The Competitive Advantage

December 5, 2017

5½ [behind-the-scenes] Marketing & Sales Activities You Need To Do in December

This is the time of year when many firms are thinking ahead to next year… creating their sales and marketing plans, establishing budgets, thinking about developing new products or services and so on. And you should be doing that – it’s critically important.

But, there are a number of other important – though not quite as ‘sexy’ – things you also need to be doing in the background so that those plans, budgets and products can have the most impact in the new year. This includes…

1) Analysis. Look back at your marketing & sales from the previous year. What worked and what didn’t? Go through all of your analytics, metrics, KPIs, CRM reports and so on to learn. For example… What kind of Subject Lines got the best email ‘open rates?’ What topics on your blog got the highest readership levels? What kinds of social media posts got the most likes, reposts or comments? What was your conversion rate for bids and were there any commonalities among the winners and losers?

Not doing much in the way of tracking your marketing & sales? Then use this month to set-up those basic tracking systems and use them throughout the coming year – so next December, you’ll be in a position to make smarter decisions.

November 28, 2017

Looking for Growth? Do Just One Thing Differently in 2018.

‘Tis the season! No, not the holiday season. The season for planning for next year.

Have you started yet?  Have you even started thinking about 2018?

Planning is hard work. It requires time, critical thinking and attention to detail – all at a time of year when we are often very busy. And while I genuinely believe in the value of planning, there are a large percentage of my blog readers who won’t do it.

For those who fall into that category… I’ve got your back!

November 21, 2017

Want to Be Successful at Sales? Then Change your Mindset.

I hear these kinds of statements all the time in our industry:

• “I don’t like selling.”
• “I’m no good at sales.”
• “I don’t want to sell.”

I think one of the reasons I hear those things is because of the perception of the profession of selling. Consider this… when I say the word, ‘salesman,’ what sorts of images comes to mind for you? The stereotypical used-car salesman? That guy near Disneyworld selling time shares? Or (for those of you in my generation) maybe Herb Tarlek, the radio ad salesman from the late 70’s sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati?

I get it. No one really wants to associate with “salespeople” like that.

November 7, 2017

The 4 Reasons You’re NOT Doing Marketing & Sales

We all want to do more business development – more marketing & sales – because we know it’s important for the health of our firms. And yet we don’t.

Why is that? Why are we rarely implementing marketing & sales at a level and frequency that we wished we were? What’s holding us back?

October 30, 2017

Got something to say?

The Top 3 ways of presenting to a live audience

Delivering a live presentation to a group comprised of your target audience – and sharing your insights, perspective or expertise – can be an outstanding way to build awareness for your firm and position yourself as a Subject Matter Expert.

But not all presentation types are created equal. Let’s take a look at the most common ones…

• Presenting at a conference
• Delivering a webinar
• Hosting a paid workshop

Presenting at a Conference

There are likely scores of conferences at which you could present… and in doing so, enhance your reputation, gain exposure and benefit from the credibility of being a speaker at a well-known, established conference.

October 24, 2017

A difficult client… can they be good for business?

One of the services we offer our clients is content development… creating blog posts, eBooks, etc. We have very talented writers on our team – they know the topics and they know how to write.

We also had this one particular client who nit-picked (at least we thought so) all the time and pushed back on our writing until we got it “perfect.” Very frustrating!

Amongst ourselves, we used to frequently complain about this client… that they were just a big ol’ pain in the a**!

But, guess what? We were wrong!

October 17, 2017

Better, Faster, Cheaper? Which do your clients really want?

“Which do you prefer – better, faster or cheaper?” I’m sure if you asked your clients directly which they would choose, their immediate response would, of course, be “All three!”

But if they had to pick one, which one do you think it would be?  It’s a topic I discuss frequently with firms across the MR industry.

October 10, 2017

My son quit his job to pursue his dream!, Part 2

Three months ago, I wrote a post about my son, Alex… quitting his job in Dallas to pursue his dream in New York City. Not only did he want to relocate to a city where he had no real network of contacts, he also wanted to change industries – from healthcare to music – again, with no real connections. But he had a dream!