The Competitive Advantage

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!

September 10, 2013

Get ready to exhibit this fall… part 2 of a 3-part series

It’s SHOWTIME!  Are you ready to exhibit?

This 3-part blog series will provide some insider tips on managing your exhibiting efforts BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the event.  This week…

Part 2: DURING the event

The fact is, most firms have no idea how to effectively ‘work a show.’  The pop up their booth, set down a table and a couple of chairs, print some literature and think they’re ready.  Virtually no thought goes into how to create an experience inside the booth that generates a very positive perception in the eyes of everyone who comes in the booth.  Here are 11 tips to help you do that…

September 4, 2013

Get ready to exhibit this fall… part 1 of a 3-part series

The conference season is right around the corner… ESOMAR, TMRE, QRCA, CASRO, etc.  And many of you have committed to exhibiting at one or more of these shows. I’m a big fan of exhibiting… done right, exhibiting can be an outstanding marketing vehicle and help you to generate highly-qualified sales leads, launch a new product or service, generate market awareness and support your association.

On the other hand, with the cost of the exhibit space, travel and lodging, building or updating your booth, shipping, event marketing, etc., your firm’s presence there 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 solid return on your investment.

August 20, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 10 – Start planning for 2014

This series has been all about spending time this summer (when things are often a little slower) focusing and working on those things related to marketing & sales.  I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to do that… before you start getting busy again and don’t have the time to work on it.

Did you work on your LinkedIn profile?  Clean up your in-house database?  Create a list of new sales prospects?  Or spend a little time thinking about how to differentiate your firm?

And now, with the summer winding down, I’d like you stop thinking in the present and start pondering the future, that is…

Summer tip #10: Start planning for 2014

July 3, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 3 – spruce up your online presence

OK, we’re now three weeks into this series of working “on” your business during the summer slowdown that many of us face.  Based on my earlier posts, have you done some planning for the fall conference season?  Or spent any time improving your use of LinkedIn?  I hope so.

Here’s the suggestion for this week…

Summer tip #3: Spruce up your online presence

June 25, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 2 – get active on LinkedIn

This is the second in our series of blog posts outlining some ideas for taking advantage of the summer slowdown to work “on” your business.

Last week’s post was on planning for the fall conference season.  This week…

Summer tip #2: Spend some time on LinkedIn

From my perspective, LinkedIn should be the #1 social media site for firms in the MR industry… it’s ideal for connecting, promoting and engaging.  This summer, while you’re lounging by the pool, consider the following:

June 19, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 1 – plan for the coming conferences

The summer is a relatively slow time for many of us… clients slow down, people go on vacation, kids are out of school, etc.  And how people respond to that slowdown usually falls into one of two groups – those that gripe about it, chalk it up to seasonality and fall into a bit of a summer funk and those that take advantage of the extra time that the season provides to work “on” their business.

So, for those of you who in the second group (or those in the first group that want to be in the second group), over the next several weeks, I’ll make a series of recommendations of activities you can work now on to help grow your business.