【学个习语】- low hanging fruit

来源: 2012-03-13 08:21:29 [博客] [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读:

From time to time at work, I heard people used the expression "low hanging fruit", and today again, it was used in a meeting...

Here is the explanation of this phase:

"We have Mother Nature to thank for the expression low hanging fruit. A fruit-bearing tree often contains some branches low enough for animals and humans to reach without much effort. The fruit contained on these lower branches may be not be as ripe or attractive as the fruit on higher limbs, but it is usually more abundant and easier to harvest. From this we get the popular expression "low hanging fruit", which generally means selecting the easiest targets with the least amount of effort.

In business, the term low hanging fruit is often associated with the sale of consumer products or services. Sales professionals, especially those who are just entering the field, are encouraged to seek out the easiest customers first, which sales managers may call "low hanging fruit." Competitors may spend more of their time seeking out the higher commission sales of higher "customer branches", leaving the low hanging fruit behind for others to claim. Parents seeking low-cost insurance for school-age children, for example, may be considered low hanging fruit by insurance companies."