Why Sales Training Seldom Works
Lots of good-hearted people make a decent living by training sales people. I used to be one of them. So, it’s with a sympathetic heart that I say, “Sales training stinks.”
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Deming for Marketing Managers
Almost 30 years ago, I was fortunate to have a mentor who was a devotee of W. Edwards Deming. No less than once a week (for four years) I would hear Charlie say, “If you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it.” I never found the actual Deming quote, but the concept is certainly consistent with his philosophy. Charlie’s paraphrase of Deming changed the way I looked at marketing and advertising. Before Charlie (BC), I was satisfied measuring things like “reach and frequency,” confident that exposure drove awareness, built brand, and generated revenue – but Charlie (and Deming) proved me wrong.
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Brand Improvement: Continuous or Continual?
The words “continuous” and “continual” are so similar in appearance and sound that many people use them as if they were synonymous. But in truth, the subtle distinction between the two sheds important light on our understanding of brand.
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Who’s to Blame for Claim Inflation?
Marketers love comparisons. Especially copywriters. It seems every product advertised is the best product anyone could buy. It’s the “fastest car,” the “toughest truck,” the “whitest smile,” the “easiest decision,” the “smoothest ride…” Such claims are enticing; they promise to exceed our expectations.
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MarketPoint Receives MBE and DBE Certifications
Baltimore-based consulting firm MarketPoint LLC announced, today, that it has received both Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Certification from the State of Maryland, and the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Certification (DBE). Read more
Bet You a Billion Dollars You’re Wrong
Check your wallet. What percent of the dollar bills in your wallet are over 24 months old? If the answer is more than 50%, you’re the exception.
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Negotiation and Its Effect on Brand: An Interview with Ron Shapiro
Many have heard the name Ron Shapiro. A world-renown expert in negotiation, Mr. Shapiro is a distinguished graduate of the Harvard Law School. He has negotiated agreements in the corporate, government and nonprofit sectors. He has successfully represented many of the world’s greatest athletes, including Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Eddy Murray, Jim Palmer and Joe Mauer. And his books have appeared on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Business Week magazine.
Recently, we had the privilege of chatting with Mr. Shapiro about the impact negotiation can have on brand – organizational brand as well as personal brand. These are his comments.
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It’s Not the Logo, It’s the Brand
We need a new word for “brand.” That would help clear up the confusion so many people have about the process of branding. It’s really not the customers’ fault; it’s the fault of marketing professionals who use the term so loosely. And the error is rooted deep in our culture.
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Marketing to Overcome Barriers – When Selling Benefits Just Isn’t Enough
People who work in sales and marketing are trained to think in terms of benefits, and rightly so. While features may tell us about a product or service, they inform more than they motivate; buyers are motivated by benefits.
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Aligning Brand with Corporate Goals: Keeping the Dog in Front of the Tale
Here’s a simple multiple choice question most branding consultants can’t answer: Which of the following are good reasons to rebrand your organization?
(a) We’re tired of hearing our own positioning statements and we fear the brand is getting stale
(b) Our logo has been around for decades, and besides, we’ve brought on a new management team
(c) The competition just updated their position and we’re afraid, if we don’t change, we’ll be left in the dust
(d) A change in strategy will help us leverage changes in the marketplace or our offerings
(e) All of the above are good reasons to rebrand Read more