The Competitive Advantage

January 7, 2020

20 Low-cost/No-cost Marketing & Sales Ideas to Kick-Start 2020

New month… new year… new decade! Pretty exciting! But are you starting 2020 with the same ol’ marketing & sales activities? If so, maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit. Below are 20 marketing & sales ideas to help you enhance your business development efforts in 2020. In no particular order…

December 30, 2019

The Top 11 Most-Read Marketing & Sales Blog Posts of 2019

As you may have seen in a post earlier this year, in the 7+ years since starting Harpeth Marketing, I have published more than 400 articles (this one is #420, to be exact!)… making this blog, The Competitive Advantage – the #1 marketing & sales resource in our industry! One of the benefits of writing so frequently is that my writing has developed a bit of a following (both on our website and on my LinkedIn profile). So, at this time every year, I like to look back at the articles I posted over the year and showcase those that were the most popular.

November 20, 2019

Their marketing worked! This time.

I needed a new part for my truck. The armrest was busted and I needed a new piece to fix it. I asked my mechanic about replacing the entire armrest, but was a little appalled at the cost of a new one. And I didn’t know quite where to go to find a piece as specific as the underside plate for an armrest in a Ford truck.

Then, in a huge stroke of luck/coincidence, I saw an ad on TV for a place called RockAuto. So, I went to their website, found the part, ordered it, the part showed up a few days later… boom! The advertising worked for them.

Sort of.

November 5, 2019

Stop the Insanity… Make a ‘Change’ to Your Marketing & Sales Efforts for 2020

For the past several years – at about this same time – I’ve written articles with tips & tricks for creating marketing & sales plans that help my readers get ready for the new year.

This year, I want to do something different.

We’ve all heard the definition of ‘insanity’… to keep doing the same things over and over and expecting the outcome to change. Sadly, that describes the marketing & sales efforts of a majority of the firms in our industry. So, maybe it’s time to shake things up.

September 10, 2019

The 5 Strategic Questions You Must Answer for Success in 2020

The end of 2019 is in sight. And as it nears, wandering minds turn to the future… and what’s going to happen next year.

As a result, over the next few months, many firms will convene their annual gathering around the conference table and talk about what they want to do in 2020 to grow their business. Unfortunately, these meetings seem to end the same way every year, with a bold directive from the boss… something like, “We want a 20% increase in sales next year… now go get ‘em!” And while that might rally the troops a little (though, I doubt it), it doesn’t provide any real direction or guidance for making that happen.

March 26, 2019

Memorable marketing doesn’t have to be expensive!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a ‘front row seat’ to two very unique events. I bring them up because they both show that a with little clever thinking – and not necessarily a bunch of money – you can take something from ordinary to special.

March 4, 2019

8 Ways to Leverage Existing Relationships to Grow Revenue

How many clients and potential clients do you know? Before you answer… think about it. Consider all of your current clients and prospects, all of your past clients and prospects (those old names in your CRM), everyone you’ve ever chatted with at an industry conference or networking event, people you’ve connected with on LinkedIn and so on and so on. I’ll bet if you add all of those up, it’s a pretty impressive number. Hundreds? Maybe a couple thousand? And that’s great!

So, what are you doing with all of those ‘relationships?’

February 19, 2019

11 Smart Marketing & Sales Tactics to Try in 2019

Is it going to be a good year for you and your firm? Kind of hard to say, as this point, isn’t it? But one thing is sure… you can’t just sit back and hope that something good will happen. You need to grab the bull by the horns and make it a great year!

To help get you started down the path of being proactive, here are 11 proven ideas to consider…