The Competitive Advantage

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…

February 6, 2019

Self-Funded Research… an Amazing Marketing Tool!

The following post is from an interview with Anne Beall, PhD, Founder of Beall Research in Chicago.

Henke: Anne, let me get this straight… you designed, implemented, managed, measured, reported on and paid for a full-blown research study as a marketing strategy?

Beall: Not quite. It was actually two studies! Seriously… yes, we did create and execute a full study for our own purposes – partially to support our marketing efforts and also to help us study and bring to market a new model around brands and emotions.

Henke: Where does an idea like this come from? Many firms that I’m familiar with would wait to find a paying client to help underwrite something like that.

January 29, 2019

Human-to-Human… The New Old Way to Be Successful!

Texting, social media and email are not enough to build real working relationships.

Last week, I participated in the Insights Association’s CEO Summit in Miami… a sold-out industry event attended by nearly 100 C-level executives from throughout our industry. And during the three days, one over-arching theme became crystal clear… while we all work in a B2B environment, we all still live in a Human-to-Human (H2H) world. That’s not just me saying that… everyone I talked with about that idea at the Summit whole-heartedly agreed.

January 8, 2019

Marketing & Sales for ‘Old’ Business Owners, Part 5

“I don’t have the money!”

Edging out “I don’t have the time!” as the primary reason ‘old’ business owners are not actively engaged in marketing & sales is “I don’t have the money!” Or “it’s too expensive.” Or some other money-related ‘excuse’ – yes, it really is an excuse!

For these owners, I have a few thoughts…

January 1, 2019

Marketing & Sales for ‘Old’ Business Owners, Part 4

“I don’t have the time!”

After “I don’t have the money!”, the second most common excuse I hear from ‘oldsters’ like me for not engaging in any real marketing & sales efforts is “I don’t have the time!”.

To that, I have two responses:

#1. Bullsh**! The reason you don’t “have the time” is because you’re not “making the time”… and the reason you’re not “making the time” is because it’s not a “priority” for you.

It’s that simple.

December 22, 2018

The Top 9 Marketing & Sales Blog Posts from 2018

Over the past 6 1/2 years, we’ve published more than 350 articles in this blog… with close to 50 of them in 2018. And, not surprisingly, some enjoy much higher readership than others. So, in case you missed them earlier this year, listed below are the most widely-read blog posts from 2018. Enjoy!

December 4, 2018

Marketing & Sales for ‘Old’ Business Owners, Part 1

The first in a 5-part series on marketing & sales for ‘seasoned’ professionals.

I’m really lucky. I get to work with small business owners and managers all across the country. And many – if not most – are my contemporaries… same age range (50s-60s), same stage of life, same stage of business, etc.

And one of the obstacles I face is that these ‘old’ people (I’m 60 – so I’m allowed to say that!) have a blind spot when it comes to marketing & sales. They often don’t want to do it, don’t like to do it or don’t know how to do it. Yet, oddly, they do know that some kind of marketing & sales effort is important to their business.

It’s for this group that I’ve decided to write this blog series addressing the most common questions I hear from this ‘veteran’ group…

November 27, 2018

Look left and right for revenue growth!

When you think about the growth of your company, 99% of the time, you think about how to increase revenue for your core business. That is, how do you sell more of the kinds of products & services you’re already selling to more of the kinds of clients you’re already selling to? And you should think like it… that is your business, after all.

But before you set in stone your growth plans for next year, you need to consider two other ways to grow your business.