The Competitive Advantage

January 31, 2024

Talkin’ Business at the Bar

3 Business Owners Agree on Their Top Sales & Marketing Challenges

Last week, while attending the CEO Summit in Florida (btw, great job Insights Association!), I had the chance one evening to talk a little business at the bar with three business owners. They each owned a research agency and had between 10 and 50 employees. As the evening wore on, two really interesting topics bubbled to the surface:

• Differentiating their firm
• Getting PMs to have ‘sales conversations’

It was fascinating.

January 2, 2024

The Top 5 Blog Posts of 2023

Every year, about this time, I like to look back at our blog posts from the previous year and highlight those that were read the most. Not only does it do my ego a little good, but more importantly, it let’s me know what topics are of most interest in the marketplace… and that provides a little guidance on the topics to write about in the coming year.

So, without further ado, here are the top 5 most-read blog posts from 2023:

November 29, 2023

Giving Client Gifts This Holiday Season? Why Not All Year Round?

It’s that time of year again, when the vast majority of businesses send out some sort of gifts to their clients as a holiday “thank you” for their business during the past year. It’s often a basket of fruit, a bottle of wine, a Starbucks gift card or maybe something ‘kitschy’ from the vendor’s home town. And I support that… I think sending out gifts for the holidays is a very nice gesture.

The problem is, for most companies, the gift giving stops there. Why?! Why would you not want to say “thank you” to your clients all year round?

November 14, 2023

When a Potential Buyer Reaches Out to You, Whaddaya Do?

A 6-six step process for handling inquiries…

It doesn’t happen a lot… but it does happen. A prospective buyer completes the ‘get in touch’ form on your website requesting more information about your firm. And if they’re going to the trouble of doing this, it’s likely for one of two reasons. Maybe they’re just curious. They stumbled across your website or heard about you from a colleague and want to learn more. Or perhaps, they have a project in mind and think you have the ability to get the job done. Either way, when that inquiry comes in, whaddaya do?

October 17, 2023

Strategy or Tactics? Yes, it really does matter!

If I were to ask you, “How are you going to achieve your revenue goals next year?,” how would you answer? You might say something like:

• “We’re going to expand into a new vertical industry.”
• “We’re going to launch a new service line.”
• “We’re going to implement a key account program for our biggest clients.”

Those are all great answers. And those are all marketing strategies. And yet, when most [non-marketing] professionals are asked about marketing, they respond with answers like “email” or “social media” or “advertising.” Those are all marketing tactics.

Strategies are the WHAT. Tactics are the HOW.

October 10, 2023

Busy Q4? DO NOT Stop Marketing!

Here’s why and here’s what to do about it…

The fourth quarter of the year is often a very busy time for our industry as research buyers need to spend their research budgets by December 31^st… or risk losing some of those dollars the following year. And as the firms in our industry (MR agencies, panel companies, etc.) get very busy supporting those buyers, they too often ignore other elements of their business… especially marketing. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

September 19, 2023

3 Steps to Seller-Doer Success

The seller-doer sales model is employed by nearly all small-to midsize firms in our industry. It’s a challenging model that asks non-salespeople to BE salespeople. But often, they don’t want to do it, don’t like to do it or don’t know how to do it. So, what’s the answer?

While there are dozens of things you could do to maximize the results of your seller-doer program, the majority fall into three main categories…

August 29, 2023

Salespeople Welcome!

Disclaimer: This article is going to rub some people the wrong way! And that’s OK… it’s a perspective more people should think about and consider. So here goes…

I’ve read some articles recently saying that 70+ percent of B2B buyers would prefer a salesperson-less buying experience. Why is that? What are you afraid of?