The Competitive Advantage

July 18, 2012

Exhibiting at a conference this fall? Get your event marketing plan in place!

You’ve committed thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of dollars and several days of several people’s time to exhibit at a conference this fall.  The worst thing you can do is just show up and hope it goes well.  As the popular business book is titled, “Hope is not a strategy!”

July 10, 2012

Webinar – Creating a Winning Marketing & Sales Plan: 40 Tips in 40 Minutes

When: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 1:00 pm Eastern Time / 10:00am Pacific Time

Who: Sponsored by Quirks, presented by Harpeth Marketing

What: Developed for the owners, managers and hands-on marketers at research firms, this free webinar provides an overview of the process for creating a clear, functional marketing and sales plan, along with tips and tricks for implementing each phase of the process. In this fast-paced session, you’ll explore:

• The basic structure of a marketing and sales plan
• A simple way to develop a profile of your best clients
• The keys to setting effective marketing strategy
• Why your success is in the details
• Easy ways to manage your marketing and sales efforts
• Why a lot of money is NOT necessary for successful business development
• And much more

Where: For details and to register online, click here.

July 5, 2012

Hiring your first sales rep? Consider these 7 “must-dos” first…

If you’re about to hire your firm’s first sales rep, then let me congratulate you on taking a very big – and vitally important – step for your firm.  Having someone other than the principal(s) of the firm do your selling is an important and often scary thing to do.  You’re letting go and relying on “an outsider” to help make you successful.  But until you do, you’ll never be able to realize your firm’s full potential.

July 2, 2012

How to see yourself as clients see you

As market research firms, we use many methodologies to help our clients understand their customers’ (or users’) experiences, from Web site usability studies and secret shopper projects to ethnographies. We need to take a similar tack with our own marketing plans.

Marketing is not just about ads, Web sites, social media and your sales team. Though most people rarely think about marketing beyond those kinds of constraints, marketing encompasses every aspect of a business (i.e., its people, products and processes) that touches a client or prospective client and in doing so, has an impact on their buying decision.

June 27, 2012

Dramatically Improve your Marketing with A-B Testing… it’s Easy and Free!

There’s an old saying that I really like… “That which is easy to do is also easy not to do!”  Evidently, that sentiment applies to A-B testing in marketing, because almost no one does it.

June 21, 2012

If You’ve Got it, Flaunt it… using Case Studies

Do you do good work?  Have some completed successful projects?  Have you helped your clients find insights in new and unique ways?

No doubt, you have.  But are you using those success stories to help build your brand and enhance your credibility?  If not, you should be… through the use of Case Studies.

A Case Study is a fact-based, somewhat ‘clinical’ way to tell a success story.  In fact, it’s a “proof source.”  And it’s because of this approach that Case Studies have a high level of acceptance in our industry.  Do great work… tell the facts of the project… improve the perception of your firm.

June 18, 2012

Do you KPI? 3 Steps for Enhancing your Marketing & Sales Measurement.

One of the great business truisms of all time… “You can’t manage what you don’t measure!”

If you haven’t defined the most important marketing & sales KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your firm and monitored them consistently, here are 3 simple steps for getting started.

June 14, 2012

Want to know the REAL Story about your Firm? Here’s how…

We all want the research firms that employ us to be the best they can be… to provide top-notch service, use the most current methodologies and deliver the deepest insights for our clients.  So, how do we get there?

For many of us, we start with post-project client satisfaction surveys of some kind… for that immediate feedback on the work we just completed.  And you should continue to do that.  It’s good and valuable information – from clients who LIKE you.

Where you have an even bigger opportunity to learn is from those clients who DON’T like you… your ex-clients – those firms who used to bring their projects to you, but who, for whatever reason, no longer do business with you.  These firms can be an amazing source of insight about your firm, its services and much more.