Even if you do receive a decent number of referrals, the question remains: how might we do even better? Enter upstream-downstream analysis. Clients don’t care about you, they only care about how you can solve their problems. And to solve their problems, your services are generally part of a process: [More]
This question is too often buried under vendors' promises of nirvana if only a new piece of software was installed. Or buried under consultants' promises of better efficiency or higher ROI. Instead, before the actual transformation exercise is even defined, this fundamental question must be answered: Where is the opportunity? [More]
What if something goes wrong? Most people are not keen on taking risks. A small faction of people are definitely risk–takers. Whether you are one or the other, the decisions you make often boil down to one ratio: The Risk-return equation. We spend a lot of time on Return, and [More]
If you are a service provider, how do you set your price? And if you are a buyer, how do you know whether the price that you are given is reasonable? Beyond the obvious, price itself is an indicator of a number of factors: value, credibility of the service provider, [More]
It isn't hard to understand why so many refer to themselves in this way: it helps the ego, helps marketing, and shines a patina of professionalism and respectability on their activities. But just because these terms are used, doesn't make them true. A more useful approach is to consider that [More]
Most service-based organizations compete based on Price/Expertise/Trust. But do these dimensions by themselves generate sustainable competitive advantage? Not necessarily: to develop competitive advantage requires taking each of these items to their logical conclusion. From price to value: Not only is competing on price usually not economically sustainable, most organizations do not want their brand to [More]
Many marketers use webinars as an important strategy, but given the large investment developing the content, finding (and registering) attendees, and the logistics of production, how can you maximize the return on your webinar investment? Here are ten ideas that can help: Include a clear and easy call to action near the end [More]
"The Internet wants to be free": has been the internet anthem for decades. It has been sung by the academic world in the spirit of sharing knowledge, in the anti-spirit of corporate greed by anarchists, and by the "inbound marketing" crowd as a magnet to attract prospective clients. But at [More]
When you make a purchase decision, what is the one thing, more than anything else, that gives you confidence that the other party can (and will) do what they promise? Yes, statements of work, contracts, and case studies all play a role. But what about references and testimonials? References are those conversations [More]
Marketing and sales are at the core of almost every organization. Whether it is writing a proposal for a prospect, encouraging a person to join your organization, or selling an internal team on a concept, the act of gaining alignment and commitment is critical. More evidence of the importance of [More]
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