Archive for January, 2009
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste*
NOTE: *I believe the title of this article can be attributed to economist Paul Romer.
As the economy liquefies in front of your eyes, it is hard to find anything positive in the gooey mess stuck to your shoes.
Cost structures have changed. Some of your customers simply disappeared overnight. The customers that are left now have [...]
The last gasp of branding as we know it?
NOTE: A big thanks to Robert Hamilton of www.maconraine.com for writing half this article.
Do you hear that choking sound? That sound is the last gasp of branding as we know it.
For the brand purists out there, this article is not for you. If you are BMW, Microsoft, Nike or Skippy Peanut Butter, don’t read [...]
Survey results so far
The sales, marketing and lead generation survey is moving along nicely. Here are preliminary results:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=3SNCjZbQy8NGvpqUFEIGUvmpE_2fHV_2fJb_2bSiX3skCF4R0_3d
If you haven’t taken the survey, please do so.
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Emergent strategies
You’ve probably heard this statement a hundred times: “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” Likewise, no marketing and sales plan ever survives first contact with the market.
We’re all guilty. We write marketing plans. The plan doesn’t survive contact with the customer. But somehow we get busy with billable work. The plan stalls but [...]
Take the survey
Our most recent project – requested by our clients – is a survey to better understand the role of B2B lead generation as the essential function that unites sales and marketing.
Macon Raine clients have the opportunity to participate as part of the Sales Leadership Advisory Board (SLAB) – a peer network of accomplished sales and marketing executives. [...]
The agency model is broken (post #2)
In one of my past posts, I wrote about the broken advertising agency model. In my previous rant I wrote about clients that hire agencies for more sales but manage the agency as a cost center instead of a revenue center. As a result, agencies default to what they know. The Tribble Agency compares agencies to diapers and recommends [...]
Product review: JungleDisk
As a small business, I’m always interested in cool new technologies. Lately, I’ve been looking at hosted file servers/backup solutions that would let me keep my data off site and safe. I found a cool vendor called JungleDisk.
JungleDisk uses Amazon’s web services and allows easy transfer of files to and from our local machines to [...]
What creates client loyalty?
A good friend and former partner at Andersen, Ed Wertzberger, and his firm RevNew Group are conducting a survey to understand the drivers that create client loyalty for professional services firms. I took the survey and can’t wait to get the results. All survey participants receive a copy of the results. If you have any interest [...]
