The Competitive Advantage

December 29, 2014

Stop it already with the bad marketing! Part 3: Email

So far, in this series about the bad marketing taking place in our industry, we’ve discussed websites and advertising and made numerous suggestions on some things you can do to enhance the effectiveness of those marketing tactics for your firm.

This week, we’ll take a look at EMAIL MARKETING.

By all accounts, email is still the #1 marketing tactic used by B2B businesses today. Done right, it can help you achieve four very important goals:

• Nurture sales leads
• Maintain top-of-mind awareness among your existing clients
• Position your firm in the markets your serve
• Inform and educate your readers

Sadly, far too many firms are doing their email marketing badly, which keeps them from achieving those goals…

December 17, 2014

Stop it already with the bad marketing! Part 2: Advertising

Last week, we started a series discussing how to address much of the bad marketing taking place in our industry… horrible websites, rarely used social media sites, far-too-salesy e-newsletters, boring exhibits and so on.

This week, we’ll take a look at ADVERTISING.

December 9, 2014

Stop it already with the bad marketing! Part 1: Websites

This is the first in a multi-part series where we’ll discuss much of the bad marketing & sales we see throughout our industry (sadly, it’s in many other industries, too) – and what you can do about it.

Don’t believe me? Just look around. And while I’ve been involved in marketing & sales for most of my 30+ year career, it doesn’t take an expert to see all of the lousy marketing happening around us…

December 2, 2014

Forget the mission statement… create a ‘covenant.’

I took my wife’s car to the dealership last week for a little service. It was my first time at a Lexus dealership. Very nice… professional and friendly service staff with a very comfortable waiting area (serving Starbucks coffee and cinnamon rolls!).

But what really impressed me was the large acrylic display containing the words to the Lexus Covenant. What struck me was the directness and simplicity of it…

October 22, 2014

When selling… put people first.

I have a client on the west coast who is very fond of saying, “Good things happen when I’m out of the office.” While we giggle when he says it, the fact is, when Ken (the founder) is out calling on clients, attending conferences or networking… good things really do happen. He generally comes back to the office with some sort of agreement or RFP.

Ken is a little old school… he likes and uses face-to-face more than any other tactic (and more than any other principal I know). He’s not much for email or social media… or even phone calls. He believes that for someone to want to do business with you (repeatedly), they have to get to know you… like you… and trust you. And the only way to do that is face-to-face.

October 14, 2014

Find the right ‘partner’ to accelerate growth.

I connected with an old industry acquaintance last week… he’s with a mid-sized research firm based in the U.K. After a little social “chit chat,” I asked if there was anything I could do to help his business. To my surprise, he didn’t tell me he was looking for new clients, but instead replied that he was looking to ‘partner’ with firms in the U.S. that were looking to expand into Europe.

That is, if a U.S. firm was looking to expand its footprint across the pond… his firm has the experience and contacts to help. They come together on projects and both firms benefit. What a concept!

It got me to thinking… couldn’t we all use a project-based ‘partner’ like that every now and again? To take on projects we couldn’t or wouldn’t get otherwise… to take advantage of each other’s strengths and minimize our weaknesses… to temporarily merge resources to go after ‘big’ opportunities… to share contacts so that both parties grow?

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 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?