The Competitive Advantage

May 27, 2015

How to Manage Long Sales Cycles

I was talking with a client last week about the long sales cycles in our industry. I was “bragging” that I have one client that took nearly two years to convert from prospect to client. Unimpressed, the client then mentioned that he had one that took eight years!

OK, eight years is a little ridiculous, but a 6-12-18 month sales cycle is an all-too-common scenario in B2B professional services industries… one that we all have to learn to mange. From my perspective, there are two key strategies for “sticking with it” through the long sales cycle.

May 20, 2015

I Lost a Client Today!

In fact, it was our longest-standing client.

No, we didn’t mess up. And no, they didn’t find another marketing services supplier.

The issue is an all-too-common one in our industry… they lost their largest client. In this case, one that accounted for more than 25% of their total revenue. And with that kind of financial hit, my client is facing some serious cash-flow issues… and that’s what got us.

For some firms, a client worth 25% is actually on the low side… I’ve heard of a single, large client accounting for as much as 60-70% of a firm’s total revenue! And with a huge client like that… it’s not IF you will lose them, it’s simply a matter of WHEN.

May 13, 2015

Advertising Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

There was an article in this morning’s newspaper discussing how expensive it can be to build awareness through advertising… $340k+ for a 30-second spot on The Big Bang Theory, $600k for a spot on a Fox Network NFL game, $675k – per day – for the universal masthead on YouTube, $200k to be an Instagram advertiser and even $1.5million for a spot during the NCAA March Madness final game.

I agree… pretty staggering numbers. Unfortunately, it’s because of articles like this – and sensationalizing the dollars involved – that the overriding perception about advertising is that while potentially a valuable weapon in a firm’s marketing arsenal, it is too expensive for most firms to take advantage of.

And while it’s true that you do have to spend some money to create and place the ads, the actual dollars needed to help build awareness through some of the Market Research industry (or most any industry, for that matter) marketing vehicles are downright pedestrian when compared to those numbers above. For example…

April 7, 2015

Is bad marketing better than no marketing?

I received an unsolicited email the other day from a company using the holidays (Easter and Passover) as a reason to communicate… not unlike so many companies do at Christmas/Hanukkah time. Now, I appreciate when somebody tries something different as a way to “break through the clutter”… and I admit, I’m not sure I have ever received an Easter/Passover promotional message before.

But the real problem was the message itself… It was simply one short sentence. That’s it!

Now, I’m as big a fan of brevity as the next guy… but there was no real thought behind it. No real value. Not even a nice story in the message. It’s as if the sender tried to do the absolute least amount of work possible, just to get out an email for Easter so they could say they were doing something.

All-in-all… an OK strategy – but lousy execution.

Here’s my point… I see a lot of bad marketing in our industry. Poorly thought-out, haphazard, hastily-executed tactics – just to do something. Anything. And the worst offenders are these…

March 17, 2015

Hey business owner… sales success takes time!

Have you ever hired a sales rep for your firm?

What were your expectations for his or her success?

I am amazed by how often I’ve heard something like, “Our new rep didn’t bring us any new projects in his first two months – this ‘sales’ thing isn’t working out!”

Seriously?!

February 17, 2015

Business Leaders: Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

As I write this, I’m at about 30,000 feet – somewhere in the air between Oakland and Denver – on my way back to Nashville. I’ve just spent the last 3 days at MRA’s CEO Summit in Napa Valley. What a great event… kudos to the MRA staff (David, Amy, Jenn & Jess) and hosts like Merrill Dubrow and Steve Schlesinger.

I think what made it a great event for me – besides taking place in Napa! – was the overriding theme that business leaders need to learn to “ask for help… and be willing to accept it.”

January 13, 2015

Stop it already with the bad marketing, part 5: Selling!

Over the past several weeks, we’ve explored several common marketing tactics (websites, email marketing, advertising and LinkedIn) and discussed many ways in which they are each being executed poorly in our industry… and several ways to improve them.

In this last post in the series, we take on SELLING. Whether you’re a dedicated sales rep, a researcher/consultant who does some part-time selling or the principle of a firm charged with revenue responsibility… this blog post is for you. And because we have all been on the receiving end of someone’s [bad] selling effort, I’ve written this post from the buyer’s perspective. I hope you find it helpful.

January 6, 2015

Stop it already with the bad marketing! Part 4: LinkedIn

In the first three parts of this series, we’ve delved into…

• Bad websites
• Bad advertising
• Bad email marketing

This week, our focus is on the bad use of LINKEDIN. Note: while this post focuses on LinkedIn, most of the comments below also apply to other social media platforms like Facebook, Google+, etc.

For professionals in B2B firms, LinkedIn should be your #1 choice for social media marketing. I’ve seen some recent stats stating that LinkedIn has more than 330 million users worldwide, with over 107 million of them in the U.S.