A colleague forwarded a press release on HP releasing their 30th Anniversary Edition HP 12C, for a mere $80-$100. You can read about it here.

Leaving HP’s current problems and troubled future outlook aside, this is quite an event. I have many fond memories of this calculator and consider it one of the tools that propelled me to sales success after university in the early 90’s.

I commented on it in this entry under ‘Reciprocity’ in April and keenly remember how this tool set me apart from other reps. My peers would go in front of the financing manager with no understanding of how the deal was structured; no knowledge of interest rates or financing charges where I went in front of them understanding rates, terms and all of the affiliated deal details so that I could negotiate both internally and externally. A clear lesson to me that I remember today – it is not good enough to be good in just one aspect of your job – you must actively ensure that you are well rounded. For example, being a sales rep who is great at relationships but not good at understanding the technical and value details of the product, negotiation, objection handling, internal resource management, team leadership, cold calling, presentation creation and delivery .. etc. …. isn’t good enough.

Success comes from understanding all of the aspects and either being good at all of them (tough) or having a plan to ensure that you can execute well on all of them with the support of others. Top performance requires a Renaissance Man/Woman approach to business.

I have a HP 12C sitting on my desk as a reminder.