The Competitive Advantage

August 2, 2022

Stop Being Complacent… and Build ‘Other’ Relationships

Last year, I wrote a blog post entitled, ‘The number one reason why you lose clients? Arrogance!’ It was one of the most read posts in all of 2021. Today I want to write about reason #1A – and the one I hear about more than any other reason for the loss of clients – complacency! And the story (err… excuse!) goes something like this… “We had a great relationship with [insert Fortune 500 company name here]… and they were a great client for several years… but then our main contact left and we lost the business.”

June 28, 2022

Marketing During a Recession

The economy – and the potential for a recession – has been the focal point of the news lately… and as business owners and leaders, we have to make business decisions while considering that economic input. Historically, when times get tough, ‘marketing’ is often the first thing that gets cut back (or cut altogether)! In this article, we’ll explore why cutting marketing during a recession is not a smart business decision… and ways to keep actively marketing for little or no cost.

May 10, 2022

A Great Customer Experience Comes Down to One Thing

I spent several days last week with my grandchildren at Disney World in Orlando (yes, that’s my grandson in the photo). It’s been almost 20 years since I was last there and Disney hasn’t missed a beat… the customer experience there is still unmatched.

As I walked through the parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom), I kept asking myself, “Why is the experience here so good? What are they doing that’s so special?”

April 26, 2022

Building Awareness: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You!

Building awareness. It’s the beginning of the marketing process. The fact is, buyers can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist or don’t think of you when it’s time to buy.

And yet – despite being a fundamental precept in the growth of any business – building awareness continues to be a common stumbling block for many firms in our industry.

April 12, 2022

Think-Plan-Do #2: 3 More Smart Ideas For Your Marketing & Sales

This is the second in our new once-a-month Think-Plan-Do blog series where I’ll share three low-cost/no cost ideas to help with your sales and marketing efforts. [You can read the first one here.] This month, our three topics are:

Think: You have two kinds of clients

Plan: The sales pipeline report

Do: Tips for your capabilities presentation

April 5, 2022

Consistency and Frequency. Without Them, Your Marketing Will Fail!

I was having a conversation yesterday with the cofounder of a firm in our industry. It was the first time we’d met. We were talking about marketing execution, and he said something really interesting… “We haven’t done any marketing because I was afraid that once we started, we wouldn’t be able to stop!”

To which I responded, “You are 100% correct!”

March 15, 2022

Think-Plan-Do: 3 Smart Ideas for Your Marketing & Sales

This blog marks the start of a new series of articles – one every month where I’ll share three low-cost/no cost ideas to help with your sales and marketing efforts. Each article in the series will follow the same format: Think-Plan-Do.

‘Think’ will provide ideas about strategy. ‘Plan’ will cover topics around planning and management. And ‘Do’ will offer very tactical suggestions. I hope you find the series helpful.

February 22, 2022

Take Charge of Your Firm’s Growth

When I chat with the owners of market research firms across the U.S. about the growth of their businesses, three primary strategies rise to the top:

1. Referrals
2. Key contact relocation (they leave and take you with them to their new employer)
3. Repeat clients

And if these are among the top drivers of the growth of your business, too, you need to be concerned. Why? Because in every one of these very common scenarios, you are relying on someone else to make your firm successful. Is that really what you want?