The Competitive Advantage

February 18, 2020

5 Reasons Why Former Clients Will Come Back to You

True story: Over the past two weeks, four different firms reached to me to ask about our services and how we might best work together. What makes this a bit unusual is that – at some point in the past – I had a relationship with every one of these firms.

February 11, 2020

Sell Like a Doctor… it’s Really the Only Way

Unfortunately, I’ve spent a lot if time over the past few weeks with doctors. And in the end, it looks like surgery will be the solution to my problem. In fact, it’s the only solution.

I don’t think of doctors as ‘salespeople,’ but they are. They could not thrive on just office visits, so ‘selling’ surgical services is an important part of their business model.

But here’s the thing… my doctor didn’t really ‘sell’ me on surgery. I made the decision to ‘buy’ it. Because it is the best solution to my problem.

And that’s the way ALL selling should be.

February 2, 2020

In Our Digital World, Do We ‘Crave’ the Human Touch?

STORY 1: I recently reconnected with an old friend who owns a large B2B publishing company, producing very targeted industrial magazines. As part of their service to advertisers, they also produce a number of vertical trade shows (aligned with those magazines).

When I asked about his publishing business, he said that it was doing fine… but then he added, “The trade shows are growing like crazy!”

January 28, 2020

How to Create a Sales Commission Plan for Seller-Doers

I attended the Insights Association’s CEO Summit last week (by the way, if you run a business and have never been – put this event on your “must do” list!) and by far, the topic that generated the most audience engagement and questions was around sales commission plans.

So, for those of you who were not there, here are a few guidelines as you think about your seller-doer team…

January 14, 2020

Clients Don’t Fire Their Friends

We’ve all heard the phrase, “People do business with people they like.” And while that’s true, I think it goes even deeper that. Try this one, instead… “All things being equal, people do business with people they like. All things NOT being equal, people STILL do business with people they like.” Or stated another way, “Clients don’t fire their friends.”

January 7, 2020

20 Low-cost/No-cost Marketing & Sales Ideas to Kick-Start 2020

New month… new year… new decade! Pretty exciting! But are you starting 2020 with the same ol’ marketing & sales activities? If so, maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit. Below are 20 marketing & sales ideas to help you enhance your business development efforts in 2020. In no particular order…

December 30, 2019

The Top 11 Most-Read Marketing & Sales Blog Posts of 2019

As you may have seen in a post earlier this year, in the 7+ years since starting Harpeth Marketing, I have published more than 400 articles (this one is #420, to be exact!)… making this blog, The Competitive Advantage – the #1 marketing & sales resource in our industry! One of the benefits of writing so frequently is that my writing has developed a bit of a following (both on our website and on my LinkedIn profile). So, at this time every year, I like to look back at the articles I posted over the year and showcase those that were the most popular.

December 23, 2019

5 MORE Easy Sales Hacks for Seller-Doers in 2020

Early last month, I published a blog post about ‘sales hacks’ for seller-doers. The feedback was so positive that I wanted to follow that article up with another one. So, to help you achieve your sales goals in 2020, here are five more easy sales hacks for you to employ next year…