Selling Skills In The Age Of The Internet

As we move further into selling on-line on the internet, we must not forget that while first contact with a customer may take place through a free try and buy or totally free download (as is the case with many open source software applications), at some point in time, especially if your are selling to enterprises, human to human contact is inevitable.

At this point in time, selling skills become very important. This applies to the CEO, the sales force and right down to the technical support staff. Failure here can result in significant and, if you are a start up with usually limited funding, possibly fatal loss...

Malaysian Attitude

The problem with my microwave oven was fixed some time back thanks to the very helpful GM. He sent and engineer (not a contractor) who demonstrated a professional attitude that I have come to know and expect of a true quality Japanese corporation (I used to work for Fuji Xerox). I think high quality products and services will be the key differentiators for Japan as manufacturing costs get hit with that of China, India and the rest of the world. One area is common criteria compliance in consumer products such as digital cameras etc. Can you give me an assurance that the picture taken in the camera has not been manipulated and tampered with with the correct meta data such as gps location, time etc? This means that the data in the camera and other products become trustworthy and can be relied upon for whatever legitimate purposes. This has great significance in the world today as cyber security and cyber warfare becomes the new arena for potential conflicts.

The reason I highlighted this particular issue was the issue of the Malaysian attitude and how we lag behind the developed nations despite having a highly developed infratructure. It is the little things that matter such as professional commitment on the part of the individual. Professional commitment means doing the right thing (not just because it is expedient to do so) and doing things on time. This is quite important as if you really know your job you should have a good idea of how long it should take you even with all the real world interruptions that occur. If you don't, then something is seriously wrong and maybe you should not be in that role. There first few times is OK as one is learning about what to do but if this goes on and on, maybe the conclusion we can draw is that you are not interested in doing the job...

Malaysian Service Attitude - My Microwave Oven

We have a super reliable Japanese Microwave Oven that has lasted about 20 years. While we are happy with the unit itself, we have not been happy with the service levels or the attitude of the service people over the years.

This makes one think, if this is so typical in Malaysia, how can we build a world class Malaysian organization.

We reported a problem with the unit on the 1st of June, and while the original problem was fixed, the bulb blew and has yet to be replaced and the service personnel seems to have a lack of respect for the customer's (that's us) time.

They don't seem to understand that we have other time commitments (it is the school holidays and we have places to go, people to see...) and that these delays can cascade to other people. It is very important to deliver in a timely fashion as the whole ecosystem is affected. Maybe that is why Malaysians have a problem with punctuality because of other people within the the Malaysia Ecosystem...

Amazing Young Qari

Here is another one, of a child reading the opening verses of one if the surahs or chapters of the Quran, Surah Yaasin, often also used for healing, really good...

This is a recitation of the Quran by my favorite Qari....

View From My Room

I took a break a few weeks back and took the famly to Cameron Highlands. It's my first time there, which was strange since I have been to the US, UK, India, France, Switzerland, Monte Carlo etc but I have never been to Cameron Highlands.

The drive is a bit of a chore what with the way it bends and weaves around the hill sides but once we got there (after taking another route as the first one was blocked by a fallen tree) it was nice. This was the morning view from our room at Strawberry Park resort the next day.

You can see the photo's that I took at Cameron Highlands here

Links to my other web pages

Hi All,

Actually I am the same Mansur from Mansur's On-Line Silat Resource. The Silat website has not been updated for a long time as I am busy at my current engagement at Sun Microsystems as a Chief Technology Officer focusing on the Malaysian Government Sector.

You can find me at other places on the Net such as the Open Malaysia Blog run by my buddy Hasan. There's plenty of stuff there on Open Standards (Primarly concerning the ODF - Open Document Format/ISO26300) that should be of great concern to everyone...

You can see some of my photo's here at Flickr and also here

More later as time permits. There's a lot of studying to do at SUN ;-)

Mansur