The Competitive Advantage

January 13, 2016

Are You an Expert?

The 3 things you must have to truly be called an ‘expert.’

Read through many (if not most) websites in our industry and you’ll find that many firms – and the top employee(s) at those firms – claim themselves to be experts in their particular field… methodology experts… industry experts… application experts… or some combination of those. Further, an intellectual industry like Market Research is a great place in which to be an expert. Expertise is why we get hired. Expertise can differentiate us from our competitors. Expertise is how we position ourselves in the marketplace.

But what does it take to be an expert? Or more importantly, to be perceived by others (your clients and prospects) as an expert? I think there are three critical factors…

December 30, 2015

Top 10 Blog Posts & Articles of 2015

As 2015 draws to a close – and we put a wrap on another year of content – I thought it would be interesting to look back at the year and highlight our top 10 blog posts & articles… those that generated the most likes, views and comments.

December 8, 2015

To Be Really Successful… Try a Little ‘Negative Thinking’

Part 4 of the ‘Retreat Series’

It’s that time of the year when most firms are working (some might say ‘scrambling!’) to finish their 2016 Marketing & Sales plan. Setting lofty goals… thinking about opportunities for growth… considering the possibilities for success. All good stuff!

But I submit that you’ll create a more focused plan and achieve even greater success if you think ‘negative.’ That is, in addition to the opportunities in the marketplace, also look at your business through the lens of the problems and the challenges you face.

November 24, 2015

Why are Firms Afraid to Specialize?

Part 3 of the ‘Retreat Series’

Prior to our first corporate retreat a few weeks ago, I conducted a survey of our current clients, as well as some of our past clients. One of the questions I asked was, “What, if anything, do you think makes Harpeth Marketing unique?”

Across the board, they all said the same thing, “… your focus on the market research industry.”

Now, we’re obviously not a market research provider, but as I look across the MR landscape, I see four primary areas where [a few] research firms tend to specialize:

• By the vertical industry(s) they serve (e.g. specialists in the automotive industry)
• By the specific methodology(s) they espouse (e.g. qualitative specialists)
• By the application(s) of MR (e.g. focused on patient satisfaction research)
• By the market segment(s) they serve (e.g. conduct research on children and teenagers)

So, with all of these opportunities, why are the vast majority of MR providers generalists? Why is their business model to provide a wide variety of services to a wide variety of client types?

October 28, 2015

A Handshake Still Matters

I spent last week on Brickell Key in Miami (yeah – I took one for the team!) at CASRO’s 40^th Annual Conference. Good event, some really interesting speakers and sessions, well-done social activities and a couple dozen exhibiting firms (including us!).

Over the 3 days, I had the opportunity to connect with a number of new industry contacts (now called ‘sales prospects’) and – maybe more importantly – re-connect with a bunch of old friends, contacts, colleagues and clients.

Say what you will about technology and the digital world we live in, but in business, nothing is more important than that person-to-person (P2P) connection. The handshake… the smile… the laughter… a REAL connection.

October 6, 2015

Integrated Marketing: Getting Maximum Impact from your Marketing Tactics

Imagine you work for a small-to-mid-size firm with a small – but active – marketing program. You have a solid website, you blog weekly, send out a monthly email blast, post to social media daily (LinkedIn and Twitter) and even produce a webinar once each quarter. Pretty good stuff!

But here’s the thing… if all of those tactics are not working together, you might not be achieving the kind of results you could be. For example…

September 1, 2015

Is the “Customer Experience” improving in our society?

In the course of just a few days last week, I had four separate [unexpected] experiences that made me wonder if businesses are finally starting to “get it”… and understand that the Customer Experience may be the most important aspect of marketing, let alone its obvious impact on satisfaction and loyalty.

August 26, 2015

Seek first to help… then to sell

Last week was the inaugural Instant Impact™, a 1/2-day virtual workshop on marketing and sales in the market research industry. (By the way, it was awesome!) If there was an underlying theme to the event – although, interestingly, an unintentional one – it was this, “Seek first to help… then to sell.” And it applied equally to both the marketing and sales portions of the program.

This philosophy works for a lot of reasons…