I wrote late last year about the idea that “you can create brilliant content marketing and still miss the point”, and I want to develop the thought that there are still far too many dangerous disconnects between the marketing messages propagated by organisations and the conversations their sales people are actually having with prospects. […]
Some companies defy convention to become great. Stories abound of businesses that excel through innovative solutions that meet needs buyers did not even know existed. Think Microsoft or the Sony Walkman, for example. There are, of course, ways to assess buyers’ needs. Market research and reviews are a formal means of teasing out buyers on […]
What sets top sales people apart? What is it that they do better than the rest? There are, of course, a number of factors, but one that we frequently observe is that top sellers are great story-tellers. They put their points across not by pitching their products, but by sharing relevant, situation-specific anecdotes and […]
Strategic decisions involve choice: deciding what to do and, importantly, what not to do. This leaves businesses facing a conundrum. CEOs and managers understand the power and importance of focus, but what should they focus on, and what should they ignore? You may have heard about cash cows. The Boston Consulting Group created a business […]
This blog doesn’t answer this question… simply because it’s the wrong question to be asking in the first place. Let’s just be clear from the start. We LOVE inbound marketing, we are passionate about it, we preach it, we teach it, we blog about it, we write about it… oh, yes, and we execute inbound […]
First and foremost, we have to understand that this is not a game of musical chairs. Those with seats do not want to give up theirs, and they are unwilling to let just anyone pull up a new chair next to them. They sit comfortably, entrenched by the common language they share and the accepted […]
On the face of it, the strongest solution should always win the new business, regardless of how much the client likes you. However, it’s commonly accepted that personality factors can influence decisions in awarding new business. So to what degree does this happen – if you have the strongest solution, is that enough to get […]