You can find the original post HERE and a summary of key points reprinted below. It’s a site well worth revisiting.

At one point in your sales career it will hit you that a client is neither profitable nor a part of your ideal client profile which, means they’re costing you and your company money.

Before you fire a client here’s a list of my top three that should be cut loose.

1. The Blue Light Special Client – This is the client who wants everything done for the least amount of money. At one point they stop being profitable and now become a drain. Stop throwing your time and money out the window when you could be prospecting for the right client. The best way to deal with them is to raise your rates until they ask to be let go or start to charge for everything you do.

2. The Sky is Falling Client – This client is always in a panic mode and expects you to be at their beck and call no matter what. Of course it’s always your product that is at fault not them. It’s best to call them out on this and say it’s obvious that the product is the wrong fit for them. They’ll either work with you or let you take the product back. Many times they will not want to look bad in front of their management and will be agreeable to work with you on getting the bugs out of the system.

3. The Check’s in the Mail Client – If you spend more time conversing with accounts payable then it’s time to re-evaluate the client. Some of them may not be soluble enough to support your products or services. Most of the time these accounts are inherited, and were a mistake in the first place, but someone may have been desperate. In this case, finding a suitable solution that works for them is necessary, even if it is a competitor. It’s worth the aggravation.

It’s not easy to let clients go and before you do make sure this is a team effort and your management is involved. It should be carefully orchestrated on how, when and who will do the talking. Diplomacy is the key. Most of the time the client is unaware of their behavior and once confronted they’ll make the effort to work with you. The key is not to burn any bridges, but make it a win-win situation.

Nice one Stephanie – thanks for the great post and again, if you enjoyed this then make your way over to her site. She has another fabulous post all about sales prospecting that crosses the line.

Source Note: Check out the original website post here.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event management and event production services across Australia and throughout Asia.

These awards are the brainchild of Lara McCulloch who is the CEO of the special events industry’s highest ranked independent blog and is also the foundof the #Eventprofs on Twitter.

Following the shortlisting of nominees by an esteemed panel of industry experts, it is now time for all nominees to be subjected to the popular voting phase.

We’d encourage you to take the time to visit the various nominees websites as there are some sensational people and organizations out there who we’ve found to be incredibly inspiring. These blogs serve as an outstanding resource for event and creative professionals who wish to be not only inspired but challenged. We wish them all well and congratulate them for their nomination.

Voting for these awards is now open and closes on the 8th September so the window of opportunity to cast your vote is small.

So once you’ve perused all the nominees, please cast your vote. And naturally we’d really appreciate it that when considering category number six, Best Corporate Blog, you cast your vote for our website… this one right here. Big thank yous.

Voting is via an easy and very quick tick survey format – please CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Please vote FACTOR168 for Best Corporate Blog

Please note that voting closes on 8th September 2010 so vote early.

Feel free to share with your friends and colleagues.

You’ll find the category that we’ve been nominated for is the highly competitive category number (6)

Source Notes:

Lara McCulloch can be followed on Twitter here and the twitter hash tag used by many in the events industry is #Eventprofs

The website for the online 2010 Awards and list of finalists can be found here.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences – www.factor168.com

We are already buzzing with the huge opportunities that these could present with an events and exhibition setting. Or for that matter – the office.

Here are just a few examples of these 3D sticker decales in use. We agree with Midnight, who on earth wouldn’t want to have a secret tunnel behind a bookcase leading up into a a secret laboratory, workshop or study. We would!

The online suppliers Couture Deco from the USA advise that they are washable, UV resistant, highly durable, and probably most importantly – fire resistant. Big ticks all round. The only thing that is not so great is that you apply them with regular wallpaper glue which in itself is not so bad except pretty much everyone here at our studio have had disastrous experiences at home doing this. Size? Pretty standard sizing however they can of course be adjusted for a specific spaces by simply trimming with scissors or a stanely knife. Apparently they are dead easy to remove.

Costs? At the time of this post – USD$279 plus shipping… so certainly not cheap and probably better suited to more permanent fitouts like cafe, restaurants, office spaces, and the home… but if budget does allow then from an event point of view – the results would be… as one of our younger staff members is want to declare – ‘well wicked’. Which we understand is a good thing. haha. hmm.

This company also produces other assorted decales that have really strong creative event usage possibilities. We are particularly excited with the ‘bird cage’ imagery. Kinda cool. And at USD$109 plus shipping, a little more manageable. Can also be applied to glass which is v.cool.

Source Notes:

These 3D stickers can be sourced from Couture Deco. And a special thank you to Midnight for the reference.

I understand there is some Gridiron football involved and apparently today the New Orlean’s Saints had a famous win… but for the rest of the western world, the superbowl is all about the sideshow event – commercials.

