From a Harvard Business Review article, “Why CMOs NEVER Last”: Something is amiss in the relationship between chief executives and their marketing officers. Four-fifths of CEOs say they don’t trust or are unimpressed by their CMOs. Not surprisingly, CMOs have the briefest tenure in the C-suite, and their churn can mean serious internal business disruptions. The articles goes on to …
How many times have you been told by your Mum, “It’s the thought that counts,” as counsel after getting a worthless piece of crap for a gift? Maybe that’s a good mantra to live by for casual gifts, but in business, it’s the worst piece of advice you can get, the worst excuse you can give. Next month at our …
Here’s a truth many small business owners DON’T want to embrace, much less give recognition to: the more marketing media you can use simultaneously, the more money you’ll make. You’ll also be a LOT less FRAGILE and vulnerable to an economic downturn, a serious competitor, commoditization, media disruption (like what happened to fax broadcast) or other disruptions. I would encourage …
When I’m working with a client to plan their marketing action list, one of the things I always look to do is take a campaign they’re currently doing that IS working, and see how I can make it pay bigger. Unfortunately, most people don’t have this ability, simply because they never put their mind to it. For example, when you …
Of the four M’s of marketing – Market, Message, Media and Math – the one that many don’t like is the math. Marketing is, at its core, applied psychology plus math; you can get the psychology side really, really right (offers, message, USP, etc.) but totally and completely miss your mark if the numbers side of the equation doesn’t add …
This is a discussion I had with a client, paraphrased, that I just had to share. It went something like this… I’m signed up here but I have to tell ya, I really don’t like marketing and I have a lot of issues with it. I hate being “marketed” to. I screen all telemarketing calls and never call them back. …
I have emphatically stated and long taught the importance of FREQUENT and MEANINGFUL communication with your clients as well as key strategic partners and centers of influence (association directors, sponsors, referral partners, etc.). Practically every business I know fails to do this effectively, some more than others. The best way to communicate, I believe, is a well-written MONTHLY newsletter that …
Here’s a question I received from a client that I get some version of FREQUENTLY: “Once I get the contact on the phone, say the CEO, he or she will usually say, ‘Yes, I got your information and passed it on to my IT department.’ For me this is like being placed in the Bermuda Triangle, because the IT person …
One of the most productive and useful things you can do to work on your marketing and sales for your IT business is NEGATIVE PREPARATION: think of every reason a prospect won’t buy – every obstacle, concern and issue that causes anxiety – then go to work in preparing your process to address it EARLY and, ultimately, address it, minimize …
When you want to show how filthy rich and successful you are, details matter. That’s why you need to have gold-plated staples, sold in packs of 24 for $175. Or how about a Tiffany tennis-ball-canister … for $1,500? And if you really want to show off on the courts, you can hydrate yourself with a $60,000 bottle of Icelandic glacier …
