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December 26, 2017

The Top 10 Marketing & Sales Posts of 2017

One of the ways that we support our mission of helping the Market Research industry to more fully embrace marketing & sales is to provide educational and useful content to the marketplace… in the form of eBooks, in-person presentations, webinars, tip sheets and – in 2017 – more than 50 articles and blog posts. To the thousands of visitors who came to our website this year to read that content… “thank you!” And for those of you who are not regular or frequent visitors, here is a list of the Top 10 Posts of 2017…

 

#10: Differentiation: Just Being Different Isn’t Enough

Over the past five years, without a doubt, the most popular topic in my conversations with clients and prospective clients has been around ‘differentiation’… what they can do to stand out from their competitors. Everyone agrees there is far too much “sameness” in our industry – too many firms that look alike and sound alike all offering a range of services that are essentially the same. If you’re a prospective buyer, how do you choose?

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#9: Measuring Sales… it’s Not just about Revenue

In my first sales job after college (many, many, many years ago), my first Vice President once said to me, “I don’t care how many sales calls you make… as long as you hit your sales goal.”

And for him – because he was being judged on revenue – that makes perfect sense. But for the day-to-day management of salespeople, that’s a bad way to manage. Let me explain…

While the end goal is, of course, to generate revenue… it’s the steps in the process that get you there. Make no phone calls, send out no emails, deliver no capabilities presentations… and you’ll generate no revenue. So clearly, sales activity is critical to sales success!

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#8: Lazy sales & marketing people… UGH!

It happened again. [Actually, it happens pretty regularly.] I received an email – in this case, a LinkedIn message – from a company representative promoting a discount on their services for the summer.

In general, I’m opposed to salesy emails to begin with… but this one, like so many others, completely missed the mark with me. The note was promoting services targeted to market research firms and independent moderators. Our firm is neither of those.

Why do people responsible for sales & marketing think it’s OK to just blast out email sales pitches to anyone and everyone on their list?! It’s just lazy!

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#7: Why I left this webinar after just 10 minutes!

The two most common ways presenters butcher a webinar…

I sat in on a webinar last week… sort of. It was a presentation on Customer Journey Mapping and I was genuinely excited by the topic.

But after less than 10 minutes, I left! While the topic was certainly of interest to me, the delivery of it was so horrible that I just couldn’t sit through it.

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#6: How to Max Out Lead Generation for MR Firms

Fact: Not every ‘sales lead’ becomes a client.

But every client was – at one time – a sales lead. Can’t happen any other way! Sales leads are the lifeblood of growth for every MR organization. Generating (and qualifying) them should be a top-priority strategy for everyone involved in sales and marketing at your firm.

There are numerous ways to generate sales leads, but the two most effective ones in our industry are:

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#5: My son quit his job last week to pursue his dream!

For the last two years – since graduating from college – my son has been working as a financial analyst for a healthcare consulting firm in Dallas. And it’s a great firm… fast-growing, profitable, a leader in its niche, beautiful offices, takes great care of its employees, and so on.

But he hasn’t been happy… he wants to be in New York and he wants to change industries (from healthcare to music/entertainment). So, he’s saved his money, quit the firm and is moving north! Next week!

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#4: The #1 Sales Activity You’re NOT Doing… or Doing Badly!

7 Ideas for Improving Your Follow-up Process

See if this sounds familiar… you attend a conference where you, once again, prove your ability as a networker. You meet a number of potential clients (a.k.a. “sales prospects”), have several solid conversations and collect a pocketful of business cards. All-in-all, not bad!

Then you return to the office and are diligent about sending out the “nice to meet you” emails as soon as you can. And then… crickets! No one responds or says they’re looking for a new vendor. At best, you get a few “nice to meet you, too” responses – but nothing more.

When that happens – and it always happens – what do you do?

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#3: 7 Selling Behaviors Seller-Doers Must Employ to be Successful.

Our industry is full of seller-doers. You know, those independent consultants, owners of small firms and executives at large firms who spend part of their time serving as a sales rep for their businesses.

Do they want to be selling? Generally, no… but without a dedicated salesperson on their team, the responsibility falls to them.

And why don’t they want to be selling? Primarily, because they did not get into market research to sell, they got into it to do research. Selling is often a task they’re uncomfortable with, not trained for and just don’t like to do.

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

#2: 12 Marketing & Sales Activities you Gotta STOP this Year!

Consider these your 2017 Anti-Resolutions…

Yup, it’s that time of the year… when you find all kinds of articles and blog posts from marketing & sales gurus about the kinds of New Year’s Resolutions you need to be setting on how to achieve growth for your business. And while I’m all in favor of starting off the new year by adopting some new ideas, processes and techniques… let me suggest that before you do that, you STOP some of the bad habits you’ve been living with up until now. Here are just a few…

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

And the #1 Post of 2017: Why is ‘thank you’ so often ignored?

I was in Memphis this past weekend. My son-in-law, Wade (that’s him with the cheeky sign), is wrapping up medical school… and it was “Match Day.” During Match Day, graduating med students from all across the country “open their envelope” at exactly the same time to find out where they will be doing their residency.

Wade ‘matched’ in orthopedics at the Medical College of Georgia… he and my daughter are very excited. And it’s at this point that the story gets interesting.

Click Here to read the complete post.

 

Again… thank you for your continued interest in our content and for your commitment to keep returning to our site for our newest posts. If there are other topics you’d like us to write about, please don’t hesitate to send your suggestions to me at steve@harpethmarketing.com.

I wish you continued success in 2018!

 

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