Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category
Tuesday, January 13th, 2015
I’m a big fan of EContent, a media outlet that focuses on content related to digital publishing, media and marketing. They have a number of very influential contributors* who write about trending topics, and useful strategies and tactics to help readers succeed in the online world.
It’s one of the many media outlets that I try to read as often as I can. Recently, when browsing through the topics on their homepage, I came across a piece by Theresa Cramer, the editor of EContent: Lessons From Serial: The Myth of the Shrinking Attention Span. I found it to be a very thought-provoking piece, and I was especially struck by one particular line in the piece: (more…)
Tags: Customer Communication, customer satisfaction, Customer Service, EContent, Innovation, Marketing, persuading customers, Theresa Cramer
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Content Marketing, Customer Communication, Innovation, Marketing and Branding, Sales | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014
If you’re reading this post, chances are you’re familiar with the use of demographics in helping to define and understand your target audience. Demographics are objective criteria such as age, sex, income or geography/location. You also may be familiar with psychographics. Psychographics are qualitative characteristics of your audience–whether they are family-oriented, enjoy the outdoors, etc.
But, if you’re in the B2B (business to business) space, there’s another marketing term that you should be focused on: firmographics. Firmographics are (more…)
Tags: demographics, firmographics, Marketing, prospecting, psychographics, Sales, sales success
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding, Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
Every lead is not a prospect and every prospect is not equally qualified. In your early days of running your business you, like many entrepreneurs, may consider every lead a “hot” lead. After all, business is business, right? Well, not exactly. The longer you’re in business, and the more successful your business becomes, the more selective you will need to be about which customers you decide to take on. What a great problem to have, right?
There are a variety of different ways that you might decide to evaluate or “score” your prospects. One commonly used approach, though, can be very helpful–BANT. (more…)
Tags: BANT, Business development, consultative selling, prospects, Sales, sales cycle, selling
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding, Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 1st, 2013
I love a new year. Although I realize that, technically, every day is the beginning of a new year, there’s something about the New Year that makes me both reflective and optimistic about what lies ahead. As a pretty goal-oriented person, I enjoy the process of looking back, learning, and looking forward. It’s the basis of strategic planning, after all, a personal passion of mine. Each year I spend time to commit my goals to writing and I track my progress throughout the year. I don’t achieve every goal, but I do belief that I’m more effective than I would be if I didn’t take the time to plan. I had some great successes in 2012 and a lot of very rewarding experiences–both personally and professionally. But there’s always room for improvement and, regardless of what I achieve, I always want to achieve more. So, in 2013, there are a number of things I’d like to do better: (more…)
Tags: Business development, client development, Customer Service, Marketing, marketing strategy, personal development, planning, professional development, resolutions, Strategic Planning, Strategy
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Customer Service, Innovation, Sales, Strategic Communications, Strategic Planning, Strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, December 20th, 2012
I was interviewed recently for a blog on the use of perks to drive social media engagement. It’s an interesting topic and judging from the proliferation of such contests and competitions online an important one. Aside from questions related to the efficacy of such competitions, businesses should also be aware of–and knowledgeable about–the impact of these perks on their desired brand image and the laws related to contests, sweepstakes and lotteries.
(more…)
Tags: Advertising, brand, Brand Management, contests, marketing strategy, perks, premiums, promotions, sweepstakes
Posted in Brand Management, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Promotions, Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
As I work with clients, or evaluate social media sites as part of the research I do on the topic, I frequently find that many sites–even those owned and managed by some top organizations–are more engaged in conversations with themselves than with interested followers or fans. They’re not sharing information that is of interest or value to their audience–they’re talking about themselves! That’s a strategy destined to fail. Why? (more…)
Tags: blogs, Business development, communication tactics, facebook, linkedin, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Business Development, Healthcare Communication and Marketing, Internet Marketing, Sales, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
One of the most important elements of successfully implementing a strategic plan of any size (whether a business plan, an annual company plan, a marketing plan, etc.) is establishing benchmarks or objectives that are specific and quantifiable and that will be tracked throughout the planning period. The use of dashboards is a great way to visually – and simply – convey information on how the organization is doing. Sharing this information openly (more…)
Tags: Business development, dashboards, data, measurement, metrics
Posted in Sales, Strategic Planning, Strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, August 9th, 2012
Working in large organizations I became very familiar with “leading” and “lagging” indicators and, admittedly, sometimes I found what I thought was the “complexity” of the concepts to be a bit overwhelming. But, I’m very data-driven and very committed to measuring the impacts of my efforts whether working in an organization, for a client or for myself. The premise is really quite basic: if you are looking for (more…)
Tags: Business development, measurement, Strategy
Posted in Business Development, Sales, Strategy | No Comments »
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
The Internet has had a dramatic impact on many industries and businesses–creating opportunities for some and destroying them for others. Consider the changing nature of the publishing industry and the impact of being able to buy online for companies like Best Buy and many others. But business tends to be cyclical and it is often true that “what goes around comes around.” A recent article in the New York Times suggests that this may be the case for at least one industry — (more…)
Tags: Business development, internet, journalist, Marketing, marketing strategy
Posted in Business Development, Innovation, Internet Marketing, Journalism, Sales | No Comments »