The Competitive Advantage

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.

June 11, 2012

Enhance your Marketing & Sales Message for a Competitive Advantage

Good morning class… Here’s an exercise that will help you more effectively communicate with prospective clients and why they should do business with your firm.

When we write (email or proposal) or deliver presentations, we’re all pretty good at espousing what we do – call it the features of our firm.  For example:

• “We are a full-service shop.”
• “We have a large team of experienced analysts on staff.”
• “We are qualitative research specialists.”
• “We have 20 years of experience in the automotive industry.”
• “We do product testing, market segmentation, focus group moderating, blah, blah, blah…”

June 7, 2012

The One Thing you Must Do to Measure your Marketing

There are three primary parts to executing your marketing & sales initiative.

The first is planning… all of that research, thinking, strategy and the details.

Next comes the execution… actually doing all of the things you set out to do in the plan – on time and on budget.

Some firms (but not nearly enough) go through the planning process.  Most firms handle the execution reasonably well.  And almost no one does the third part – measurement.

June 4, 2012

Share your Knowledge to Build a Competitive Advantage

During my vacation on the East Coast last month, I made a call on the President of a research firm who had contacted me and wanted to meet.  I was happy to do it… you can only take so many days of sun, fun, beach and cool, refreshing drinks!

As we chatted, I realized that this gentleman was an absolute expert in the area of advanced analytics for research.  It came as a complete surprise to me because, until we chatted, I had no way of knowing that he had that level of knowledge.  There was no mention of it on his firm’s website, he didn’t have a blog, no Twitter account… no outlet of any kind to showcase that expertise.

June 1, 2012

Should you Specialize to Gain a Competitive Advantage?

I’ve been out of town the past few days meeting with a couple of “good size” market research firms.

While the websites of both firms would suggest that they can (and do) conduct research in virtually all of the common vertical industries, the fact is that each of them DO have a specialty – on or two verticals that account for at least 50% of their business.  Yet, they are reticent to promote themselves as specialists.  Why?

May 21, 2012

Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from an Engagement

My daughter, Laura, got engaged a few weeks ago… it was great news!  Her fiancé, Wade, is a terrific young man and my wife and I couldn’t be happier for them.   And what was really interesting about the announcement was how Laura did it (like a real marketing pro!)…

May 17, 2012

Under-promise and Over-deliver… a True Story

As most of you know, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is a must-have in your marketing & sales arsenal.  Your CRM software is used to track and record client & prospect interactions, manage marketing campaigns, create sales reports and so much more.

I happen to use ZoHo (www.zoho.com).  This isn’t a story to promote a specific platform, but rather a story about the “customer experience” and how it can impact your business.  And I happen to be the customer.

May 14, 2012

Embrace the Exhibitors

A few weeks ago, I wrote about brushing up your “elevator pitch” as you get ready for some of the Spring conferences.

Let me make another suggestion to help you get the most out of your ‘investment’ of time of money in those events: Embrace the exhibitors!  That’s right… build time into your schedule to proactively meet with all of these “salespeople!”  Go ahead, it won’t kill ya.  In fact, I submit that it could be one of the most productive aspects of your time at the conference.  Here’s why: