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And the hits keep on coming.... will MP's ever learn 

one rushed ill thought out tweet = one ruined political career and a trolls paradise 

What a refreshingly inspirational post and worth pinning to the top 

Went to a networking meeting this morning, main reason was the editor of our local rag was giving a talk and I'm on a mission to get a better understanding of traditional PR.

But an unexpected bonus was a talk by two chaps who have teamed up to create an informal advice service called the Sounding Board. One of them is Bernard Cook OBE, former MD of Mr. Kipling Cakes amongst other things, including Chairman of the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory.

His business partner Alan Stevenson spent 30 years in the UK private equity market, and between them they have an incredible wealth of experience. But instead of retiring to the Golf course, they have set up an informal advice service for business owners and MD's.

You get their undivided attention for 2 - 3 hours as a one off private session, with no strings, no upsell, 100% impartial and amazingly in this modern world, no charge.

They want to put something back, genuinely love the interaction and sharing of business ideas and advice, and has to be more fun than golf

It would be great if I could get them on the forum, but if you are around the Warwickshire area or fancy a trip and would like to touch base with Bernard and Alan, send me a PM and I'll send you their contact number.

It just shows that from forum threads, to networking groups and retired executives, there is a lot of help and experience out there for business owners to tap into if they look for it.

Originally Posted by Jan Sitek

“...free magnifying glass ”

Your supposed to be working, stop skiving

You mean we can't be 9 - 5'ers 

Hi Steve, it may be worth seeing if the motor dealer is a member of a professional tradebody, such as Motor Codes, Bosch Service Centres, VBRA etc. They normally show off any credentials on their website.

You can also do a search on the TSI website:

www.tradingstandards.gov.uk - Car Dealers

Hi Luke, we've gained a few telesales battlescars over the years, although it's becoming a fading memory and the pain doesn't feel as bad...

There's 2 elements to Telesales. High quality data and experienced telesales resource, both of which cost, and we started we neither

Between you me and the forum walls, back in the day, we used to grab data from anywhere, erm directories were a favourite . That's when I learnt the hard way about seed listings and had our first legal threat.

So B2B data has to be bought in. The problem is suppliers (and we've tried plenty) make various promises, all data is opt in, only allowed 2 contacts a month, 90% of data is accurate blah blah and most if it was always cobblers.

You end up with lots of duplicate data, ie multiple phone numbers for the same company. Most of the contact numbers have been spammed to death that they are managed by PA guard dogs or ring out.

The best data we had (can't rem name of company but can find it if interested) was expensive for the number of records, but was brand new businesses which was our target market and hadn't been hit too many times. 

Then there was our sales force. After realising that the 3 of us at the time couldn't sell water to a dehydrated millionaire, we had the genius idea to recruit a sales force and took on a succession of youngsters as our outbound sales force. Then it eventually became obvious we now had 7 of us that were rubbish at selling with an ever growing wage bill. 

We then tried outsourcing to a professional call centre which was expensive, but the sales force were very slick, but was also turning us into a mini Yell, losing our character and I realised we were going a direction I wasn't comfortable with.

So we changed the model, said au-revoir to the sales guys and gave up completely on outbound telesales. Even now the thought of doing a sales call brings me out in a cold sweat.

If I had any advice, it would be spend any budget on a decent sales salary and employ the best sales bod you can afford. Forget pure commission promises, the best guys can command a good base salary plus commission. With the remaining budget, get the best data you can afford.

TPS we learnt is a toothless organisation so don't worry too much about that, but any professional data you buy should be TPS free.

The budget we saved on telesales we spent on PPC, and have been doing it ever since, with a consistent return.

But don't let me put you off!  

Wow, a powerful, personal and tragic story.

Good on you for standing by him. Obviously don't go into the facts of the case, but surprised his wife didn't stand by him. I think my wife can tell in an instant if I've done wrong! As for the parents, you'd think you'd know your own kids.

But it is a scary world we live in sometimes where everything can come crashing down in an instant. Even worse if you know you are innocent but no one believes you.

Fantastic  I love stories like this, puts a human face on business and makes you realise you're not the only one who learns the hard way!

Thanks a lot Tom, it's a brave (but confident) man that does a public challenge 

Looking forward to seeing how SEO is done properly in this new Google Panda and Penguin world, and I'm sure plenty of people will be keeping a close eye as well.

Great way to showcase your skills, happy to be a case study and hopefully good news for the forum

Best of British, let the challenge commence 

Post purchase update. First Lenovo has been running smoothly for the last couple of weeks without any problem.

Then Clive aka Gardes shiny new Lenovo arrived (albeit amazingly after Lenovo forgot to put the delivery address on).

He has had it for less than a week and broke it last night

For some reason his user account became corrupted and windows tried re-installing itself and got it's knickers in a twist.

Luckily I could get into it from the hidden admin account, and after updating firmware and BIOS, we now seem to be back to normal and everything seems ok.

So duff a Lenovo, or has the former HP Laptop destroyer now moved onto a new brand  

I have come to the conclusion there is a deep mystical anti technology power at work around Clive who is also a talented bug finder and dab hand at breaking websites. If you need any testing done, I know just the man!

Lets see how the Lenovo goes over the next few months.... Otherwise it's an Asus