7 essential sales tips for SME’s
Most of us recognise that the best sales lead you have is a satisfied existing customer, so why do SME's so often fail to capitalise on them?. It seems to me that there are a number of reasons, usually they boil down to not allocating the time, not thinking about it,...
6 challenges (and 3 rules) of content creation
The single biggest stumbling block I see to successful digital marketing is not the technology, or the money, desire, or need, it is simply the unwillingness or inability to create relevant, engaging content of value that suits the context in which it is seen. Usually...
Sales funnel revisited as a purchase funnel
The "sales funnel" is a pretty familiar diagram, it has been around for a long time, simply because it makes sense, at least it did to sales people. To their customer prospects, there is a level of antipathy to the notion of being just a part of some "funnel"...
Heston Vs Jamie, a retail bunfight.
It is fascinating to watch the evolution of the marketing of the two retail gorillas, Coles and Woolworths. It is clear what they are doing, setting out to engage consumers with the freshness, range and provenance of their produce, and selling consumers all...
The value curve
As a young marketing graduate in the 70's I was given a scholarship to attend an intensive marketing management program in Boston, run by Harvard professor Jim Hagler. He changed my life. One of the many things he rumbled to me (he spoke, but it came out as a rumble)...
Digital body language
Prospecting, lead qualification and nurturing, prospect management and the transaction itself have all changed forever. The salesman with a bag has been relegated, at best, to the transaction end of the prospect to transaction continuum. In the process, we...
Contrarian strategy
The complexity of the world these days demands an approach to strategy that is counter intuitive, perhaps even a contrarian approach to the accepted best practice. For decades managers have sweated and planned, and set out to execute, just to see the planning go to...
Content marketing story
"Content marketing " is no more than a new buzzword to try and build interest in the stuff we marketers have always been doing, telling stories, and creating a context in which the stories we tell will be meaningful, and be a catalyst to an action we...
Conferences are for marketing.
Few things are more important than how we feed ourselves, and get access to clean water. Without these, our species will not survive, our numbers are increasing rapidly, as the resources of the planet, particularly available water, are being consumed faster...
3 Marketing observations from the club-house
Last weekend the local tennis club of which I am a member had an open day. We marketed the day pretty heavily to the local community over the course of a couple of weeks, and got a great turnout. In order to ensure we could follow up, we collected the email...