The Competitive Advantage

July 2, 2014

Great business quotes #5 – on taking charge of your business.

Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on the first four posts in this series on great business sayings… I appreciate all of the comments and ‘likes.’

Here’s a quick recap of the first four great sayings:

• “Activity breeds results.”
• “All things being equal… people do business with people they like. All things NOT being equal, people STILL do business with people they like.”
• “Sales prospects don’t care about what you can do… they care about what you can do FOR THEM.”
• “What gets measured gets done.”

Our fifth – and final – saying is…

Hope is not strategy.

May 28, 2014

“Should I advertise?

I got an email from a client last week. In it, she said that an industry magazine had reached out to her about advertising in an upcoming issue with an editorial theme that tied in nicely with her services. And her question was, “Should I advertise in that issue?”

I wish the answer was a simple one, but like everything else in Marketing… it depends!

May 14, 2014

Have a client that’s a pain-in-the-a**? Fire them!

I was visiting a client recently in Southern California… a fast-growing firm with an interesting variety of clients. One of our conversations focused on the fact that several of their smaller clients (company size, not necessarily project size) were much more difficult to work with than any of their large ones.

Sounds backwards, doesn’t it? But that seemingly reverse logic is actually very consistent across most firms. Are you dealing with it?

May 6, 2014

Get out from behind your desk!

As I write this, I’m flying home from several days in Southern California, after working with a couple of clients. In both cases, there were just a few people sitting around a table, collaborating and working toward a common goal.  We did some planning, talked strategy, bounced ideas off of each other and, in the end, left with To-Do’s for each of us as we move forward together.

But more importantly… we also shared a meal, laughed, talked about families and discussed summer vacations. It was real human-to-human interaction.

April 9, 2014

Is “giving away” work a good idea?

I’ve been nurturing a relationship with a particular sales prospect for a little while now and he recently asked me to give him my comments on a press release he had written.  I reviewed it, rewrote some of it… and I did not charge him for my time.

There are many who say to NEVER give away any work – that doing so diminishes the value of what you do.

I’m in the other camp… I believe that there are times (not all the time, of course) when building some good will by giving away a small project might lead to bigger things down the road.  Here’s my rationale…

March 19, 2014

If you build it, will they come? Not necessarily!

As I write this, I’m sitting in a coffeeshop that opened about 3 weeks ago.  It’s in a fairly busy shopping center along a well-traveled road, has the latest barista tools and they even roasts their own beans in the back of the store.

And I’m the only one sitting here.  OK, it’s Sunday morning at 8am, but even when I’ve driven by at “normal hours,” I’ve never seen more than one table full.  Good location… good product… even a unique POD (Point of Differentiation) – the roaster.  So, why is that?

February 19, 2014

Advertising works… and I was in Las Vegas last week to prove it!

I was in Las Vegas last week to speak at and attend the annual joint conference of the Southwest and Northwest chapters of the MRA.  Nancy Hernon and Rommell Montenegro and all of their colleagues put on a really nice event – good sessions, good food and some really great people.

It was the first time I’d been to Vegas in a while that I really had the chance to get out of the hotel and “experience” the city.  My wife, Lisa, was with me and after a few days there said, “You can’t describe Las Vegas, you have to see it!”

And what I saw more of than anything was advertising. Dazzling outside signs 5 stories tall, ads in the hotels and on the hotels, on buses and cabs, at the airport, on permanent and drivable billboards, in those special hotel guest magazines… even being handed out on the street corner.  It was everywhere!

February 13, 2014

Google Consumer Surveys Ramps Up Product and Marketing… Are You Ready?

I haven’t heard much from or about Google Consumer Surveys in the past couple of months, then all of the sudden, I received an email from them last week.  It looks like they’re expanding the capabilities of their service… with longer surveys and mobile respondents (by the way, no change in pricing).  A tough competitor just got tougher.