How HR Can Evolve Into Effective Marketers Seven tips on how human resources and the marketing department can collaborate to create bigger profits for your company.
Updated Thu Feb 23, 2012
Turn Up The Heat In Your Marketing, Miami Style Need some inspiration for your marketing plan? These four tips will raise temperatures--in a good way.
Updated Tue Feb 14, 2012
8 Surprising Ways To Delight Customers Look across the universe of possible ways you could delight your clients this month. It's easier and less costly than you think. Skip the traditional "drinks and dinner" route and consider these fresh alternatives.
Updated Tue Feb 7, 2012
The Power Of Stillness Instead of waiting a year to take a retreat, schedule a strategy session, or review your customer accounts, what would be possible if you scheduled five minutes every day to reflect in silence? Before you break into a cold sweat at the thought of temporarily turning off your electronic devices, consider the benefits of this new daily routine.
Updated Tue Jan 10, 2012
The Four Ps Of Marketing Need A Facelift The "four Ps"--product (or service), place, price, and promotion--are the foundation of most Marketing 101 discussions. Many of you may be revving up your 2012 growth machine and re-visiting these fundamentals. Yet if marketing were so simple, then why do so many marketing and sales initiatives fail?
Updated Tue Dec 20, 2011
With 2012 Sales Plans On The Horizon, A Smarter Way Of Setting Targets Your 2012 sales plan is about to be unveiled. Here’s how things typically happen: You work hard all year, and at the upcoming kickoff meeting, someone hands you your new quota, at which point you are supposed to smile and accept it. Sadly, you seldom have any input in forming that new quota or plan. There is a better way.
Updated Thu Dec 8, 2011
Is Inertia Winning Over Innovation? We recently surveyed our B2B community, and inertia was a recurring theme. Credit is tight, buyers are slow to make purchasing decisions, and global economic malaise hampers innovation. When it comes to investing in growth, today's volatile economy clearly makes many of us risk averse.
Updated Wed Nov 16, 2011
Innovation Is A State Of Mind, Not A Budget Line Item A new report from Booz & Co. debunks the myth that there is a direct correlation between R&D spending and higher levels of innovation; consider these findings as you determine where to invest your company's growth dollars.
Updated Tue Nov 1, 2011
Re-Imagining What A Law Firm Can Be: Scrapping Billable Hours For A More Client-Friendly B2B Service Years after corporations have complained about billable hours and unnecessary fees, most law firms are still deploying industrial age business models to serve their clients. One firm, Clearspire, has thrown aside the "hours for dollars" model, and their approach has something to offer any B2B company.
Updated Wed Oct 5, 2011
Customer-Centric Strategies To Escape The Commodity Trap If you have been dragged into the land of commoditization, your job is to escape as quickly as you can. It is a dubious place to live with marginal value or spark. Price pressures and arm’s length relationships with the ultimate decision maker will eventually sink you. Things will not improve unless you deploy customer-centric strategies.
Updated Tue Sep 13, 2011
Why Customer-Driven Culture Will Stall Your Company's Growth When your biggest customer calls with an emergency request, do you dial 911? Chances are you are setting off unintended fire alarms--and causing your profits to lose altitude.
Updated Thu Aug 25, 2011
Meditating On Growth Challenges As I sat across the City Club table from Mike, I realized the economic recovery was not yet in full swing. And the stress and strain of just making a living is affecting experts at all levels.
Updated Wed Jul 27, 2011
Why Technology Is The Special Sauce In Growth Planning Technology is becoming increasingly pervasive in B2B buyer-seller relationships and strategic marketing endeavors. That’s why I could not resist the French-American Chamber of Commerce’s recent seminar with VINT's Erik vanOmmeren.
Updated Fri Jul 1, 2011
Are Your Presentations Powerful Or Pathetic? 4 Persuasive Presentation Preparation Tips Are you a PowerPoint junkie? Do you pack 20 pounds of content into one slide? Then you are afflicted with a chronic case of PPD (Pathetic Presentation Disorder). Here are time-tested tips to help you effectively engage your audience.
Updated Tue Jun 21, 2011
How To Give Your Customers A Voice In Growth Planning When you can attribute a 20% revenue gain to a customer centric culture or program, you get noticed. And that's exactly what happened to several Voice of the Customer thought leaders during the annual Allegiance Engage Summit 2011 in Deer Valley, Utah.
Updated Mon Jun 6, 2011
Business After Bin Laden Ask any decorated leader -- military or business -- what keeps them focused and energized. They will echo what former U.S. General Joseph Hoar told me in 2002: a daily commitment to quietly reflect and re-evaluate our course. As world citizens discuss and debate the proper way to respond to the successful capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, we face the same opportunity.
Updated Fri May 27, 2011
How to Turbo-Charge Your Growth Plan in One Hour or Less Business growth reviews take discipline--and they can also be highly rewarding.This EnergizeGrowth® Plan Review Process removes some of the fear and mystery. Use this with your teams and stakeholders to take your growth to the next level.
Updated Thu Mar 24, 2011
Nine Common Obstacles That Derail Growth As you approach the end of the first quarter of 2011, your growth plan and marketing activities are well underway. How will you keep them fresh and relevant?
Updated Thu Mar 17, 2011
The Secret Life of Customer Advisory Boards, Part 3 A Customer Advisory Board requires significant time and emotional commitment across your organization. What ongoing activities will nurture fiercely loyal customer tribes and nonstop innovation?
Updated Tue Mar 8, 2011
The Secret Life of Customer Advisory Boards, Part 2 In our previous post, we presented the common definition and traits of an effective CAB. If you have determined that a CAB is right for you, these nine strategies will help you design the right program for the right customers.
Updated Thu Mar 3, 2011