This year was not any different and the Forbes website have been kind enough to provide a digital selection of some of these television advertising commercials for you to review, consider, muse upon and hopefully enjoy. Oh, and buy their stuff!

Which ad worked best for you?

And importantly which ad worked best for the company commissioning it.

We think the E*Trade one wins hands down. The ‘wolfie’ online brought a smile to our face and the line about his airplane travelling pal dancing style being described as… ‘haunting’ made us laugh out loud. Instant classics.

The Doritos ad with the nimble dog venting vengence ran a relatively close second. Hmmm… man… there’s so many people I’d love to collar and bark at… jus’ sharin’.

The not-so-great ads? There were a number.

Keep an eye out for the Dr Pepper Cherry flavoured soft drink (‘soda’ in American-speak). It wasn’t the worst but it was far from good. Even with Gene Simmons from Kiss in it… or because of it – it was just plain lame. Pity.

Anyhoo, feel free to check out the superbowl 2010 ad’s below and see what you think.

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FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

This probably comes as no surprise that we are huge champions of brainstorming.

The results are always interesting. Sometimes surprising and curious. And brainstorming for us, has always proven to be a great source and driver of creative innovation in the design and execution of events.

We do it as a team, we do it with our suppliers and partners, and we love doing it with out clients.

But it’s not always about working in groups, some of our best ideas have come from individuals finding their ‘muse’ – we call them ‘idea-showers’. Taking a break in a new cafe, flicking through design magazines, a wander through an art gallery for lunch, justing sitting back eyes close with iTunes running Genesis style.

Different strokes for different folks.

Personally I subscribe to crunching up a ball of paper and tossing it across the office for a 3 pointer basket.

if you’d like to practice before indulging in the real deal – check out these two FACTOR168 approved flash games.

Totally free to play and accessible from any web browser – the first is strangely titled Cyrkam Airtos.

It’s a nice touch where you have to catch the paperball from another fellow wihtin the office before you get a chance to drop one in the basket. More difficult than it first appears.

The second game is kinda more ‘technical’ in that you need to contend with urban environment elements (desk, chair, rotating fan) to drop the balls square into the baskets. This game is called …to the rescue.

If anyone out in the wide world of webbery strays across other paperball games – sing out and share this strange passion of mine.

* The image above is courtesy of Chuck who seemed to have taken a stab at their own ‘mousetrap’. It would seem that Chuck have taken it upon themselves to reinvent the wasterpaper basket. Umm okay.

They call them the ‘waste-less’ baskets because they are constructed from 100% recycled cardboard, and printed with low VOC based inks that is totally recyclable.

Smart design at work. I wonder if the ‘world will beat a path to their door’. Perhaps.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

It is grim. It is 1984. The Gordon Geckos are on the loose. Everything is beige.

Britain’s miner strike, big teased hair, asteroid video game (loved this thing along with the sitdown Pacman), brick mobile phones, vinyl records, leopard prints, Maggie Thatcher lurks behind the scenes and the Cold War Cowboy is at work across the Atlantic. Travel is chorelike and sucks.

Cue the Frankie Goes to Hollywood inspired soundtrack and out stride forth the Virgin Atlantic glamourzillians in their fitted bright red uniforms and sexy stilettos – cutting a swath through a sea of tired beige. Ruby Cool. Very Ruby Cool.

Yup. Based off this ad alone, I’d want to change airlines too. The promise of an attractive branded experience over a simple transactional service can be very powerful. Well done Virgin Atlantic.

FACTOR168 | Event Management Company

I can’t explain it but I just can’t stop at one and the more I peel the more I need to peel….

FACTOR168 | Event Management Company

FACTOR168 | Event Management Company

No one in the office has ever recieved more than 25 roses ever – and 108 means marry me, so we were wondering what 168 would mean?

A single bloom of red rose    love at first sight or “I still love you”

A single rose in any colour    indicates simplicity and gratitude
2 roses           mutual feelings
3 roses           “I love you”
7 roses           “I’m infatuated with you”
9 roses           “We’ll be together forever”
10 roses         “You are perfect”
11 roses         “You are My Treasured One”
12 roses         “Be mine!”
13 roses        “Friends forever”
15 roses         “I’m truly sorry”
20 roses         “I’m truly sincere towards you”
21 roses         “I’m dedicated to you”
24 roses         “Forever yours”
25 roses         Congratulations
36 roses         “Remembering our romantic times”
40 roses         “My genuine love for you”
50 roses         Unconditional love
99 roses         “I will love you all the days of my life”
101 roses       “I’m completely devoted to you”
108 roses       “Will you marry me?”
999 roses       “I love you till the end of time”