The Competitive Advantage

June 4, 2014

Great business quotes #1 – on sales

When you’ve been around as long as I have, you tend to accumulate things. For me, one of those things is a collection of sayings/adages/quotes that – while seemingly a little ‘trite’ – actually contain some time-tested words of wisdom. This week’s blog post is the first in a multi-week series that looks at some of the most popular business sayings and how they apply to today’s business world. This week…

“Activity breeds results.”

May 21, 2014

Exhibiting at a conference this Fall? This eBook can help you succeed.

Harpeth Marketing is pleased to announce the release of our 6th eBook, Marketing & Sales for the Market Research Firm: The Exhibitor’s Workbook.

Done right, exhibiting can be an outstanding marketing vehicle that helps you to generate highly-qualified sales leads, launch a new product or service, generate market awareness and support your association.

However, with the cost of the exhibit space, travel and lodging, your booth, shipping, event marketing, etc., your firm’s presence at an event could very well be the single largest marketing expense you have all year. Exhibiting is one of those things you must do really well to see a return on your investment. And this eBook can help…

The Exhibitor’s Workbook delves into:

• Effectively preparing for an event
• Promoting your presence as an exhibitor
• Guidelines for “working the booth”
• The best way to capture sales lead information
• How to follow-up for maximum ROI

Click Here to download your free copy now.

April 30, 2014

Stop making excuses about your [lack of] marketing & sales, Part 3

Do you know the phrase, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse?” Of course, we all do.

Coincidentally, the same rule applies to your business… that is, just because you might not know how to do marketing & sales doesn’t mean you can just ignore them. And you know you can’t. But you’re smart… you run or manage a business… so you have to figure it out – and that’s what this post is about.

April 24, 2014

Stop making excuses about your [lack of] marketing & sales, Part 2

Last week we started a 3-part series on the excuses business owners and managers use to “explain away” their lack of marketing & sales activity (and success). In it, we addressed the most common excuse for not embracing marketing & sales in an organization – “no time.”

Following closely on the heels of that is “no money!”

#2…NO MONEY!

“I don’t have the money!” is really code for one of the real excuses:

• “We’re too small to spend anything on marketing & sales.”
• “Business is bad/declining and we really don’t have any money to spend on business development.”
• “I might spend some money… but I don’t know what works and what doesn’t.”
• “All marketing is expensive, isn’t it?”

April 9, 2014

Is “giving away” work a good idea?

I’ve been nurturing a relationship with a particular sales prospect for a little while now and he recently asked me to give him my comments on a press release he had written.  I reviewed it, rewrote some of it… and I did not charge him for my time.

There are many who say to NEVER give away any work – that doing so diminishes the value of what you do.

I’m in the other camp… I believe that there are times (not all the time, of course) when building some good will by giving away a small project might lead to bigger things down the road.  Here’s my rationale…

April 1, 2014

Don’t hire a sales rep until you’re ready… and most firms in MR aren’t!

In the discovery process with new clients, we talk about the kinds of things they’ve done in the past to help grow their businesses.  One of the statements that seems to be made by nearly every firm in the Market Research industry is, “We hired a sales rep back in [insert date years ago], but it didn’t work out… and haven’t had one since.”  Why is that?

While “below-goal sales” may have been the rationale for the sales reps’ dismissal, much of the lack of a sales rep’s success is often the fault of the MR firm itself.  And it generally boils down to one of four things…

March 19, 2014

If you build it, will they come? Not necessarily!

As I write this, I’m sitting in a coffeeshop that opened about 3 weeks ago.  It’s in a fairly busy shopping center along a well-traveled road, has the latest barista tools and they even roasts their own beans in the back of the store.

And I’m the only one sitting here.  OK, it’s Sunday morning at 8am, but even when I’ve driven by at “normal hours,” I’ve never seen more than one table full.  Good location… good product… even a unique POD (Point of Differentiation) – the roaster.  So, why is that?

March 12, 2014

Same ol’ marketing & sales in 2014? How’s that working out for you?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… “If you keep doin’ what you’re doin’, you’ll keep gettin’ what you’re gettin’.”

When it comes to business development, it simply means this… if your marketing & sales activities last year resulted in a certain level of business… and the activities planned for this year are essentially the same, why would you expect your level of business this year to be any different?