Blog:

The Competitive Advantage

September 4, 2013

Get ready to exhibit this fall… part 1 of a 3-part series

ExhibitorBadge2The conference season is right around the corner… ESOMAR, TMRE, QRCA, CASRO, etc.  And many of you have committed to exhibiting at one or more of these shows. I’m a big fan of exhibiting… done right, exhibiting can be an outstanding marketing vehicle and help you to generate highly-qualified sales leads, launch a new product or service, generate market awareness and support your association.

On the other hand, with the cost of the exhibit space, travel and lodging, building or updating your booth, shipping, event marketing, etc., your firm’s presence there could very well be the single largest marketing expense you have all year. Exhibiting is one of those things you must do really well to see a solid return on your investment.

Continue Reading

August 29, 2013

How MR firms are blowing it with new customers: Lessons learned while secret shopping

In the past year, we’ve helped several firms gather information on their clients, ex-clients and competitors. One of the components of the competitor analysis is a secret-shopping exercise.

Specifically, we were interested in the initial inquiry and bidding phase. Not only did our clients want to see what their competitors’ proposals looked like – and of course, their pricing – but they were equally interested in how these other MR firms responded to and communicated with prospective customers during the courtship phase.

Some valuable lessons bubbled to the surface. But here’s the thing: Not a single one will come as a surprise to you. They are all fundamental actions that you would think every firm does every day. What was surprising was how poorly many of these firms performed at a time when they had to make a good first impression.

The following are some key areas where we saw many MR firms really drop the ball.

Continue Reading

August 27, 2013

“I hate the word EPIC!”

epicscrabbleI came across a blog post recently with the title, “19 More Reasons Your LinkedIn Headshot May Be an Epic Fail.”  And I laughed out loud.

Epic?!  It might have been a well-written, thought-provoking post (I never actually read it), but Epic?!  There’s nothing epic in any way, shape or form about LinkedIn head shots.  The Bible is epic.  Super Bowl XVI between the Forty-niners and the Bengals was epic.  Star Wars is epic.  But LinkedIn head shots?  C’mon…

Continue Reading

August 20, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 10 – Start planning for 2014

2014 beachThis series has been all about spending time this summer (when things are often a little slower) focusing and working on those things related to marketing & sales.  I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to do that… before you start getting busy again and don’t have the time to work on it.

Did you work on your LinkedIn profileClean up your in-house databaseCreate a list of new sales prospects?  Or spend a little time thinking about how to differentiate your firm?

And now, with the summer winding down, I’d like you stop thinking in the present and start pondering the future, that is…

Summer tip #10: Start planning for 2014

Continue Reading

August 13, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 9 – Do something!

dosomething4OK… we’re almost to the end of our 10-part summer series.  I hope you’ve taken the opportunity during this time to work on your business and not just in it.

Based on the feedback I’ve gotten, I know that many of you have grabbed on to some of these ideas and done something about them.  But there may still be a few of you who have done your reading and not yet leapt into action.  If that describes you, we offer up…

Summer tip #9: Do something… even just one thing… and make some progress

Continue Reading

August 9, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 8 – Differentiate your firm

different2Our summer blog series has covered of number of tactical topics like developing a list of new sales prospects, enhancing your online presence or getting active on LinkedIn.  Now, it’s time to do a little strategic thinking…

When I was starting Harpeth Marketing and doing my due diligence, I spoke with research firms across the county.  One of the questions I asked every one of them was, “How do you differentiate your firm from your competitors?”

For those that didn’t have a point of differentiation (a POD) – which was the majority of them – the answers were consistent across the board… and not very compelling.  They all said nearly the same thing, “We do great work… we have great people… and we really take care of our clients.”

Sound familiar?!  Is that how you would respond to that question?  And if everyone is saying that – then no one is really different!  Which, for the most part, is the case.  And if that’s the case… how can research buyers make a decision?  How do you stand out?  Why should they choose you over your competitors?  Which leads us to…

Summer tip #8: Establish your Points of Differentiation

Continue Reading

July 31, 2013

Management or sales… you can’t serve two masters.

two-choicesI work with firms of all shapes and sizes in the market research industry and, with relatively few exceptions, senior-level executives at these firms have significant business development responsibility. And not just the let’s-bring-in-the-big-gun-to-close-the-deal type of responsibility; they have real and ongoing sales responsibility while also being responsible for research projects, working with clients, managing their companies and so on.

I think this happens for a handful of reasons:

Continue Reading

July 30, 2013

If your summer is slow, focus on marketing & sales for a competitive advantage; part 7 – develop content ideas

Amazon Kindle in Womans Hands at beachI hope you’ve been following along this summer and implementing some of the ideas we’ve been discussing.  Whether it’s getting ready for the fall conference season, targeting new sales prospects or even cleaning up your in-house database, the summer is a great time to work “on” your business.  But we’ve got a few more to go…

One of the most popular tactics in marketing today – and it’s popular because it works – is ‘content marketing.’  That is, sharing information and ideas to help your clients and prospective clients.  And in helping, it builds credibility for your firm and positions you as a subject matter expert.

This content most often takes the shape of blog posts, articles, white papers, case studies, ebooks, podcasts and videos.  Throw in the occasional webinar and that about covers it.

One of the biggest challenges with content marketing is deciding what to write about… what the ‘content’ in ‘content marketing’ is going to be.  Which leads us to…

Continue Reading

Search Site: