This morning, I was on my way to the office, on the tube, where I read an article from the Metro: Pushy sales pitches "cost firms dearly".

Aggressive sales tactics and pushy staff are leading to a consumer backlash against British businesses. Please find below an extract of the article:
"AGGRESSIVE sales pitches and pushy staff at callcentres are l;eading to a consumer backlash against British businesses, a study suggested yesterday.
Many companiers face losing money because people experienec "customer service rage", according to the National Consumer Council (NCC).
Top hates include "robotic" call centres, hard-selling marketing, missed appointements and poor after-sales service.
Companies in telecoms, the financial services and utility sectors were named among the worst-performing.
Electrical retailers and garages also came off badly in the survey, title The Stupid Company: How British Businesses Throw away Money by Alienating Customers.
NCC deputy chiez executive Philip Cullum siad: "We're seeing more and more service rage, with infuriated customers punishing companies for hopeless performance.
"The scale of company inaptitude must amount to many billions of pounds of lost profits."
Survey responedents criticised some firms for being "sneaky, dishonest, incompetent and ineffectual".
The study said companies could improve by getting one member of staff to deal with a customer from start to finish, to ensure a personal touch.
(...)"

Networking is a passion for me: I like meeting new people and develop excellent long-term relationships.

2006: a demand for tailored services and excellent customer care
The reason I work as a Sales Manager is for the challenge of developing the best relationships with new clients, or enhance the quality of existing relationships. The secret to be a fantastic Sales person is... to listen first. That is the secret. You understand the needs of your contact, you listen. Then you can explain how you could help him and meet His specific demands. It needs to be taylored.

I believe my clients think about quality, relationship, consulting, help, care, responsiveness.

Herceptin: Breast cancer drug test for all

I would like to share with you an article I have just read today: on many occasion, we had to deal with breast cancer in my family. And I am not the only one... But we need to communicate to make things go forward!

This new drug could prove to be very useful and could play an important part in saving hundreds of thousands lives.

Breast cancer in the UK
One in every nine women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in her life - more than 41,000 cases are diagnosed each year.
It has become the most common cancer in the UK, and is the leading cause of death for women aged 34 to 54.

Herceptin
All women with early stage breast cancer are to be tested to see if they could benefit from the drug Herceptin, the government has announced.

The drug is currently only licensed for use in women with advanced breast cancer.

But it is also thought to be effective at treating the early stages.

Testing now should mean women in England who could benefit can receive the drug as soon as the licence is extended, probably next year. (...)

(full article)

Herceptin facts

* It targets the HER2 protein, which can fuel the growth of breast tumours

* Herceptin prevents this process happening

* Around a fifth of breast cancers are HER2 positive

* It is currently licensed for use in women with advanced breast cancer - where the disease has spread * within the breast or to another organ

* Early stage breast cancer refers to the first occurrence of the disease

* The cost for one year's treatment with Herceptin is £19,500

Women bosses hit 'glass cliff'

Please find below an article I read in the metro on Wednesday, August 31st. (It is also available on cnn's website)

Chris

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LONDON, England -- Social psychologists have identified a new obstacle to female success in the workplace.

"Growing numbers of women are smashing through the so-called "glass ceiling" into senior managerial roles, but many are finding themselves in precarious positions with a high risk of failure, according to Professor Alex Haslam of Exeter University.

Professor Haslam's research followed an article last year in The Times newspaper of London, which questioned the performance of FTSE 100 companies that had appointed women to their boards.

But in a study of FTSE 100 companies, Haslam and his team discovered that most appointed women to senior positions only after a downturn in their fortunes, leaving them standing on the edge of a "glass cliff." (...)

(http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/09/08/women.glasscliff/index.html)

Notting Hill Carnival, London

This is the time of the yearly carnival in London: it takes place in trendy Notting Hill, it lasts 2 days, and several hundreds of thousands people are expected.

