“What do you need?” Kelly asked me this question as we waited to talk to the honoree of the reception we were at.  I looked at my drink and said “Oh, nothing. I have my drink.”  He looked at me again, and said, “No, I mean, what do you need?” making this large circle motion [...]

              LIST A Build direct marketing lists Write product definitions Develop corporate literature Mail postcards Send holiday greetings Mine CRM databases for leads I recently reviewed a marketing plan with these suggestions listed. While these marketing tactics aren’t inherently bad, they are inherently deceptive. These actions make you feel [...]

Do you dread the 30-second elevator pitch?  It seems like one of those necessary evils, doesn’t it? In a previous post “How do YOU answer “The Hardest Question in Business? “  I identified three reasons it is so challenging to nail that 30-second elevator pitch.  However, I assured you that it was not hopeless and [...]

If you grew up in the marketing world where this jargon is practically your native language, this post may not make any sense to you.  However, it may help your work with non-marketing people.  If you are a non-marketing person, this post may help to clarify some marketing terminology for you in a way that improves your [...]

This post is a follow-up to last month’s “Are you where your customers are?” post.  I challenged you to do research and figure out where your customers are in terms of social networking sites. Once you know where your target market is, then you can build a focused strategy for social media. You will make better use [...]

Special thanks to Matt Valuckis of V as in Victor and Martin Olesky of Wingman Communications & Marketing who invited me to be a guest on their Ad Men Radio show on The Lakeshore 89.1 on Tuesday.  We talked about the importance of getting to know your customers, the need to focus, what JCPenney is and isn’t doing and more.  The hour [...]

The #1 way to get your customers to love you is… …to love them first. Short story. When I was in training to be a psychotherapist, we learned two basic things. They were: 1. Find something to like about each client.  2. If things aren’t improving, see #1.   Of course, we learned about theories, interventions, assessments, and [...]

I love Starbucks Coffee…the coffee that is.  However, Starbucks Coffee the company, has always piqued my curiosity about the way it has done things especially around their customer service. For example, Starbucks Coffee Company describes itself as “A place for conversation and a sense of community. A third place between work and home.” It is my belief that when a company [...]

Note: This post is geared mainly to professional service providers and the decision-making process of their clients although it certainly has implications for others.   I love being a professional service provider and so do most of my colleagues or they get out of it quickly.  However, despite loving what I do, engaging a client [...]

Asking for customer email addresses is a big deal and needs to be part of a well-thought out marketing strategy.  Here is a story illustrating my point. I often use my Twitter stream to look for and read the top stories posted by our two local newspapers.  One day when I clicked on a link from one [...]