The Competitive Advantage

November 19, 2024

‘Former’ Clients Don’t Have to Be ‘Former’ Forever

When a client leaves you for a competitor, do they come back? In many – if not most – cases, the answer is ‘no.’ But why is that?

For most of us, when we lose a client, our mindset becomes, “Well, it was a good run – time for us to move on.” In some cases, we get busy with other clients and other projects and just forget about them. Occasionally, we get pissed at them, “How dare they? We did good work for them… why are they leaving?” But the fact is, it doesn’t have to be like that.

Gone doesn’t have to mean gone forever. Here’s an example of a client experience that happened to us recently…

November 5, 2024

How NOT to Be an Effective Sales Manager in Our Industry

True story… I was talking recently with an agency-side market research professional that I’ve known for a long while. He not only heads up one of the primary service lines for his firm, but he’s also responsible for revenue generation for his team… the true definition of a ‘seller-doer.’

We talked about some of the challenges he’s facing in the marketplace, and as I asked some questions about his selling environment, the conversation slowly transitioned to a number of internal issues he’s facing – most of which, sadly, are far too common in our industry. And none of which are his fault…

October 29, 2024

Ditch Your Capabilities Presentation!

OK, this one is likely to stir up some response, but I’m feeling a little ‘contrarian’ today… so here goes: I think market research agencies should stop delivering capabilities presentations as part of their sales process. And here’s why…

October 8, 2024

Fish Where the Fish Are… How Sales is Like My Favorite Hobby

For those of you who know me, you know that one of my hobbies/passions is fishing. There’s nothing quite like standing in a cool stream, water flowing around your legs (washing away your stress) with a nice smallmouth bass on the end of the line. My happy place!

As I was standing in the Harpeth River recently – yes, that’s why I named our firm as I did – it dawned on me that sales is a lot like fishing. Let me explain…

September 3, 2024

Get Out From Behind Your Desk… In Person Selling is More Effective

Last summer, I posted several times on LinkedIn about a road trip I took – partially to do a little fishing and partially to visit some clients in person. The response I received was nothing short of astounding! Visiting clients in person? You would have thought I was the caveman that discovered fire!

Why is that? Have we become so dependent on technologies like Zoom that the idea of actually sitting down in person with a client has become foreign to us? Are we so reliant on technology that we’ve lost our interpersonal skills?

June 25, 2024

“You’re failing in sales because of the front door.”

My wife and I spent a week at the beach last month and made friends with a couple sitting under the umbrella next to us. We got to know Bill and Nina over a few days and found out that Nina was a former pharmaceutical sales manager… so she and I really hit it off.

During one of our ‘sales discussions,’ she told me about a former sales rep that reported to her who had all of the tools, skills, and personality to be wildly successful… but wasn’t. And as Nina told this rep, “You’re failing because of the front door.”

May 15, 2024

Buyers Don’t Care About Your ‘Sense of Urgency.’

See if any of these sound familiar…

• “I met a potential buyer at a conference last week and we had a really good conversation. So, I can’t understand why isn’t he interested in buying from me today.”
• “The perfect sales prospect downloaded a white paper off of our website yesterday, but she said she doesn’t want a capabilities presentation from us.”
• “I’ve been connected with this prospect on LinkedIn for a month, but they’re showing no interest in becoming a client.”

April 30, 2024

Bad Salespeople? Maybe You Should Blame the Sales Manager.

It seems like every couple of years, I need to rant about how bad selling is in our industry. I was hoping it would improve over time, but that just ain’t happening.

Here are three real sales stories – all targeted at me – that happened in just the last two weeks:

#1) I attended IIeX a couple of weeks ago, and as I was walking by an exhibitor’s booth, one of the sales reps in the booth literally stepped out in front of me, waved his arms over his head and yelled “Stop!” Really?!