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?

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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!

Our industry offers up some great conferences, particularly in the fall of the year – CASRO, QRCA, ESOMAR, MRA, TMRE and so on.  They are all great places to learn and (wait for it…) network.

That’s right… these conferences provide you with the chance to meet with prospective clients in a non-threatening environment.  Whether it’s during a conference session, at a cocktail reception or on the exhibit floor, conferences give you the opportunity to shake hands, swap business cards, do a little personal “selling” and lay the groundwork for future business conversations.

But then you head home from the conference… return to your back-to-normal business routine… and before you know it, that pocketful of business cards representing a number of warm leads now has a thin layer of frost on it. Continue Reading…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about brushing up your “elevator pitch” as you get ready for some of the Spring conferences.

Let me make another suggestion to help you get the most out of your ‘investment’ of time of money in those events: Embrace the exhibitors!  That’s right… build time into your schedule to proactively meet with all of these “salespeople!”  Go ahead, it won’t kill ya.  In fact, I submit that it could be one of the most productive aspects of your time at the conference.  Here’s why: Continue Reading…

It’s Springtime… and that means making plans to attend some of our industry conferences… keynote speakers, breakout sessions, visiting the exhibits and (gulp!) networking.  Yes, networking, that dreaded process of having to introduce yourself to a complete stranger and connect on some “business” level – to see if there’s the possibility of perhaps working on a project together at some point.

I once read that one of peoples’ biggest fears – other than death and public speaking (and death is third on the list) – is being at a party and not knowing anyone there.  And isn’t networking at a conference a little like that?  No wonder we hate it so much.

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