When negotiating you will periodically encounter the “cry baby”, which is a negotiator who has learned that if they cry loud enough and long enough, he or she might get what they want. This behavior resembles a two year old screaming until you pick them up to shut them up. They scream because it works…
Much is written about subject lines for e-mail marketing communication. An effective e-mail campaign starts with a snappy subject line that motivates the recipient to open the e-mail. Without that first step the e-mail gets the delete key and it is all over. Yet, the way your e-mail signature looks may be equally important since…
Hunters hunt and farmers farm. Both types of sales people are valuable, but which best fits your offering? Which of these sales profiles is the best fit for your industry? Which is the best fit for the territory and the accounts? A hunter is highly tuned-in to his or her surroundings and always on the…
Show me a startup without a business plan and I will declare it a “rudderless” ship. For without a business plan to guide you, a business will just float along chasing one opportunity after the next, while ending up nowhere special. Business plans are not hard to write, but they do challenge you to think…
Positioning or Branding? People often confuse the two marketing terms to the joy of the academics, who will argue until the cows come home about the meanings of the two words. From my point of view, positioning describes the measurable differences between your solution and that of the competitors. It really is a look backwards…
Maybe the smartest money ever spent by an entrepreneur is to conduct a “concept test” which is basic market research on an offering before you go to market. Concept testing can use qualitative or quantitative research methods; most commonly, qualitative tools such as in-person interviews and focus groups are chosen for their expediency and live…
A few weeks ago I proudly announced that I had joined MySpace much to the chagrin of my three children. I think my youngest daughter said something like, “How gross, Dad”. Nonetheless, I thought it was important that I join this special social network for commercial reasons: there are 200 Million profiles on MySpace and…
A common phrase used today in marketing circles is “sustainable competitive advantage” (often abbreviated as SCA). Michael Porter, lauded Professor of Harvard University, coined the term in the eighties and it lives on as an iconic business term. In fact, it has become a cliche, since its usage often is mangled and misapplied. SCA is…
The “4 Ps” are the cornerstone of modern “marketing mix”: Price, Promotion, Place, and Product. They were first defined by author E. Jerome McCarthy in the 1950s and they are marketing gospel today: product, place, price, and promotion. • Product is the goods, services, or solutions that the provider delivers. This is really the end…
Marketers occasionally make stupid mistakes when innocently trying to deliver a message to their customers. These stupid mistakes happen for a lot of reasons including cultural insensitivity, poor grammar choices, language translation, and even spelling errors. But, my research indicates the most common cause is just being plain old stupid. In no particular order, here…