Today, most people are nearly all of the way through the buying cycle before they contact sales. Ask any sales rep at any company and they will tell you it’s true. Most companies, however, still think they can personally lead prospects through the buying cycle; this was true 10 years ago, it’s not true now. The job of today’s sales rep is primarily to close the sale. The fact is, prospects have already been persuaded and just need to contact the supplier to finalize the proc

Some people look at leopards and only see fur coats: I’m the one that should be wearing that coat. Continuing along this line, some people look at store clerks and only see cash register operators. Some people look at coworkers and only see competitors. Some people look at customers and prospects and only see money. Actually, it’s not just some people – it’s all of us. To some degree, we all look at the world in terms of how it can serve us. It becomes a problem w

Yes., press releases still do work And this is especially true as AI generated content throws a question mark into all traditional search optimization strategies. Google adds media releases submitted through distribution services such as Cision (not just posted on your website) into Google News, which is where many journalists go to find content. Because so little content is submitted through distribution services anymore, this gives you a huge advantage and will probably

Learn how to increase your customers' loyalty.

Think of your website as a brick-and-mortar store (whether it is an ecommerce site or not). You would want to track everything you possibly could about people that are visiting your store—how many visitors per day/week/month; how long they were shopping in the store; what items they were looking at; whether they came back; when they came back; how many times they came back; etc. All of this would inform what immediate and long-term adjustments you made to your strategy and ev

The following is from an excellent article by Dorothy Crenshaw in: Crenshaw Communications, imPRessions, public relations. A high-impact PR program can be a technology company’s greatest asset – provided it’s well conceived and skillfully executed. Public relations and influencer marketing can put a new tech company on the map. For a more mature technology business, they can help build a competitive advantage. Here’s how any tech company can benefit from the right PR campaig

The psychological phenomenon of confirmation bias has significant implications for marketing and communications, but most people don’t know what it is and---more importantly---how they can get prospects to move past it. Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information that confirms what you already believe, regardless of whether or not the information is accurate; and ignore alternatives that may be better. You could attribute confirmation bias to mental laziness or mo

There are three times every year when many colleagues are not available: Late July and early August Winter holidays: The week before Thanksgiving, the weeks before and after Christmas and the week after New Years The weeks before and after Easter If you’re working during these times, you’ve noticed that, without all the meetings and interruptions, you get a lot of work done. But on the other hand, it’s frustrating when the people you collaborate with daily are not available.

A half hour meeting that accomplishes exactly what you need is feasible. But it requires smart (not time-consuming) planning; discipline during the meeting; and a laser focus on achieving results (getting what you need in 30 minutes). The information that follows applies to in-person meetings of 10 people or less, most of it applies to virtual meetings as well (but not to extraordinary meetings called for extraordinary purposes). Plan ahead A good reason to call a meeting is

Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi wrote the seminal work on creating coherence in an organization; a book called, The Essential Advantage. Although I don’t follow and/or agree with everything, it is an excellent book. And actually the premise---breaking away from the pack by focusing on your core capabilities---is very similar to a perennial business best seller---W. Chan Kim’s and Renee Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy. Too often, organizations look first at what their curre