Posts Tagged ‘business’
Good Marketing
As she’s scanning organic bananas or buckwheat kernels at the checkout the assistant at local health food store strikes up a conversation. She’s curious to know if the bananas are just for making smoothies and what the customer uses the buckwheat for. These seemingly insignificant interactions are hardly worth remembering and yet over time they…
Read MoreThe Customer Referral Source Changes The Story
Not all prospective customer enquiries are created equal. An enquiry via website contact form, made as a result of a Google search is very different from a direct referral from a friend. It’s also worth remembering that the customer’s story at the time she seeks you out changes the sales conversation. How and when a…
Read MoreThe Noisy Bell And Napkin Worthiness
John Lydgate was right, “you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” And yet a huge part of our job as business leaders, entrepreneurs and product creators is to meet a standard that pleases most of the people we serve, most of the time. Feedback—the information and reactions we receive about our…
Read MoreHow Do You Know?
How do you know which product to launch next? How do you know which packaging works best? How do you know what it feels like for someone to encounter your brand? How do you know what story your customer will tell tomorrow about the experience he had today? What we know (or perhaps don’t yet…
Read MoreWhen The Marketing Works
We spend so much of our time in ‘push mode’ that we can forget to celebrate what went well or to evaluate why. When you make the sale it’s natural to begin working out how to make the next one. We make the next one by working out why we made the first. It’s important…
Read MoreWhat Are Your Rules Designed To Do?
It’s never a good sign when a flight doesn’t board on time. When the ground staff make announcements about ‘engineering faults’ and begin handing out meal vouchers you know you’re in trouble. And so it went last month for flight 029 to Hong Kong. Three hours after the first announcement the flight was cancelled, leaving…
Read MoreWhat To Question
The comedian doesn’t think about how he to be funnier, he tries to understand what makes people laugh and why. The shoe designer doesn’t simply consider what will look good, she obsesses over what will make a woman feel good. The architect doesn’t just consider the orientation of the building, he cares about how people…
Read MoreDouble Your Business
Greg opened his diary and booked the new client in. It was a small electrical job, hardly worth going out of his way for the call out fee of $120—the kind of job that most of his competitors wouldn’t have dreamed of booking this close to Christmas when everyone wanted everything yesterday. He turned up…
Read MoreThe Value Of Unknowns
Will the new product launch be successful? Is this really what customers want? Will the digital marketing initiative drive enough sales? Is this the right person to hire? Will the redesign improve engagement? Is the timing perfect? The truth is that we can’t know for sure. That doesn’t stop us trying to act as if…
Read MoreDesign For The Outcome You Want
Susan is the VP of Sales at a large company. She’s more than a little frustrated that her sales team keep selling legacy products to customers and don’t make the effort to introduce new product lines to them instead. Of course it’s easier for the sales guy to earn his bonus by filling repeat orders…
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