It is also synonimous of violence: stores & restaurants got ready to face the crowd (I took the pictures on Saturday)   

London, Thursday 21th July: Tube Blasts Confirmed

"Bombers have again targeted London's transport system - with up to four explosions reported." (source: Sky News)

We did not know what to expect in London, since the terrible events two weeks ago. Today, we learned they plan to remain active...

Now, we expect them to keep on bombing, tube, bus or monuments/buildings, again and again: they want to create fear and terrify both londoners and tourists.

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More picture HERE.

London, Monday 11th July: the show must go on!

"We are encouraging everyone to get back to work and to get back into the capital," said Andy Trotter, senior British Transport Police officer.

It is almost an ordinary Monday in London to some extent that everybody has to go to work.
Nevertheless, I noticed at least 2 things, witnessing what has happened last week.

People go to work... but not by tube
I took the bus at Queensway: there was an unusual very long queue... Then the road was very busy around Holborn... People go to work as usual, but really try their best not to take the tube!

Increased security on the bus: 3 inspections in less than 10mn
When I was on the bus, for the first time ever, 2 policemen came in around Marble Arch to check the 2 floors of the bus. Then, another checking just after Oxford Circus. And 2 other policemen stopped the bus to check it... 50 meters after the 2nd inspection!

Emergency Numbers

* Anti-terrorist hotline: 0800 789 321

* Missing relatives: 0870 156 6344

For more info in English, please visit the BBC website.
For more info in French, please visit the Radio France website.
More picture HERE.

London, Thursday 7th July: from happiness to sadness

I have been living in the fantastic city of London for more than 3 years now: people are great!

9:30am in a bus in Central London: lack of information...
Yesterday, I was one more time impressed with the way people reacted around me. I was in a bus around 9:30am: it was packed and we did not really know why... An electric failure in the tube? A bomb alert? A real explosion!...

...Then people stayed incredibly calm
When we eventually realized what has just happened, and even when the driver started to check the bus to detect any unidentified bags onboard, everybody stayed calm and we were talking to each other in a positive way.
We drove in busy London and we could see many people walking quietly, and we could see and hear the Police and the Medics everywhere. They did a very good job.

In the afternoon: first casualties, the unknown for the future, but still calm londoners and tourists
The shock was huge and the timing extremely cruel, but the end of the day meant a lot of trouble to go back home, especially for commuters: you could see people walking, sharing information and maps... Everybody showed some incredible solidarity in that crisis.

I am convinced Londoners will go through that difficult situation and they will teach the terrorists a real lesson of courage.

Some exceptional events in London in just 5 days

   

 

 

      

For more info in English, please visit the BBC website.
For more info in French, please visit the Radio France website.
More picture HERE.

17th june 2005, Mums-to-be 'denied one-to-one care'

One in four women did not receive one-to-one care when they had their baby, a National Childbirth Trust survey has found...
You can find out more about that news in the "BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO" section on the BBC's website (www.bbc.co.uk).

UK: Girls of 14 having sex for 3rd time (Evening Standard, 23/03/05)

Nearly a quarter of 14-year-old girls are sexually active and have had an average of three partners, a study shows today.

Half of the girls who have had sex admit having had a one-night stand. The survey of 2,000 girls with an average of 14 shows that two thirds have had unprotected sex - with half either having turned to the morning after pill or taken a pregnancy test as a result.

Half of the girls questionned for the Bliss magazine survey say they have had a sexual experience they regret.

Almost two third claim they had intercourse when they were drunk, 30 per cent say they did not even like their partner, and a quarter revealed they were forced into it. The number of teenage pregnancies in Britain is rising.

Figures released last month revealed that 42,200 girls under the age of 18 conceived in 2003 - a rise of 200 on the previous year. In London, the number of pregnancies among girls aged 15-17 is 51.1 per 1000 - compared with the national average of 42.7 per 1000.

(...)

I think this is very sad (drunk) and quite scary (unprotected sex)...