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Category: Market Research

Channel Sales Strategies | 4 Tips to Boost Your Sales

March 11, 2017
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| Categories: Market Research, Small Business
Channel sales strategies: 4 Tips to Boost Your Sales

Maintaining strong relationships with your customers, prospects, and partners is key to help your business stay top of mind against your competitors. In this article, we will take a look at a number of channel sales strategies, plus four tips to help you boost your sales, at any time of the year. One of my favorite inspirational ideas comes from world-renowned poet and writer, Maya Angelou. She said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." In our crazy busy world, it is easy...

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What Goes Into a Successful Marketing Plan?

July 27, 2016
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| Categories: Market Research, Promotion

What does it take to create and implement a successful marketing plan? We always say that everyone is in “marketing.” That everyone is in “sales.” Why? Because no matter what role you have in your organization (an entrepreneur, a manager, or a subject matter expert), you need to be able to identify trends, to figure out how to create and sustain value for your customers and partners (whether external or internal), and to develop effective ways to get that message across. That's the perspective we’ve thought about as we assembled the content for The Marketing Plan Blueprint course: to walk...

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How to Get Help With Your Marketing Plan

July 20, 2016
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| Categories: Market Research, Promotion

Going through a structured planning process and then writing and sharing your marketing plan will go a long way towards addressing many of the issues you struggle with to grow your brand. Are you struggling with getting funding from potential investors? Are you struggling with getting your employees engaged to support your goals? Are you struggling with positioning your brand so it can compete effectively to win more business? One way to sort this out is by thinking from the outside in and not from the inside out. Try saying that five times fast! What we mean is that understanding the...

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What Do I Get out of Writing a Marketing Plan?

July 13, 2016
| 2 Comments
| Categories: Market Research, Promotion

With so many communication platforms out there, it is hard not to get sucked into worrying about your next blog post, your next tweet, or your next event at the expense of thinking about your overall marketing strategy. We know you’re busy running your business or you’re busy conceiving the details of your new venture. So why does it make sense for you spend time writing a marketing plan? For us, the benefits are many. Above all, it sets the foundation for how you are going to serve and win customers. It ensures that you are connecting all of the...

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Every Day is a Good Day for Marketing Planning

July 6, 2016
| 6 Comments
| Categories: Market Research, Promotion

Every day is a good day for marketing planning. Really? Yes, because a well-thought-out marketing plan will help you to win new business and customers, to get more investments if you need them, and to have your team more aligned and committed to your goals. I remember the first “big” marketing plan I had to write for a business I was responsible for. It scared the heck out of me! Why? Because the stakes were high. I had to develop one that convinced senior management that my business was worth investing in as much as I did AND it had...

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4 Steps to Creating an Effective Message

May 11, 2016
| 6 Comments
| Categories: Blogging Tips, Branding, Market Research
creating an effective message

I get asked a lot by small business owners how to convey what they have to offer in the most compelling way. In most cases, they don't lack for what to say, but rather how to sharpen its effectiveness. This guide provides 4 steps to creating an effective message.   Step 1: THE TARGET: Who is my audience for this message? Messages are most effective when set in the context of a specific audience. Step 2: THE MESSAGE: What is the solution I am providing? This is the core of what you're promising to customers. Your unique value that is meaningful...

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3 Effective and Low Cost Ways to Cultivate Your Customer Knowledge

April 21, 2016
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| Categories: Market Research, Small Business
hree Effective and Low Cost Methods to Cultivate Your Customer Knowledge

I found this African proverb not long ago, “Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” It serves as a reminder about the importance of challenging ourselves to continually seek to understand what is going on around us and in the world at large. For those of us who run a small business, it can be especially hard to spend the time to look outward given our limited time and financial resources. But cultivating your customer knowledge and applying it immediately to your business can be easy and cost effective; just by leveraging a few...

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