The Competitive Advantage

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?

February 26, 2014

Giving client gifts? Are they “unexpected?”

On my flight home from the MRA Conference in Las Vegas two weeks ago, I was watching an old movie on my iPad… Finding Forrester, with Sean Connery.  A really good movie, by the way, if you haven’t seen it.

In it, he’s giving advice to young man on the best way to a woman’s heart.  And his is advice is to give… “an unexpected gift at an unexpected time.”

Great advice… and it works for clients, too.

January 29, 2014

Just starting (or re-starting) your marketing & sales efforts? Follow these 4 important guidelines.

I had coffee last week with the principals from a small, local firm.  Been around several years, reasonably successful… and doing virtually nothing to grow their business.

What their inactivity boiled down to – and it applies to pretty much all small firms – is that everyone there wears a bunch of hats, most of which have to do with taking care of clients.  I get it.  And it’s not that they don’t want to grow their business, the problem is that no one is dedicated to marketing & sales and no one allocates much (if any) time to the firm’s growth.  Consequently, not much growth is going on.

Sound familiar?

December 23, 2013

6 Marketing & Sales Lessons I Learned from our Workshop Participants

We just wrapped up our second M|R Marketing Workshop™.  For the past 6 weeks, I have worked with several firms from around the world (gotta love technology!) helping them to learn the process of creating a marketing & sales plan for their firms.

While I’d like to think they learned from me, I also learned some things from them… or at least made some interesting observations:

December 11, 2013

Didn’t achieve your revenue goals this year? Do something about it!

As you’ve probably heard before… the definition of ‘insanity’ is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting the results to change.

With that in mind, answer these questions…  How was business this year?  Did you exceed your revenue goals?  How many new clients did you pick up?  How many did you lose?  How about leads generated or conversion rates?

Here’s my point… if you’re not happy with your business development results – then do something about it!  More importantly – do something different!

October 23, 2013

Hey small business owner! Time to get serious about marketing.

An independent research consultant (in business for 15+ years) reached out to me recently to learn about what we do.  In preparing for our call, I did a little homework on her firm.  Here’s what I found:

• A YAHOO email address
• An old, unattractive, homemade website
• Website text that is all internally focused
• No resources (articles, blog, etc.) available for website visitors
• An incomplete LinkedIn profile… no image, generic LinkedIn address, etc.
• No LinkedIn company profile
• No listing/membership in key association – QRCA
• No Twitter account that I could find