The Competitive Advantage

January 16, 2018

3 Simple Sales Tests to Use When Hiring a New Rep

We’ve all seen that scene at the end of the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, where Leonardo DiCaprio‘s character is presenting a sales training workshop and asks a few of the attendees to, “Sell me this pen.”

Are sales tests like that a good idea when recruiting and hiring a sales rep in the market research industry?

A test like that? Probably not. It’s a bit contrived, unrealistic and not in any way tied to your business. However, because so much of the future success of your firm will be tied to this new sales rep, some testing before you make them a job offer is entirely in order.

January 9, 2018

Want Effective New Year’s Resolutions? Start by Fixing Your Problems.

Well, here we are… at the start of another calendar year. [By the way, Happy New Year to you and yours!] And like most years, with our annual New Year’s Resolutions, we think about what we can do to improve our lives – both personally and professionally – in the coming months. I’ll leave the ‘lose weight’ and ‘quit smoking’ type of resolutions to you and focus this post on a few things related to your business.

Since 99.99% of us want to grow our business in 2018, I want to suggest a different way to go about creating your resolutions… one that can truly have an impact on the growth of your firm: start by fixing your problems!

January 2, 2018

How to Sell to Market Research Buyers, Part 1

This is the first in a monthly series of articles based on interviews with corporate research and insights professionals from a variety of Fortune 5000 corporations. In this series, we’ll explore the best ways for you to connect with market research buyers during the buying & selling process.

Up first, Kristin DeGraff, Senior Manager, Consumer Insights/Beer Division for Constellation Brands. So, yes, she’s spends her days helping to sell Corona and Modelo beers, among others!

December 26, 2017

The Top 10 Marketing & Sales Posts of 2017

One of the ways that we support our mission of helping the Market Research industry to more fully embrace marketing & sales is to provide educational and useful content to the marketplace… in the form of eBooks, in-person presentations, webinars, tip sheets and – in 2017 – more than 50 articles and blog posts. To the thousands of visitors who came to our website this year to read that content… “thank you!” And for those of you who are not regular or frequent visitors, here is a list of the Top 10 Posts of 2017…

December 12, 2017

Corporate retreat coming up? Here are 3 key questions to answer there.

It’s that time of year when a business will gather its management team together and head to a secluded location somewhere in the woods or at the beach for their annual corporate retreat – to talk about and make plans for the future of their firm.

I am a HUGE fan of the idea (even doing it when I was a solopreneur: https://www.harpethmarketing.com/competitive-advantage/corporate-retreat-part-1/). In fact, we had this year’s corporate retreat just last week… and I have the pages and pages of flip chart notes to prove it!

As you prepare for your retreat, I believe there are three key questions that must be asked, discussed and collectively answered by the group. They are:

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.