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July 21, 2020

The Top 10 Marketing & Sales Blog Posts of 2020 (so far!)

In the first six months of this year, more than 5,000 visitors spent some time on our blog, The Competitive Advantage. A deep and genuine “thank you” goes out to all of you who visited.

At the half-way point in the year, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see which articles attracted the most readers. Not surprisingly, several of the top posts were about conducting marketing & sales during the pandemic. But not all of them.

So, in true ‘count down’ fashion, here are the top blog posts of the first six months of 2020, from #10 to #1 (to read any of the posts, please click on the title)…

#10. With the ‘new normal,’ is a marketing & sales plan still useful?

As we all know, we’re experiencing an unusual time right now… everything in life – and in business – is changing very rapidly. And the speed of all of those changes is fundamentally impacting the way we conduct business.

One of the many questions these changes are forcing us to answer is, “Do we still need a marketing & sales plan?” Many of us spent so much time at the end of last year planning for how to tackle growth this year… is what we did then still relevant?

#9. Clients Don’t Fire Their Friends

We’ve all heard the phrase, “People do business with people they like.” And while that’s true, I think it goes even deeper that. Try this one, instead… “All things being equal, people do business with people they like. All things NOT being equal, people STILL do business with people they like.” Or stated another way, “Clients don’t fire their friends.”

#8. “But we’re a really good partner.” 3 Steps to True Big-Client Partnerships

I had a conversation last week with a friend of mine, the well-known CEO of a large market research firm. He was telling me about the time when he first joined his firm and, as part of his onboarding, reviewed their top 10 clients. One of them was a Fortune 100 company, a manufacturer of consumer food & beverage products… a brand known around the world. He was excited to learn that this company was his firm’s largest client and that his firm was a “good partner” to them. But were they?

#7. 20 Low-cost/No-cost Marketing & Sales Ideas to Kick-Start 2020

New month… new year… new decade! Pretty exciting! But are you starting 2020 with the same ol’ marketing & sales activities? If so, maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit. Below are 20 marketing & sales ideas to help you enhance your business development efforts in 2020.

#6. Stuck-at-home marketing & sales, part 4

#5. Stuck-at-home marketing & sales, part 3

#4. Stuck-at-home marketing & sales, part 2

#3. Stuck-at-home marketing & sales, part 1

A 4-part series…

We’re in the midst of an unusual and unprecedented time period. Business owners simply don’t know how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Some are promoting their services that can help right now… for example, offering to conduct online qual research, rather than doing in-person focus groups. Most owners, though, are simply ‘hunkering-down, waiting to see what happens next and how long it will be until the dust clears.

Over the course of these four blog posts, we outline more than 20 low-cost/no-cost marketing & sales ideas you can implement while you have a little extra time on your hands during this COVID-19 outbreak.

#2. Stop hard selling during the pandemic… use these 9 ‘soft touches’ instead.

I’ve been involved in a number of industry conversations lately around the topic of ‘selling during the pandemic.’ As the uncertainty grows, firms want/need to continue to sell, if only to maintain their business.

For many, however, the inclination is to be too proactive… that is ‘sell harder, sell faster.’ The reality is, though, that the opposite approach will have a much more positive impact.

And the #1 most-read blog post of 2020 (so far)… Why the Seller-Doer Model is So Challenging

Does your firm subscribe to the seller-doer model for business development? That is, are there leaders and managers in your firm who, in addition to their primary roles, are also tasked with responsibility for revenue growth? If you answered ‘yes,’ then your firm is like the vast majority of others… the seller-doer model is, by far, the most prevalent sales structure in professional services industries like ours. And even though it is the most common, it is rife with challenges and problems.

Wrap-up

“5,000 people can’t be wrong!” Based on their website views, they’re telling us which marketing & sales topics are of most interest right now. Do you agree with their choices? Are there other marketing & sales topics that interest you and that you’d like to see us write about? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts below… or drop us an email at Info@HarpethMarketing.com.

 


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