The Competitive Advantage

October 7, 2025

Hey Seller-Doer… How’s Your Reputation?

It’s a big factor in sales success.

As we’ve discussed often in this blog, there’s a lot of sameness in our industry (Article 1, Article 2). All too often, it’s the same kind of firms providing the same kinds of services to the same kinds of clients and talking about it in the same way.

So, with all of that sameness, how does a buyer make a decision? In the past, we’ve talked a lot about PODs (points of differentiation)… that is, differentiating your firm based on strategic decisions. For example, specializing in certain methodologies or focusing on specific industries.

But today, I want to talk about “reputation.” Not your firms, but yours… as a seller-doer.

September 16, 2025

It’s Only September… But 2025 is Already Over!

At least from a sales & marketing perspective.

It’s September and you’re a little behind on your revenue goals for the year. So, you decide to double down on your sales and marketing efforts for the next several weeks.

Logical, right? But the fact is, for most MR agencies, it’s too late to impact 2025. With the typical sales cycle being 6 to 12 months long, your efforts in September and October aren’t paying any dividends until Q2 or Q3 of next year.

Sure, you might get lucky heading into Q4 of this year, but for the most part… you’re done!

August 19, 2025

Inside the Mind of a Research Buyer, Part 5

This is the 3^rd installment (post 1, post 2) in our current blog series (and 5^th overall in this series) based on interviews with research buyers I’ve had the opportunity to meet recently. They have all been kind enough to share with me how they like to connect with (and ultimately, be sold to by) research vendors/agencies. If you work in any capacity for an agency, this series will help you better understand your clients.

Name: Nicole Whitlow
Title: Head of Global Consumer Insights, KitchenAid
Company: Whirlpool
Years at company: 6

August 12, 2025

Inside the Mind of a Research Buyer, Part 4

In our last post, we continued this blog series based on interviews with research buyers I had the pleasure of meeting over the last couple of months. Their insight into how buyer’s buy should be required reading for all MR agency employees. Here’s #4 in that series…

Name:  Brett Garrison
Title:  Manager, Market Insights
Company:  Aflac
Years at company:  8

August 5, 2025

Inside the Mind of a Research Buyer, Part 3

Earlier this year, I interviewed a couple of research buyers around the topic of how they connect with and buy from their agency partners. They were (and still are) among the most read blogs I’ve ever posted. Well, as a result of hosting & moderating the Insights Association’s Summer Sales Webinar Series last month – and attending the Quirks NY Event – I’ve added a few more interviews to the list. I hope you find value in their perspective…

Name: Jen Lovinus
Title: Senior Manager, MRO Insights
Company: Grainger
Years at company: 3

July 29, 2025

The Future is Face-to-Face

I was reading a post on LinkedIn yesterday, talking about AI, and suggesting that one of the fallouts from it is that in the very near future, we won’t know if what we see and hear online or in apps is ‘real’ or was created by AI. Because of that, Marc Cuban – billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks – is predicting “an explosion of face-to-face engagements, events, and jobs.”

Well, that sure seemed to be the case last week at The Quirk’s Event in New York.

July 21, 2025

What Buyers Want

And I know this because they told me!

Over the past couple of weeks, I had the pleasure and privilege of hosting and moderating the Insights Association’s Sales Accelerator Series. All the presenters were terrific, including the very insightful research buyers who participated in a panel discussion on the last day.

June 24, 2025

Want More Sales Success? Slow Down!

I was having a conversation earlier this week with one of my clients about his sales process. He had what was ostensibly a two-step process: Connect with someone on LinkedIn, then get them to see his software demonstration. And while he had decent success getting connections, and even some success getting prospects to sit through a demo, not much was happening after that. My advice to him? Slow down.