Power Poses: Tweaking Your Body Language For Greater Sales Success Harvard Business School research shows that proper posture releases confidence-inducing hormones, providing a simple edge for success at work.
Updated Fri Apr 13, 2012
Want To Grow Your Sales Channel? Think Of It Like Dating The effectiveness of your sales channel can make or break your company. Yet, most organizations fail to give them the attention these vital relationships require. If you think of your sales channel partners as you would a romantic partner, you can avoid five major mistakes.
Updated Fri Feb 17, 2012
How To Charge Higher Prices And Thrive Harvey’s Hardware is a legend in my town of Needham, Mass. In business since 1953, Harvey’s sells what most people consider to be commodity items--nuts, bolts, lawnmowers, and shovels. And yet, Harvey’s revenue per square foot is almost four times higher than the typical hardware store. Here's how they do it--and how your company can, too.
Updated Mon Dec 19, 2011
Don't Let Your Expertise Kill Your Products Technology companies struggle to explain what they do in a way that non-experts can understand. A major reason is that we use different parts of our brains than our customers and prospects when thinking about our products. Here are three ideas to deal with this challenge.
Updated Tue Oct 4, 2011
Integrating Two Companies? Don't Lose Sight Of The Customer This year, M&A activity is on track for a five-year high. However, while 80% of mergers are done for revenue reasons, only 12% actually result in revenue increases. Here's a road map to increasing your chances of success.
Updated Tue Aug 23, 2011
Tips For The Risk-Averse Found Under The HiddenBed What do a high-tech Murphy bed company and an energy-efficiency company have in common? Not much, until you look at how each convinced other risk-adverse organizations to adopt new technology. Three tips on how to recruit and manage early adopters--and turn them from skeptics into your greatest supporters.
Updated Tue Aug 16, 2011
The Best Way To Develop A New Product Most companies develop a product and then ask marketing to figure out who may want to buy it. There is no guarantee that anyone will. There is a better way to increase the odds of commercial success.
Updated Mon Aug 8, 2011
How LoJack's Latest Product Helped Rescue Faye Jones A 71-year-old Philadelphia resident who suffers from Alzheimer's wandered away from home. Fortunately, her husband had purchased a bracelet by LoJack which enabled the police to locate her within an hour. How does a company skilled on marketing to the auto industry enter the medical device market?
Updated Tue Jun 21, 2011
Save Time and Money with the ALL Approach to Customer Research Once upon a time, a chemical company developed a sophisticated, lengthy $60,000 quantitative survey. Why? To get all the information they needed from customers like Samsung, IBM and Texas Instruments to guide their product development and investment decisions. Only a handful of customers actually finished the complex and confusing survey, squandering not only the $60k, but also a lot of customer good will.
Updated Mon Jun 20, 2011
Fresh Strategies For Introducing New Technologies To Risk-Averse, Frazzled Customers When launching a new complex technology, a compelling value proposition is never enough. When companies hear about a new product or service, all they see is risk in changing the status quo.
Updated Thu Jun 9, 2011
Six Lessons From Judging Harvard's Business Plan Competition Harvard's Business Plan Contest--an annual event since 1997--has spawned hundreds of business plans. Winners and non-winners alike have gone on to implement their plans and start successful enterprises.
Updated Mon May 2, 2011
Rethinking Product Marketing The relentless buzz has been about social media and how to leverage FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. While all of the hype has been about the impact of social media on communications, corporations are rethinking the role and importance of product marketing.
Updated Fri Apr 15, 2011
Overcome Your Launch Challenges With Confidence Ask most product managers and program managers how their new product introduction is going and they often will answer "great". And yet, most product launches are late and most new product introductions fail to meet expectations.
Updated Tue Feb 8, 2011
The Value Equation: Why I Still Use an Old Blackberry The value proposition for the Droid appears to be very strong. I like the idea of watching NFL highlights on the smart-phone, using it as a GPS, taking great pictures with the 8meg camera, or reading the NY Times easily on the larger screen. And yet, I haven't made the switch. What is wrong with me?
Updated Tue Feb 8, 2011
Do Not Strike Out When Setting New Product Goals I had the pleasure this year of coaching my daughter's 5th and 6th grade softball team in a local town league. Each girl had their own reasons for coming to the games. To our shortstop; it was critically important that the 3rd baseman knew how to dance. This way, they could practice their dance routines between batters or even occasionally between pitches.
Updated Tue Feb 8, 2011
Do Not Do Sit-Ups Countless people do sit-ups as part of a regular workout routine to strengthen their back and abs. However, Dr. Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, has conducted enormous amounts of research on how backs get damaged. So what do sit-ups have to do with business?
Updated Tue Feb 8, 2011
Prepare Like an NFL Coach Companies can benefit by thinking about how NFL coaches prepare their teams. Many companies think of the launch as the moment when they tell the world about their new product, the equivalent of a Sunday afternoon football game. Except in business, success is based on hitting sales targets and not scoring points.
Updated Wed Feb 2, 2011
Seven Ways to Build a Better Customer Reference Program The greater the customer's perceived risk when buying a solution, the more important references become.
Updated Fri Jan 21, 2011
Five Lessons From Harvard's Commercializing Science Program The class is taught jointly by Harvard's Business School, Law School, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Kennedy School. The diverse disciplines makes the course so significant. In the "real world", successful commercialization efforts require effective alignment of many corporate functions.
Updated Mon Dec 20, 2010
Too Much Knowledge Can Kill Your Product Launch I recently had the opportunity to participate in a sales call for a company that sells energy efficiency solutions. The technology is ground breaking and delivers significant energy savings. World class companies are already customers. So what does the company lead with in its presentations and literature? Their Kowalski Coil*, obviously. An * indicates that the name of the technology has been changed to protect the guilty.
Posted Mon Jun 21, 2010
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