sales + marketing

Who Gets "It"? Only A Few Industrial Manufacturers - Part II

Alder Crocker — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:18:06 -0400

If many manufacturers and their sales teams sell products and not solutions, does that mean that their customers buy products too, and not solutions?

Who Gets "It"? Only A Few Industrial Manufacturers - Part II

Alder Crocker — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:17:59 -0400

If many manufacturers and their sales teams sell products and not solutions, does that mean that their customers buy products too, and not solutions?

Who Gets "It?" Not Political Admen

Alder Crocker — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:39:34 -0400

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

Every four years, the country is over-run with political ads from presidential hopefuls, and for the most part, they are aggressive, in-your-face and pushing the limits of the truth....all supposedly to make a point about the other candidate's inability to govern and make decisions that are in our collective best interests.

Personality

Larry Mersereau — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:17:39 -0400

I want you to give some serious thought to a specific part of your branding: your personality. Not your own, that of your business.

Yes, your business has a personality. If you don’t know what it is, ask your customers. What’s it like to do business with us? Is it fun? Boring? Do we come across as overly eager? Not eager enough? Are we grumpy? Slow? Fast? Easy to work with? I bet you’ve bought from someone in your lifetime who was very difficult to work with. Do you ever want to buy from them again?

Who Gets "It"? Only A Few Industrial Manufacturers

Alder Crocker — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:21:17 -0400

In terms of marketing and sales techniques, the vast majority of US-based industrial manufacturers continue to live in the past. And so do their agencies or in-house departments.

Sell products on features and benefits. Show big pictures of the products in use. Hammer home reliability, durability, engineering, quality, productivity and cost efficiencies. And then repeat with the next, new and improved! product.

Should you try Mobile Advertising?

Larry Mersereau — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:54:07 -0400

If you sell to anyone under about 30 years old (and that number gets bigger every year) you must start looking at mobile advertising.

Mobile advertising is placing your message on mobile phones. It can be as simple as sending text messages to a list of people who have asked you to keep them up to date on specials (How about a weekly special text message?), to as complicated as sending a widget that lets them play a game that features your brand.

Should you try Mobile Advertising?

Larry Mersereau — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:46:37 -0400

If you sell to anyone under about 30 years old (and that number gets bigger every year) you must start looking at mobile advertising.

Stubborn vs Consistent

Larry Mersereau — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:26:22 -0400

I've always preached continuity in your marketing and advertising. By that I mean that you establish a certain look and fee (and sound if applicable). You establish a color theme, general layout, borders, type faces, colors... and you stick with them accross all media. Your mobile site looks just like your web site. Your print ad looks like your direct mail piece. Your TV ad uses the same voice over and background music as your radio spots.

Who Gets "It"? Marketers That Develop Brand "Programs", Not "Campaigns"

Alder Crocker — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:57:13 -0400

Marketing schizophrenia can be defined in many ways, but one of the most compelling barometers I've found is an advertiser's consistent creation of short term "campaigns". (And of course, use of the term brand campaign.)

Live networking

Larry Mersereau — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:37:40 -0400

Lots of people are talking about social networking. They're generally talking about the online version of what people have done for hundreds of years: interact with numerous people, realizing that some will become valuable relationships (personal or business) and some will not.