I once had a telemarketer keep me on the phone for over a minute. My usual average was less than 15 seconds, depending on how long it took them to take a breath. I’m polite because I like to hear their approaches. He asked me a key question; “Was I earning 20+% on my investments?” I said, no.
Read MoreI once owned a partnership in the Sheila Yeates; a gaff-rigged topsail ketch. She was a beautiful ship, 48 feet on the water line and 65 feet overall, built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and launched in 1976. The Sheila Yeats sank in the north Atlantic in 1989.
Read MoreMars curiosity will be landing one way or the other August 5th. Will you have seven minutes of terror, or will you know your prospects are watching your whiteboard before the video is over?
Read MoreHave you ever wondered why the typical response to a fast changing business environment is often to implement more planning, processes, and measurements, as well as re-organize the structure of the company? It’s the illusion of control.
Read MoreYesterday, I had a colleague send me a link to a site that offers to write your blog for you. The price was very reasonable, an introductory offer of $68.75 per blog! He asked for my reaction.
Read MoreHow long do you think you have to make a good first impression? Yes, the number may depress a few of the less confident out there. Various studies say the number ranges from three seconds to thirty seconds. Further, these impressions then often guide other’s opinions of us regardless of how hard we work to change them. Even in the digital world, many inbound and outbound marketers forget the axiom about first impressions.
Read MoreMarketing Lead Generation Minneapolis St Paul Minnesota AtlantaWould you show up on a first date by bringing an engagement ring and your parents along? While this may be a custom in some countries, it could be interpreted as intrusive or presumptuous in our culture. Courtship takes some finesse, and often requires a number of steps. Often the best approach is the product of each of these steps. So why should it be any different with inbound and outbound marketing, or sales?
Read MoreA lot of marketers and companies ask themselves if they should start blogging in order to generate leads. It’s the new conventional wisdom. So there are millions of business blogs. And there are thousands of marketing blogs, some great, but most very dusty.
I started the Prairie Sky blog as an experiment. I had some grandiose ideas, a few ulterior and selfish motives. I wanted to see if I could create 25 posts with a small investment of time. I wanted to test the conventional wisdom that you need a blog to generate traffic and leads. None of these turned out to be so important as I anticpated, and I keep asking myself, why I blog?
Read MoreSo, if you don’t make New Year’s resolutions, here is a list of items from my posts during the year that might make good subjects for reflection.
Read MoreI’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. The way I figure it, if you don’t have the discipline to decide to do something or not during the year, then a resolution is not going to help. Resolutions are mostly about things that weren’t important enough to begin with or we would have done them. Indeed, most of us abandon by February, what we resolved to do on January 1.
On the other hand, I do believe in spending time reflecting on your marketing, sales or personal plans…
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