Blog
Stories from the world of BD
In case of a BD emergency, break glass
In the ideal situation, in BD nirvana, things are done in the right way. But the reality is not always like that. What if you’ve taken a new role and it turns out the warm pipeline isn’t quite the dream it was sold as.
Event report, Re-Tech Bristol drinks
Re-Tech Bristol drinks July 2022 The first ever Re-Tech Bristol drinks took place a few days ago on the Bristol harbourside. A massive thank you to all fifty people who came along to enjoy some pizza and good times on a boat in the evening sunshine. We all spend too...
Save time and money? Total yawnfest
You heard about this new software? Among tech vendors there can be a tendency to boil down outreach messaging to the good old fall back of: “This app will save you time and money” Here’s the thing. Nearly every bit of cloud tech out there will do that. And so, a...
Rewrite a website in a single weekend. Doable with a little bit of help from some tech.
The challenge: Rewrite a website Last month I set myself a challenge with the following goal in mind: Could I update the MaketheBreak website with all the changes I had spinning around my head - and could I do it all inside a single weekend within a couple of...
Re-Tech event launch, Thursday 14 July
Re-Tech Bristol is go The first ever Re-Tech Bristol has a simple mission; to bring together good people in renewables and technology who are based in and around Bristol. Informal drinks, pizza and chat. Not a speech, presentation or slide in sight. Kicking off at 5pm...
Foundation Ex went off! A last minute conference MC experience
What a week The second ever Foundation Ex conference by Empire Engineering took place over Monday and Tuesday this week. I've had the privilege to be involved in Foundation Ex right since its inception way back in 2018, ahead of the inaugural 2019 event. It has been...
Looking forward to Foundation Ex 2022
Foundation Ex 2022 is a few days away. Over the past few months the team at Make the Break have been supporting Empire Engineering in getting everything ready for the event. The concept of the Foundation Ex conference was born out of discussions between Karl Davis and...
Running a business on a Chromebook, doable? Yep. A good idea? Actually, yep
Is it a good idea to run a business on a Chromebook? This is a post that has been bubbling away in my mind right since the early days of Make the Break, back at the start of 2020. Two and bit years further on and it feels like sufficient time to have fully road tested...
Knowing the buyer persona is good, understanding product market fit is better
Buyer personas are much maligned In recent years, the buyer persona has become a key foundation stone of many a marketing strategy. It is, however, not without its haters. For a while now there has been a Prince Charles vs Ozzy Osbourne meme doing the...
Want to make an impact as a Sales leader? Think transformational not incremental
According to the OECD, the definition of a scale-up business is: ‘A company that has achieved growth of 20% or more in either employment or turnover year on year for at least two years, and has a minimum employee count of 10 at the start of the observation...
Cold Business Development email can work
Email still has an important role to play in outbound B2B sales in 2022. Specifically, I’m talking here about personalised Business Development emails from rep to potential customer. It might not be glamorous, it’s certainly not as effective as ‘back in the day,’ but...
For success in Business Development, just speak normally
Starting this one with a statement. This is what I believe: There is a common mistake to be overly formal in email tone early in a career. Why is that and how to get over it? As the years go by, this is something that I’m seeing more and more. Perhaps it’s become...
I'm all ears