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The Competitive Advantage

tag: competitive advantage

March 5, 2024

Pigeonholed by Clients? Here’s How to Break Free!

A while back, I was asked by one of my clients to talk to some of their clients. They wanted to get unfiltered feedback about how they were doing and those companies’ perception of them. I was happy to do it.

Now, all of these companies were good, fairly long-standing clients, so we expected pretty positive feedback. What we didn’t expect was the ‘pigeonhole’ conversations.

While I talked with only a dozen companies, three of them (again, good, long-standing clients) said that they would be interested in learning what else my client could do for them.

What?! My client had a good, ongoing relationship with these three companies, had been working with them for a couple of years, and yet, was providing only one service, when they could’ve been providing others?

How does this happen? And how can you change it?

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January 31, 2024

Talkin’ Business at the Bar

3 Business Owners Agree on Their Top Sales & Marketing Challenges

Last week, while attending the CEO Summit in Florida (btw, great job Insights Association!), I had the chance one evening to talk a little business at the bar with three business owners. They each owned a research agency and had between 10 and 50 employees. As the evening wore on, two really interesting topics bubbled to the surface:

  • Differentiating their firm
  • Getting PMs to have ‘sales conversations’

It was fascinating.

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July 25, 2023

Is ‘In-Person’ Still Relevant?

As I write this, I’m 35,000 feet over Pennsylvania, on my way home from the Quirks New York event… two days of networking, learning, selling and bonding for 1,500+ MR professionals. Well done, Team Quirks! And it’s because of that event that I’m writing this article. So, to answer the question in the headline – Is ‘In-Person’ Still Relevant? – consider this:

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October 18, 2022

Is Your Work Good Enough to Ensure Repeat Clients?

Spoiler alert: It’s not!

If you were to ask 10 market research business owners what keeps their repeat clients coming back, nine of those 10 will say, “It’s because of the good work we do.”

To be fair, if you do lousy work, your clients won’t become repeat clients. But the reality is that most all firms do good work. It’s table stakes these days. There’s nothing unusual about it. Just to ‘be in the game,’ you’d better be good at what you do.

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September 27, 2022

A Capabilities Presentation Is a Waste of Time

I was having a conversation last week with two senior-level contacts at a client (a large MR agency) about their capabilities presentation. We were talking about some ways to improve their current presentation, when one of them interjected, “We’re trying to do less presentations and have more conversations.” I just about jumped out of my seat! Finally… somebody that gets it!

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July 5, 2022

2022 is Half Over…

… Are you halfway toward achieving your goals?

It’s hard to believe that this year is already half over… it has absolutely flown by! And I hope it’s been a good year, so far, for you and your firm. This midpoint in the year gives you an opportunity for a little reflection. To see if you’re on pace to achieve this year what you wanted to achieve.

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June 28, 2022

Marketing During a Recession

The economy – and the potential for a recession – has been the focal point of the news lately… and as business owners and leaders, we have to make business decisions while considering that economic input. Historically, when times get tough, ‘marketing’ is often the first thing that gets cut back (or cut altogether)! In this article, we’ll explore why cutting marketing during a recession is not a smart business decision… and ways to keep actively marketing for little or no cost.

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May 10, 2022

A Great Customer Experience Comes Down to One Thing

I spent several days last week with my grandchildren at Disney World in Orlando (yes, that’s my grandson in the photo). It’s been almost 20 years since I was last there and Disney hasn’t missed a beat… the customer experience there is still unmatched.

As I walked through the parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom), I kept asking myself, “Why is the experience here so good? What are they doing that’s so special?”

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