The Competitive Advantage

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!

October 1, 2017

Running a small firm? Who holds you accountable?

If you are responsible for revenue growth (i.e. you’re a sales rep or a seller-doer hybrid) and you have a boss that you report to… then being held accountable is pretty easy. You record your activities in a CRM that he or she reviews. Or you provide a simple report on your activities, progress and sales prospect status.

Do that… and your boss knows you’ve been working hard and he/she can even provide feedback and suggestions that can help you get better. Don’t do it… and your job is at stake.

But what if YOU are the boss… and also the rainmaker (a very common ‘structure’ in the Market Research industry)? Who’s holding you accountable for revenue growth? Who are you reporting to and getting feedback from?

September 26, 2017

Bad Salesperson… or Bad Sales Manager?

True story… earlier this week, I was the recipient of bad selling – a “cold call” email from a sales rep in our industry pitching his services.

It started with “We’ve never met, but…” Immediately, my defenses went up! I knew what was about to come – a sales pitch of some kind.

Then, at the end of the pitch, the email went on to say, “I have no idea if this is relevant to you.” Which, of course… it wasn’t.

This kind of amateurish sales effort – very common in the Market Research industry – drives me up the wall! AAARGH!!!

September 19, 2017

What Makes a Specialist Special?

Most research firms are ‘generalists’… offering a variety of research methodologies to all kinds of firms in all kinds of industries. If it’s a profitable opportunity and if it fits their team’s skill set – they’ll take it.

And that’s fine. But with that broad approach to business comes a muddled and murky approach to marketing… decisions are difficult to make. Trying to serve so many kinds of companies in so many industries means far too many marketing options. So, how do you choose?