Clients

16 May 2021

Lessons in Business – Communicating 21 Years of Quiet Success

By |2021-05-16T19:35:54-06:00May 16th, 2021|Categories: Business Strategy, Manifast, Marketing, Sales|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Quiet Success, Trucks on Highway

What do you say when someone says, “So, what does your business do?” Communicating what success looks like for your customers is key.

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We don’t sell anything popular like pizza or chocolate. We aren’t spies or secret agents. Or superheroes who wear capes.

For almost 21 years, we’ve run a software and business consulting company that quietly serves other businesses.

This line of business is not as glamourous and sexy as it sounds. Really.

It is complex.

How Communicating Usually Works

Unlike financial planners, real estate […]

10 Jun 2020

Surviving in a Crisis Requires Facing the Truth

By |2020-06-11T01:41:12-06:00June 10th, 2020|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Leadership|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Hanging on by a thread during a crisis - frayed rope.

Hiding from the truth will not serve you well, especially during a health and economic crisis like a pandemic.

Your business is always at risk. Maybe the threat is not immediate.

However, markets change. Products become obsolete. Often, a new competitor emerges. Tastes change. Often change is gradual. Sometimes it is relatively sudden. At times it is local in nature, and sometimes it is a global phenomenon.

Surprises happen. A squirrel shorts […]

22 Dec 2017

A Year of Reflections and Shining a Light on 2018

By |2017-12-22T21:13:37-07:00December 22nd, 2017|Categories: Business Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Software Development|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

A Year of Reflections and Shining a Light on 2018

Reflecting back over the last year, we’ve seen a number of local businesses close their doors and countless more struggle. It hasn’t been an easy year for us either.

Through tough times come some of the most valuable business lessons. The biggest one is to avoid facing tough times whenever you can. In my opinion, it is far better to be struggling with growth challenges.

Part of being in business for 17 years is making […]

18 Oct 2017

80/20 David and Goliath: The Power of Ideal Clients

By |2017-10-18T17:15:20-06:00October 18th, 2017|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

80-20 David Goliath - Power of Ideal Clients

Your prospects naturally compare your business to what they perceive as your competition. If you want to get leads and acquire customers efficiently, you have to choose your market and ideal clients carefully.

It turns out how we feel about our achievements is relative to how we measure ourselves. How we perform in the future, is impacted by how we relate to the results of the measurement.

Harvard or MIT

If you graduate at the top […]

11 Jul 2017

5 Powerful Moments on the Path to Get More Clients

By |2017-07-12T16:20:31-06:00July 11th, 2017|Categories: Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, HubSpot Agency Partner, Marketing, Sales|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Phoenix Rising From Fire - Path to Get More Clients

Most small businesses start with someone who has an innovative idea, or at least the desire to build a business around what they do. In most cases, these entrepreneurs fall into sales out of necessity. You either figure out how to get more clients, or you fail.

Our story started this way. Early successes led us to underestimate the power of mastering marketing and sales, both the skills and the […]

21 Feb 2010

Business Strategy: What Do You Really Want to Optimize?

By |2017-06-21T15:53:41-06:00February 21st, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Man in Office - Business Performance - Business Strategy

Before you spend resources on improving your business performance, it is best to know where you want to go. This means getting clear on your business strategy.

Improving Business Performance

There are two main ways of improving business performance:

  • Optimization – Making things better, best practices, incremental improvements,
  • Innovation – Doing different things, doing things differently, leaping past the competition.

It is easy to think there is a magic bullet for optimizing your business’s performance. […]

27 Jul 2009

Marketing Budget Allocation For Results

By |2017-06-06T16:06:43-06:00July 27th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Marketing Budget Allocation - Make Money

As per the last two posts (The Value of a New Customer and Marketing Budget 101) I talked about one way of determining your marketing/sales budget.

If you want a simpler method, allocate a percentage of total revenue.

Now the question is where to spend your money for maximum effect.

There are basically four sources of future sales:

  • Existing customers,
  • Referrals (word of mouth),
  • Prospecting, cold calling and networking, and
  • New leads from marketing.

You will want to allocate funding (or effort) to […]