Blog Ramblings - Strategic Marketing Consulting, Small Business Market Research, Small Business Marketing Consulting, Business Marketing Consultants, marketing ideas for small business, cost small business marketing

Leverage is for more than pulling a cork

January 20, 2012

While attending a reception at a big conference last nite, the person I was chatting with at one of the “bars” asked for a glass of wine. The bartender had just finished one bottle and needed to open another. We stood there in amazement and watched as she took a waiter’s corkscrew – like the [...]

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Is all the Art gone from Advertising?

January 17, 2012

This post was kicked off by a discussion I had regarding the direct response article on Seth Godin’s Blog. It’s true that more and more marketing dollars are being held accountable, for good reason. Simply “getting your name out there” has generally stopped working, unless you have millions of dollars to throw at the problem. [...]

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Plan your year – Continuous Learning (part 5)

January 6, 2012

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been writing about planning your strategy for developing your business. First we looked at current customers, second was customer service and third was sales and the last entry was marketing. In our final installment, we’d like to encourage you to install a continuous learning plan. Business development, [...]

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Plan Your Year Part 4 – Marketing

December 28, 2011

Through this series we have been talking about planning out your strategy for developing your business. First we looked at current customers, second was customer service and third was sales. Now we look at marketing. Being marketing consultants and coaches, we would argue that everything you business does is marketing, but not everyone sees it [...]

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Plan Your Year – Part 3 – Sales

December 25, 2011

This is part 3 in our planning installment. In the first entry, we discussed your current customers and setting goals to increase both revenue and referrals. The second installment looked at customer service. Now, we turn to sales. Profitable business growth for most companies comes down to business development. And business development for many companies [...]

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Mattress Ticking and Getting Ticked Off

December 17, 2011

Since the last post was about customer service, let me relate a story from today that illustrates the advantage that smaller or local companies have over the big chains. It being Christmas season and all, there are lots of customers service examples, good and bad to share, but today you get to read about my [...]

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Plan your year now – Part 2 – Customer Service

December 16, 2011

This is part 2 in our planning installment. In the first entry, we discussed your current customers and setting goals to increase both revenue and referrals. Growth; at least profitable growth, all comes down to business development. The question for this entry is why and how to improve your customers service. What are the goals [...]

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Plan your year – Now

December 13, 2011

11 months gone. 1/2 month left – but only about 10 real working days – and the distractions bring that down to about 5. So… What are you doing now that will make next year different than this year? It all comes down to business development. How are you going to better develop your business [...]

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Thankful..

November 24, 2011

In addition to all the normal things that my human side is thankful for today… my family, friends, great employees and associates, I wanted add a bit. Today, as a small business owner, I am thankful for… The military foresight to create DARPA, which created the foundation of what is the internet. I could not [...]

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10 Paths to Marketing (and Sales) Purgatory

November 20, 2011

In working with and talking to hundreds of small businesses over the last few years, we’ve heard about and seen many, many different ways that owners and their sales & marketing staff waste time and money on marketing. This post started out as the 7 deadly sins of marketing, but after looking at all the [...]

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