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The Competitive Advantage

December 18, 2012

Getting rather than giving gifts for the holidays?

presentMany firms give gifts to their clients at this time of year as a “thank you for your business” gesture.  I do, too, in fact.

But how many of you receive gifts from your clients?

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December 13, 2012

Differentiating your firm in a crowded marketplace

When I was doing my ‘due diligence’ before starting Harpeth Marketing, I spoke with scores of research firms across the US to understand their perception and use of marketing and sales inside their organizations.

One of the questions I asked during that process was, “How do you differentiate your firm?

Almost to a man (or woman), the response was something like, “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.

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December 11, 2012

It really is all about the customer ‘experience’: A 10-point checklist for providing memorable service.

Twice in the last two months, I have had really lousy experiences at retail specialty stores.  Yeah, I know you’re not a retailer… but bear with me – the same ideas (and ideals) apply.

I went into these stores with every intention of buying (one was a bike shop, the other a computer store – so they were pretty good-sized purchases).  In both instances, I literally stood in the aisle near the products that interested me for 15 minutes waiting for some help to be able to ask some questions and make my purchasing decisions.  In both cases, it was the middle of a weekday and there were store employees just walking or standing around, not busy and simply ignoring me.

I left both stores frustrated and took my business elsewhere.

But those experiences got me to thinking about our industry… are we being proactive and responsive to our clients so they don’t “walk way” frustrated? To help you review your client interaction processes, here’s a 10-point checklist that can help:

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December 5, 2012

Get prepared… part 5 of a 5-part series on how to create your marketing & sales plan for 2013

One of the key parts of crafting your plan (Phase 3) is building in the mechanisms for measuring each of your marketing & sales tactics (which you execute in Phase 4).  If you’ve been disciplined about measuring and testing your tactics, in Phase 5, you will go through the results and decide what worked / what didn’t / and what needs to be tweaked.

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November 27, 2012

Get prepared… part 4 of a 5-part series on how to create your marketing & sales plan for 2013

So, how’s your 2013 marketing & sales plan coming along?  Have you been following the steps in our process?

Have you done your homework and analysis (Phase 1)?  Did you establish the strategies to help drive your business (Phase 2)?  Have you crafted your plan with all the details (Phase 3)?  Great!

OK, now it’s time to execute and manage that plan (Phase 4).  And here are some guidelines for doing it…

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November 20, 2012

Get prepared… part 3 of a 5-part series on how to create your marketing & sales plan for 2013

In last two weeks, we discussed the first two phases of the marketing & sales plan process:  Phase 1 – Conducting your Background Review & Analysis; the results of which lead to Phase 2 – Developing your Marketing Strategies.

Phase 3 is about Creating the Marketing & Sales Plan.  It starts with determining which tactics are the best ones to support the strategies. This is where all of the details are spelled out for your action plan – the what, who, when, how many, how much, how often and so on.   Yes, there is a lot of detail to manage here… but without it, you’ll be flyin’ by the seat of your pants.

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November 16, 2012

Harpeth Marketing Launches Lead Nurturing Program™

I’ve blogged about the benefits of Lead Nurturing on a couple of occasions (Click Here or Click Here to read them)… and now we’re doing something about it.  I’m pleased to announce that Harpeth Marketing has just launched our Lead Nurturing Program™.   Lead Nurturing is the on-going process of building relationships with prospective buyers that are not quite ready to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready.

We’re all too familiar with the common lost opportunities in our industry – the business cards gathered at a conference that never get followed-up on… or the hundreds of names in an in-house database that are cold and getting colder.  The Lead Nurturing Program™ eliminates those problems.  In this program, we reach out to our clients’ clients to build relationships on their behalf, to maximize awareness, enhance their position in the marketplace and ultimately, to have them included in more bid opportunities.

To learn more about this program, go to: www.LeadNurturingProgram.com.

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November 13, 2012

Get prepared… part 2 of a 5-part series on how to create your marketing & sales plan for 2013

In last week’s post, we discussed Phase 1 of the marketing & sales plan process – Conducting your Background Review & Analysis.  This week, we’ll look at Phase 2 – Developing your Marketing Strategies.

‘Strategies’ are broad directional statements that define WHAT you will do to achieve your goals.  Don’t confuse these with ‘tactics’ – which are the HOW you’ll do it.  For example, a strategy might be to ‘position our CEO as an expert on the topic of mobile research.’  A tactic that might help you support that strategy could be ‘to have him write an ebook on mobile research.’

In this phase of the process, you will take what was learned during Phase 1 and use it as the basis for developing your strategies. This is the most critical step in developing your marketing & sales plan.  Here are several things to think about:

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