The Competitive Advantage

May 10, 2022

A Great Customer Experience Comes Down to One Thing

I spent several days last week with my grandchildren at Disney World in Orlando (yes, that’s my grandson in the photo). It’s been almost 20 years since I was last there and Disney hasn’t missed a beat… the customer experience there is still unmatched.

As I walked through the parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom), I kept asking myself, “Why is the experience here so good? What are they doing that’s so special?”

April 26, 2022

Building Awareness: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You!

Building awareness. It’s the beginning of the marketing process. The fact is, buyers can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist or don’t think of you when it’s time to buy.

And yet – despite being a fundamental precept in the growth of any business – building awareness continues to be a common stumbling block for many firms in our industry.

April 19, 2022

500 Blog Posts and Counting…

I know it’s hard to imagine – and it’s even difficult for me to say – but this is the 500th blog post we’ve published since opening our doors 10 years ago (10 years ago this week, coincidentally). That’s about one blog post per week – every week – for 10 years. And boy am I tired!

When I mentioned this little factoid to someone recently, they asked, “What does it take to do that… to crank out a fresh piece of content every week?” I couldn’t give a good answer then, but after thinking about it for a few days, here’s how I think it happened:

April 12, 2022

Think-Plan-Do #2: 3 More Smart Ideas For Your Marketing & Sales

This is the second in our new once-a-month Think-Plan-Do blog series where I’ll share three low-cost/no cost ideas to help with your sales and marketing efforts. [You can read the first one here.] This month, our three topics are:

Think: You have two kinds of clients

Plan: The sales pipeline report

Do: Tips for your capabilities presentation

April 5, 2022

Consistency and Frequency. Without Them, Your Marketing Will Fail!

I was having a conversation yesterday with the cofounder of a firm in our industry. It was the first time we’d met. We were talking about marketing execution, and he said something really interesting… “We haven’t done any marketing because I was afraid that once we started, we wouldn’t be able to stop!”

To which I responded, “You are 100% correct!”

March 15, 2022

Think-Plan-Do: 3 Smart Ideas for Your Marketing & Sales

This blog marks the start of a new series of articles – one every month where I’ll share three low-cost/no cost ideas to help with your sales and marketing efforts. Each article in the series will follow the same format: Think-Plan-Do.

‘Think’ will provide ideas about strategy. ‘Plan’ will cover topics around planning and management. And ‘Do’ will offer very tactical suggestions. I hope you find the series helpful.

March 1, 2022

What should you post on LinkedIn? Hint: it’s not about you!

When you look at the LinkedIn posts made by most professionals and most firms in our industry, they generally fall into three categories:

1. Promoting their content – a recent blog or an invitation to a webinar
2. Office news – a company anniversary or the hiring of a new employee
3. Or a sales pitch!

And because most firms aren’t producing content very often or haven’t hired someone in a while, they’re left with selling. Far too much. Of all the things you can do on LinkedIn, selling should be the lowest priority. One rule of thumb I’ve heard says that, ‘Only one in five social posts should be a sales pitch.’ Frankly, even that is too often. Social media is – first and foremost – a ‘social’ platform. It’s about connecting with people and building relationships. Sharing will help you do that… selling will not.

February 22, 2022

Take Charge of Your Firm’s Growth

When I chat with the owners of market research firms across the U.S. about the growth of their businesses, three primary strategies rise to the top:

1. Referrals
2. Key contact relocation (they leave and take you with them to their new employer)
3. Repeat clients

And if these are among the top drivers of the growth of your business, too, you need to be concerned. Why? Because in every one of these very common scenarios, you are relying on someone else to make your firm successful. Is that really what you want?