Every (yes, every) Saturday morning since we opened the doors to Harpeth Marketing, I have gone to a local coffee shop (in fact, I’m here now as I write this) to work on things not necessarily related to taking care of clients.  One of those tasks is writing… for my blog, my monthly article for Quirk’s or developing an eBook.

But this week… I hit the wall.  After 60+ weeks of crankin’ it out… I didn’t know what to write about.  I went to my editorial calendar… but I hadn’t looked this far forward so no topics were listed.  What am I going to write about… what do I want to write about?

And then it hit me… that is not the question to be asking.  Then question is (and should always be)… what do my clients (and prospective clients) want to read about?  What’s important to them?  What do they care about?

Continue Reading…

I recently delivered a presentation on marketing at the annual CASRO Management Conference in New Orleans.

It was called, “12 reasons why your marketing & sales might not be working and what you can do about it.”  Other than creating the PowerPoint presentation itself, it took me no time to develop… no time flushing out ideas, no time refining concepts, no time finalizing the content.

How was I so lucky? Easy… the presentation already existed.  It was based on an eBook I had published a few months earlier.  I simply took the content that had been developed for the eBook and ‘re-purposed’ it for the presentation.

Continue Reading…

Creating strong client relationships is built on a 3-legged stool…

• Excellent service
• Low prices
• Great products/services

And the presumption has always been… you can deliver on two… but never on all three.  E.g. You can be fast and cheap – but the quality won’t be so great.  Or, you can turn it around quickly with great products – but it’ll cost you.

I have always believed this to be true – not just in MR but in every industry – until I went wine shopping with a friend of mine at Beltway Fine Wine & Spirits, just outside of Baltimore, Maryland.

Continue Reading…

At the risk of sounding like I’m a little full of myself, I’m going to toot my own horn… but only to make a point.

We had an inquiry from a good-size research firm in the U.K. recently, which was sort of unusual… since I don’t really do anything to try to build business there. So I was a little flattered.

During the introductory portion of the call (gotta love Skype!), my contact said that he reached out to me, “because you’re the most recognized name in marketing & sales in our industry in the UK.”  Are you kidding me?!  How did that happen?!

Continue Reading…

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I had the privilege of speaking at the CASRO Management Conference this week in New Orleans.  By the way, if you run a research agency and haven’t been, you need to put it on your calendar for next year!

In addition to speaking, I also had the opportunity sit in on all the other sessions and panel discussions.  Interestingly, about half of the topics revolved around marketing & sales!  At a market research event?

Continue Reading…

I’m privileged to have been invited to speak next week at the annual CASRO Management Conference, the only industry event that exclusively focuses on managing the business side of the research business.   Sessions are centered on such topics as marketing, sales, HR and finances.

The title of my session is, “12 Reasons Why Your Marketing & Sales Might Not Be Working & What You Can Do About It.”  The presentation is based on our eBook of the same name.

It’s still not too late to register.  For details, Click Here.

Hope to see you there!

I’m writing this blog post from a coffeeshop about an hour from home while my wife & I are living with my in-laws for a few days.  Our new hardwood floors are being finished and we needed to be out of the house.

But it wasn’t by design.  The floors were actually finished a week ago… but then got scuffed up by the painters dragging their ladder across the floor to do their job.  Was the scuffing bad?  Not really… but enough that it bothered us.

We called the general contractor to express our displeasure.  Some people in his position would have argued, said the scuffs were to be expected, blamed it on others, etc.  Not our contractor.  His question was simple and straightforward, “What do I need to do to make you happy?”

Continue Reading…

This is part 3 of a 3-part series to help answer a few important questions for those firms in the Market Research industry that are thinking about hiring their first sales rep.

In part 1, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Inside vs. Outside sales rep.  In part 2, we talked about the Hunter vs. the Farmer role.  In this post, it all about the money…

Question #3: How to compensate salespeople?

Continue Reading…