The Competitive Advantage

December 27, 2016

The Top 10 Marketing & Sales Posts of 2016

During this past year, we’ve posted more than 50 articles and blog posts to our website… and they were read by thousands of website visitors. Thank you for your interest. We hope you found the information and stories in those pages to be helpful in some small way. And in case you’re not a regular visitor, below are links to Harpeth Marketing’s top 10 posts and articles of 2016.

November 21, 2016

Planning for revenue growth in 2017: Part 3 of 6

5 Ways to Spruce up your LinkedIn Profile

In the first two weeks of this 6-week series on getting ready for growth in 2017, we discussed:

• Reaching out to past clients
• Blogging

Today, we tackle social media… specifically – how to improve and enhance your LinkedIn profile.

Our research shows that the first action a prospective client will take when conducting their due diligence on new suppliers is to go to their websites. No surprise. The second thing? They visit the LinkedIn profiles of the firm’s key executives and the ‘sales rep.’

So, it’s critical that your LinkedIn profiles are as up-to-date and complete as possible. To that end, here are 5 tips for sprucing yours up…

November 8, 2016

Planning for revenue growth in 2017: Part 1 of 6

It’s getting to be that time of year… when we start looking ahead to next year and thinking about and planning for how we’re going to move our business forward (and upward). To help with that, we present this 6-part blog series. Each week, we’ll outline a different – and fairly easy to implement – activity that you can employ to get a leg up on revenue growth in 2017.

August 30, 2016

They’re not just clients… they’re people!

Think about each of your top 4 or 5 clients. Collectively, they’re likely worth 50-60-70% of your firm’s revenue…. or more!  And I’ll bet you could tell me how much revenue each generates, which services or products they’re buying from you and some details about each of their last few projects. That’s good.

Now think about your key contact at each of those clients – what details do you know about them? No, not their title or their biggest challenges at the office – though those are important. But… are they married or not? What about kids? Their hobbies or favorite sports team? Where they went on vacation last week? And so on… and so on.

Don’t think knowing that kind of thing is important? You’d be wrong!

July 19, 2016

Creating a New Booth for the Fall Conference Season? Follow These 4 Guidelines…

It’s mid-July and the Fall conference season will be here before you know it. Are you ready?

One of the elements of successful exhibiting is a compelling booth. Whether you’ve got a big, solid structure or a simple pop-up, you can still deliver a message to the marketplace that gets attention. Because if you don’t, your ROI on those expensive conferences will be severely limited… not a message you want to take back to the boss! So if you’re thinking about a new booth for this Fall, consider these guidelines…

July 12, 2016

3 Proven Summer Sales Tactics

Summertime is often a slow time for businesses, in general… and for sales efforts, in particular. Clients and prospects are on vacation, their business is slow so they’re not in the buying mood, there are very few conferences and networking events scheduled this time of year and so on. So, what’s a sales rep to do, especially if they still have sales goals to achieve?

Below are three ideas to help minimize the summer doldrums and stir up some sales action…

May 17, 2016

Too busy for marketing? I don’t think so.

Twice in the last month and a half, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of speaking before groups of market researchers – first in Philadelphia, then later in Chicago. With both groups, we discussed all kinds of ways for firms to grow their businesses without a lot of money, outlined a simple way to build a marketing & sales plan and much more. Great fun!

Interestingly, in each of those presentations… I was challenged with the statement, “but Steve, I don’t have time to do that!”

Sorry, but I’m gonna call, “B.S.”

December 30, 2015

Top 10 Blog Posts & Articles of 2015

As 2015 draws to a close – and we put a wrap on another year of content – I thought it would be interesting to look back at the year and highlight our top 10 blog posts & articles… those that generated the most likes, views and comments.