In his latest book, Get Rich Carefully, Jim Cramer dedicates several pages to the praise of Whole Foods. He also works in a clever zinger, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to shop for fish at Whole Foods, he’ll be broke within the year.” Ha! In all seriousness, […]
Marketing
The toughest decision you’ll ever make (the first time)
The most important decision you’ll make in your business is customer selection, or which customers you want as your target market. This should be true for any size enterprise, but it’s especially true if you own the business because 1) You have limited resources and you must invest those resources where they’ll produce the highest […]
Market segmentation by lifestyle (a great way to grow share of customer)
Two marketing terms you hear thrown around a lot are “market segmentation” and “share of customer”. Market segmentation basically means taking this thing called “the market” and recognizing that there really is no “the market,” but instead multiple markets of prospects with similar characteristics, wants, needs, etc. So what you do is to take “the […]
The death of brand ownership?
Brands are still powerful. Building a solid brand is still a noble – and profitable – pursuit. You should work to build as strong a brand as you can and then work to make it even stronger, because a good brand is indeed money in the bank. It’s like having a printing press on which […]
Why ask why?
Questions are the sales professional’s most powerful tool in building trust-based relationships in which he or she helps the prospect find a valuable solution. Properly used, questions result in the prospect doing the vast majority of the talking in the sales interview. If the right level of rapport is achieved, and the right questions are […]
Cell phone facts…
You’re welcome to draw your own conclusions, I just thought you’d enjoy hearing these facts. According to the Pew Internet Project’s 2014 Mobile Technology Fact sheet: 90% of American adults have a cell phone 58% have a smartphone 32% own an e-reader of some kind 42% own a tablet PC That 90% of Americans how […]
Have you heard what happened at Richards Car Care?
I have historically shied away from naming companies (or people, for that matter) by name in my blogging endeavors. That’s because I prefer to say only positive things about companies (and people), and also because sometimes companies (and people) can end up disappointing you. It’s kind of awkward to either have to “print a retraction” […]
Has Amazon.com flipped?
If you’ve visited Amazon recently, you may have had your first experience with Amazon’s new “Flip to back” feature. Their “Look inside” feature has always been a hit, so this addition may not be that impressive to you, but I think its subtlety is precisely why it is noteworthy. The “Look Inside” feature lets you […]