Archive for the ‘Small Business Strategy’ Category
Thursday, June 21st, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
We often hear narratives about how online retail is replacing traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. Online is more convenient and has much lower overhead. At the same time, others point out that brick-and-mortar still makes up a strong majority of overall retail sales. Customers prefer the tactile experience, the ability to talk to sales representatives and being able to take their purchases home when they walk out of the store instead of waiting for packages to arrive by mail.
The truth is that both sides of this debate are right. (more…)
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Tags: Amazon, brick and mortar, online shopping, retail experience, retail store closings, showrooming, the death of retail, webrooming
Posted in Business Development, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 19th, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
We keep hearing about how the growth in online retail represents the ultimate demise of the brick-and-mortar retail store. We hear how online retail giants like Amazon are killing Main Streets across the country, and we hear anecdotes of local brick-and-mortar businesses closing their doors, blaming the rise in online retail. But does that common sentiment assign blame where it belongs? (more…)
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Tags: brick and mortar, consumer experience, experiential marketing, online shopping, retail experience, retail store closings, showrooming, the death of retail, webrooming
Posted in Business Development, Innovation, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
When we hear news stories about a local brick-and-mortar business closing its doors after being in operation for generations, the presumed culprit is often the growth of online retail, which grew by 16 percent between 2016 and 2017. People just don’t want to go to a store to make purchases anymore, the logic goes. Online shopping offers far more choices than can be offered in a physical location — which can’t store infinite inventory — and it’s so much more convenient to shop online instead of going to a store.
But don’t make the mistake of writing off in-store shopping. You may be surprised to learn that consumers still predominantly favor the in-store experience! (more…)
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Tags: Amazon, brick and mortar, e-tail, retail experience, shopping online, showrooming, the death of retail, webrooming
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Sales, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2018
Sales professionals will be quick to tell you that a positive customer review goes a long way toward converting prospects into eventual customers. What better way to convince the market that you can walk the walk than to have satisfied customers tell your story for you? Conversely, negative reviews can be quite damaging. Data suggests that positive reviews influence the purchase decisions of 90 percent of respondents, while negative reviews influence around 86 percent.
But negative reviews and customer complaints can actually be good for business. Before your head explodes, let’s look at some intuitive reasons why. (more…)
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Tags: customer feedback, managing customer feedback, managing feedback, negative reviews, online reviews, positive reviews, Yelp
Posted in Brand Management, Client Relations, Community Relations, Customer Communication, Customer Service, Marketing and Branding, Sales, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 29th, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
For many entrepreneurs, starting and running their own business is the culmination of their life’s ambition; the chance to be their own boss while doing what they love. But as an entrepreneur, is your goal really to continue your business for the rest of your life? Or to pass your business on to the next generation of your family? Or to simply let it fade into oblivion? The point is, unless you’ve taken the time to specifically think about the future of your organization beyond you, you really don’t have an exit strategy. (more…)
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Tags: being strategic, business strategy, exit strategy, strategic thinking
Posted in Small Business Strategy, Strategy | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Every small business owner knows that the path to success is fraught with many challenges. From managing staff, to financing, to marketing efforts, small business owners often feel overwhelmed with the ancillary yet critical activities they need to succeed at in order to pursue their love of event planning, or flower arrangement, or owning their own medical practice, etc. In a recent article for Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim discussed “How to Overcome Common Challenges and Help Your Small Business Grow,” and one of the topics Slim focused on was the concept of “reacting versus looking ahead.” (more…)
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Tags: being proactive, business plan, business success, daily plan, monthly plan, Strategic Planning, weekly plan
Posted in Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2018
In the world of sales and marketing, we often hear the terms “value” and “price” used interchangeably. Specifically, many people think that the lowest price option is the best “value” because it’s the cheapest. That may be true in the narrow context of commodities – $100 for X amount of ABC grain is a better value than $150 for X amount of XYZ grain, because for true commodities, there is no difference between ABC and XYZ brands. But for non-commodity products and services, value and price mean very different things, and marketers need to be aware of the difference. (more…)
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Tags: consumer value, how to establish price, marketing fundamentals, pricing your products and services, value vs. price
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Small Business Strategy, Strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, November 30th, 2017
The word “sales” often conjures up some very specific images. A man in a suit holding a briefcase going door-to-door selling encyclopedias or vacuums, for example. Or a guy hustling in a car lot. But as we know, sales is, in reality, a process. A process that ends with a pitch. The direct pitch to the customer or the final sales touchpoint is the last step in the sales process and is often referred to as “the bottom of the funnel” (BOFU). It follows TOFU (top of the funnel) and MOFU (middle of the funnel) activities that are designed to move the consumer down a pathway to a purchase. (more…)
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Tags: BOFU, bottom of the funnel, middle of the funnel, MOFU, purchase funnel, TOFU, top of the funnel
Posted in Advertising, Business Development, Content Marketing, Customer Communication, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Sales, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, November 9th, 2017
Requests for proposals or RFPs are very frequently used in B2B procurement processes. Essentially, an RFP involves a business or government entity trying to streamline and standardize its procurement process by requiring all potential suppliers to provide answers to an identical set of questions in order to help the procurement people on the purchasing side efficiently and effectively evaluate their options.
Securing a B2B contract can mean big business for any company; however, for start-ups and small companies, the demands of responding to RFPs can be considerable. It’s not a process to be taken lightly; however, there are some best practices to keep in mind that can help you navigate the RFP jungle. (more…)
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Tags: landing a small business contract, request for proposal, responding to RFPs, RFPs
Posted in Business Development, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, May 5th, 2016
Supporting the local community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way? (more…)
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Tags: charitable donations, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, CSR, donations, goodwill giving, sponsorships
Posted in Community Relations, PR and Media Relations, Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
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