The Competitive Advantage

October 8, 2014

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish… well, you get the picture.

I was having a conversation with my good friend and colleague, Brian, who founded a marketing services company in the financial industry. In addition to running the company, he also manages the sales team that makes sales calls on behalf of his clients.

All of his sales reps have years of experience and are evidently hitting it out of the park for his clients. Chatting with him on the phone this morning, he mentioned he was heading to the office for a sales meeting. I asked about his agenda… and he mentioned he was doing a lesson on ‘how to leave an effective voice mail.’ What?! He’s managing a team of experienced, proven sales reps and he’s presenting a ‘Sales 101’ lesson on voice mails?!

September 30, 2014

Nurturing isn’t just for sales leads anymore.

If you work in this industry (or any industry, for that matter) for any length of time, you make all kinds of contacts… clients, vendors, people you meet at conferences, ‘friends’ on social media and so on. And for the most part, the people you meet are nestled in your CRM database or in your LinkedIn connections. You might also run into them in the fall during conference season and maybe they receive your e-newsletter every once in a while. And that’s about it.

But I received a reminder last week of the power of staying in touch – in a personalized way – to maintain and enhance relationships.

September 25, 2014

Got your Marketing Plan for 2015? No?! Now’s a good time to start…

Yeah, it’s that time of year… time to start planning for NEXT year. (Already?!) There are strategic plans, business plans, operational plans, hiring plans – and our favorite – marketing plans.

In the work we do for our clients – and what we do for ourselves – we follow a framework for constructing plans we’ve named the Marketing & Sales Pyramid™. The Pyramid is a step-by-step, logical approach to business development. Here’s how it works…

September 24, 2014

Stop cold calling… follow-up on warm sales leads instead.

I met with a client a few weeks ago that had one sales rep… an experienced and, by all accounts, pretty good rep. Over coffee, I talked with this rep about his day-to-day activities. I expected to hear about his calling on existing clients, responding to inquiries, following up on leads from conferences, etc. And while he did do some of that, he spent the majority of his time (the vast majority) digging through directories for new names, sending out letters of introduction (along with sales collateral) and then following-up by phone. Yup… he was cold-calling.

For a sales rep, nothing is more difficult, induces more fear or is less productive than cold-calling. If you are having your sales rep cold call more than 5-10% of his/her time… STOP IT! It is not the responsibility of sales reps to find leads… their job is to follow-up on leads and close deals. It is the responsibility of your marketing to generate those leads.

September 17, 2014

Churn baby churn! The loss of clients.

I was talking with a long-time industry friend of mine this week and he made a really interesting comment. He said, “For every new client we pick up, we’re losing one or two.” He called it their ‘churn rate.’

Yikes! With those kinds of odds, it won’t take long before they’re in really serious trouble.

It’s a good lesson for all of us… What’s your churn rate?

September 10, 2014

Your sales rep not working out? Maybe it’s not their fault… look in the mirror!

I’ve worked with a number of firms in the market research industry where the one (or first) sales rep they hired didn’t work out… didn’t hit their goals… didn’t meet the expectations of the firm’s owner(s) – and so was let go.

It happens… sometime the rep is just not the right fit with the organization.

But just as often (or maybe more often), the inability of the company to effectively manage that sales rep is just as much to blame. It works something like this…

September 3, 2014

Has marketing become too complex? [chart]

Click on this link (https://bit.ly/MktgTechChart).

I came across this chart recently and my jaw just dropped… hundreds and hundreds of technology products and services – each focused on a particular niche within the continuum of marketing activities. And I am unfamiliar with a large percentage of them… and that’s saying something for an old marketing dog like me.

I think there are two big problems caused by the proliferation of all of this marketing technology…

August 28, 2014

How to Connect with Booth Visitors – An Exhibitor’s Worksheet

During every conference, while you’re “working the booth,” several conference attendees will walk up to you and ask, “So, what do you guys do?” It never fails.

When that happens, how do you respond? More precisely, how do you respond in a way that intrigues the attendee and compels them to continue the conversation with you? Do that, and you’ve gotten the buyer-seller relationship off to a very good start.

Part 1 – The Introduction

The start of this conversation is not unlike any other networking opportunity that requires you to have an ‘elevator pitch.’ Here’s an example…