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Tips for Business Travel

Just got back from an international trip and was I reminded of the days when I was doing 22 transatlantic trips a year. (See the Wall Street Journal's "Globetrotter's Tips To Boost Performance on Long Business Trips.") That was ...READ»

MARKETING   |  Comment

5 Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid in 2010

To start off on the right foot in 2010, here are 5 common mistakes to avoid, when building your marketing plan for the year:   ·         Be wary of joining the social ...READ»

MARKETING   |  Comment

Good Marketing Starts With Good Story Telling

Your product/service vastly improves your customers’ lives.  In today’s world of stimulus saturation, how do you get your message across?  Let’s look at two approaches. This example is taken from a company ...READ»

MARKETING   |  Comment

Google Ads Is Not A Marketing Plan

How do you get people to know they need your product or service?   One way, is to assume they know they need it and assume they are actively looking for it. All you have to do is sit back and offer them a series of reasons ...READ»

MARKETING   |  Comment

How To Be Effective at Social Marketing

Everyone’s talking about the latest buzz-term de jour – “social marketing.” It started with blogging, then it spread to Facebook and LinkedIn, and now it’s Twitter… The idea goes something like this – create a ...READ»

Cutting Through The Noise – Getting Marketing On the Map

Based on my last post, I thought it might be helpful to present several ideas about how to get small/young companies to focus on investing in strategic marketing, early in the product/service development cycle. First, let's look ...READ»

If You Hear These, RUN, DON'T WALK!

Startup CEOs Say the Darndest Things....READ»

Small Company Mistake #7 – Hiring the Wrong Kinds of Folks – 7 Do’s and 6 Don’ts

Your company is only as good its people. An awful cliché, but it is usually true. Hiring the wrong people is the most critical mistake a small company can make, so it makes sense to learn from others. Here are some important hiring ...READ»

Sales and Methods of Understanding

You may know Sales Methodologies, but the “Rain Maker” applies Systems of Understanding. READ»

Small/Young Company Mistakes - #2 and #3 – Market Validation

“We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon.” “We know what our customers want, for god’s sake, we are average users ourselves” “We need to focus on our product; customer feedback will delay the ...READ»

10 Common Small Company Mistakes - #1 Drinking the Kool-Aid

This is the first installment in a series of “mini-articles” that examine the top major mistakes startups and small companies make.  This post looks at how blindly following a company vision cause a young/small ...READ»

STARTUPS   |  Comment

10 Common Mistakes That Startup and Small Companies Make

Young companies have small margins for error. Mistakes made early on can sink a company before its gets off the ground. Here is a list of 10 common mistakes made by young, small companies.READ»

Tracking Web Leads...for Free!

As the fall marketing “season” gets underway, now is a good time to propose some simple and free ideas for tracking web leads.  In many businesses today, the way to create sales leads is to run a variety of marketing ...READ»

Clarity is King

I have spent the last few weeks reviewing a number of startup websites and I can’t help but notice the same design flaws in most of the sites. Young companies, often started by technologists, are sure that their technology or ...READ»

“Customer Service” or “Customers Serve Us?”

A follow up to a previous post about customer service - below are a few more experiences that definitely go in the “don’t do” column of how to successfully market your company, product, or service….. Have you ever tried ...READ»

Where is the “Who, What, and Why” in Marketing?

Pick up any book in the Marketing section of your local bookstore, or a current magazine on the newsstand and you are sure to see at least one article about one of the following"how to"  topics – such as:   ...READ»

How Not To Measure Customer Satisfaction

I recently took my wife’s mobile phone in for servicing. At the service center, the waiting room was packed with people, but like a well-designed ant farm, there seemed to be a method to the madness.  A well-groomed clerk handed ...READ»

Pitching 101

I recently had an opportunity to be part of a tour that visited some of the big software companies in Silicon Valley. The group met with business development groups and also met with venture capitalists. After observing the ...READ»

MARKETING   |  Comment

Getting the Word Out With Webinars

In today’s business environment, people are just not traveling. So how do you get the message out? One way is the webinar. I have found webinars to be very effective, if you know how to do them properly. This post will cover some ...READ»

Selling an Innovative Solution During a Downturn

Well, here’s another post about what to do in a downturn, particularly if you are selling an innovative product or service to business. Truth is, in a downturn, when people worry about their job and their company’s viability – ...READ»