The Competitive Advantage

August 20, 2014

Don’t want to buy? Just say ‘no.’

Twice in the past week, I’ve had that experience that everyone who’s ever done any kind of business development hates. No, it’s not getting rejected or losing out to the competition… instead, it’s not getting any kind of response from a sales prospect. Nothing. Nada.

And this wasn’t a ‘cold call’ where I was hoping to get a call back. This was after we had developed a bit of a relationship… both of these prospects had downloaded several eBooks from our website, we had shared long, back-n-forth email threads, had conversations that lasted nearly an hour and I followed-up with proposals that they had requested. And all I wanted to know was if they wanted to move forward.

June 18, 2014

Great business quotes #3 – on ‘what’s in it for me?’

See if this describes your capabilities presentation… Slides 1 and 2 are a history of the firm. Slides 3, 4 and 5 are the bios of senior staff members. And slides 6 through 15 are all the “great” things you do.

Want to know a little secret? The sales prospects sitting around the table DON’T CARE! Well, they do… but they don’t. They’ve been to your website… they’ve asked around… they already know all of that. What they’re sitting there asking themselves is, “What’s in it for me?”

In this series on great business quotes, our third one is…

Sales prospects don’t care about what you can do… they care about what you can do FOR THEM.

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.”

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…

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 2, 2014

Track your revenue this year… really track it!

Ah… the start of a new year.  The excitement.  The possibilities.  The same ol’ stuff?!

Before you can decide where you want to go, you need to understand where you’ve been… and the following little exercise can help you leverage the past to think more effectively and more strategically about the future of your firm.

December 18, 2013

Are your PMs up-selling and cross-selling? They should be!

Every time I go to my local coffeeshop – which is several times each week – I get the same thing… a medium coffee.  In fact, when they see me walk in, a cup is waiting for me at the counter.  (I don’t know if I love the customer service or hate that I’m so predictable!)

But what’s really interesting – even though I am a very good customer – is that the person behind the counter never says… “Would you like a scone with that?” or “We just took some muffins out of the oven – would you like one today?”

And my question is… why not?  Why not take 5 seconds to try to up-sell me?  To add to my order?  To incrementally increase sales?

November 26, 2013

It’s OK to say ‘no’ to a sales rep.

We’ve all been there… we submit a bid or proposal for a project and don’t hear back for a few days.  So we check in, only to be told they’ve been wrapped up with another project and haven’t had a chance to look at it yet – but will get back to us in a few days.  Good news.  A few more days pass and we check in again… and this time he hear, “It looks good… but no final decision yet.”  Ahhh… hope!