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Marketers can be out of step with customers simply because they are not thinking like the buyer. They are thinking like a seller. As a seller you have a large disadvantage based on your own biases. You can be thinking of how a person ought to buy instead of how
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I think what keeps a lot of people from achieving anything worthwhile or realizing the success they desire is the noise they find in their life. While we cannot escape noise, we can minimize it. A carpenter who wants to build furniture is going to have sawdust and tools everywhere.
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Why your customers do business with you could be merely from the straightforward product or service you are offering. That is what the agreement is around. However, many of the intangibles of working together, and specifically, with you matter a great deal in your interactions. We often discount what is
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The last thing we should be in the world is common. That puts us in the mix to be compared with everyone around us, and that merely creates commoditization. It may be what a buyer wants. It allows them to compare and create the argument around price rather than value.
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The great thing about the problems you face is that it is likely common, not unique. If you have the problem, then people that are doing similar work are likely facing the same problems. If you get an itch to solve the problem and work through it thoroughly, you are
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We talk a lot about staying away from tempting and costly gimmicks and work hard to educate our clients on how to create connection rather than chase vanity metrics. In a world where you can build your own audience and have a relationship directly with your prospective and current customers,
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Sometimes all you can do in life is solve the problem in front of you. This helps to clear the decks if there is a pipeline of work to get done and it gets difficult sorting through everything. The nature of work in the new economy creates an otherwise overwhelming
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If I know you, like you and trust you, then the likelihood of doing business together is high. Ultimately, all of us in business have to be either loved or needed. Starbucks is loved. Exxon gasoline is needed. With so many choices today, I am not sure we can simply
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We have a skeptical eye towards quick fixes on our team at AscendWorks when it comes to generating sales qualified leads. We know there are plenty of companies out there that may be focused on vanity metrics such as visitor traffic or lead counts. However, with the real goal being
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I had some free time during these hot SXSW days and got out with friends to Lick ice cream in Austin. I love businesses like this. They understand they are in the packaging business and made the experience of ice cream something simple and good. The menu is modular and
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George S. Patton Jr.Patton Principles The problem happens when you or someone who you work with is not doing any of these three things. To segue from yesterday's article on The Scarcity Of Guts, leadership ultimately comes down to these three timeless and succinct decisions which Patton
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It's very rare that I hear people admit what they are truly feeling when it comes to change or making a right decision for themselves or their business. People are masters at masking their fears. After all, much of our schooling and institutions did a great job of