The Competitive Advantage

September 27, 2022

A Capabilities Presentation Is a Waste of Time

I was having a conversation last week with two senior-level contacts at a client (a large MR agency) about their capabilities presentation. We were talking about some ways to improve their current presentation, when one of them interjected, “We’re trying to do less presentations and have more conversations.” I just about jumped out of my seat! Finally… somebody that gets it!

July 5, 2022

2022 is Half Over…

… Are you halfway toward achieving your goals?

It’s hard to believe that this year is already half over… it has absolutely flown by! And I hope it’s been a good year, so far, for you and your firm. This midpoint in the year gives you an opportunity for a little reflection. To see if you’re on pace to achieve this year what you wanted to achieve.

June 28, 2022

Marketing During a Recession

The economy – and the potential for a recession – has been the focal point of the news lately… and as business owners and leaders, we have to make business decisions while considering that economic input. Historically, when times get tough, ‘marketing’ is often the first thing that gets cut back (or cut altogether)! In this article, we’ll explore why cutting marketing during a recession is not a smart business decision… and ways to keep actively marketing for little or no cost.

May 10, 2022

A Great Customer Experience Comes Down to One Thing

I spent several days last week with my grandchildren at Disney World in Orlando (yes, that’s my grandson in the photo). It’s been almost 20 years since I was last there and Disney hasn’t missed a beat… the customer experience there is still unmatched.

As I walked through the parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom), I kept asking myself, “Why is the experience here so good? What are they doing that’s so special?”

April 19, 2022

500 Blog Posts and Counting…

I know it’s hard to imagine – and it’s even difficult for me to say – but this is the 500th blog post we’ve published since opening our doors 10 years ago (10 years ago this week, coincidentally). That’s about one blog post per week – every week – for 10 years. And boy am I tired!

When I mentioned this little factoid to someone recently, they asked, “What does it take to do that… to crank out a fresh piece of content every week?” I couldn’t give a good answer then, but after thinking about it for a few days, here’s how I think it happened:

January 4, 2022

Top 10 Sales & Marketing Blog Posts of 2021

Since founding Harpeth Marketing in 2012, we’ve published over 450 blog posts on all kinds of sales & marketing topics in our blog, The Competitive Advantage. In fact, this is officially post #491!

And at this time every year, we look at back at the most-read posts from the previous year. But we’re doing it with a little ‘twist’ this year. Instead of the usual ‘top 10’ list… we’ve got two ‘top 5’ lists:

• The first list contains the most-read articles that were published in 2021.
• The second list contains the most-read articles in 2021, regardless of when we first published them (the year they were published is shown).

November 9, 2021

Repetition Builds Reputation

Why do the big advertisers run their ads on TV over and over? And over? Simple… repetition works. Sharing your marketing message frequently – over a period of time – builds top-of-mind awareness.

Further, building awareness is an ‘additive’ process… each exposure of your message building on the one before as you slowly climb to that top-of-mind position.

November 2, 2021

Take Good Care of Your Small Clients, Too!

I have been saying for years that, “All clients matter… but big clients matter more.” And I still believe that. Strongly, in fact. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore your small clients or small sales prospects.

For one thing, small clients can grow into big ones. And if you take good care of them when they’re small… they’ll remember you when they’re big.