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January 5, 2007

A Former Apple Exec Talks About Stage-Managing Steve Jobs

As a former computer sales guy (many moons ago with Digital Equipment Corporation), I was fascinated by this piece by a former Apple sales exec on the art and science of managing Steve Jobs. I am particularly fond of his discussion of what it's like to bring him into a sales meeting with customers:

Once you have your ironclad guarantee that Steve might come by, the management chain starts telling horror stories about how the best thing is for Steve not to come. That if he does come, he'll talk about whatever he has immersed himself in recently, whether it is iTunes or Garageband. That whatever Steve has to say might or might not have anything to do with what the customer wants to hear. For a salesman, that's disconcerting; your customers normally only come to these executive briefings to understand where Apple executives stand on key issues. And they're customers, aren't they? They're the ones who pay for it all, the ones who are always right?

[Guardian via Dealbreaker]

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