27th November 2008
The Challenges of Thinking Outside the Box to Reduce Costs
Businesses know that long term cost reduction and expense management are critical to financial stability. The achievements of yesterday are no longer adequate in today’s economic climate. ...
20th January 2008
Bullies on the playground-you thought that you had left them behind in grade school along with bloody noses, homework, and the mean school principal. Yet, the same bully behavior can appear when you are confronted with an aggressive negotiator.
A bully...
19th January 2008
Innovative products need to be marketed and sold differently than other offerings since they require a special customer who is receptive to innovation. Most customers are skeptical and will wait until innovative products are mass marketed.
Here are a f...
21st September 2007
One of the most powerful tools in a negotiator’s toolbox is silence: absolute, blank-faced, quiet. It can be used when confronted with a tough situation, when given news that is too good to be true, or when you just don’t want to say anything stupid.M...
10th August 2007
Although every organization is different, hiring a sales manager is not as simple as it looks. In fact, the wrong sales manager can quickly damage morale, if not scare away the sales reps and potentially injure the firm.
A common mistake is to promote ...
09th August 2007
A common mistake is to go into a negotiation thinking that there is only one acceptable outcome: what you want. One of the best things you can do to prepare for a negotiation is to think about all the possible options that may exist for you and the other ...
08th August 2007
One way to achieve entrepreneurial success is to NOT make the following marketing mistakes:
1. Trying to sell everything to everybody
Trying to do everything is a prescription for a marketing disaster. Being the best requires commitment and focus. ...
08th August 2007
When in Egypt, you had better negotiate like an Egyptian. Be sure to leave your cowboy hat at home since the rules are very different in the Middle East.
Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history, so I won’t be giving a history le...
08th August 2007
You may have read about the merits of “viral advertising”, which is a relatively new term that refers to marketing techniques that use social networks (i.e. MySpace, your e-mail buddy list, etc) to pass along messages, e-mails, or video clips.
The...
03rd August 2007
The following changes will rock your marketing world:
Hispanic Revolution- Hispanics accounted for about half the growth in the U.S. population since 2000, according to a recent US Census Bureau report. The nation’s largest minority group is increasi...
03rd August 2007
There is a “good new/bad news” scenario to importing and exporting products for those regions of the country that boast busy sea ports. Specifically in Southern California, the Long Beach Port manages trade valued annually at more than $100 billion, m...
02nd August 2007
A sensational headline? Maybe so, but advertising as we know it is going to change in a very big way because of new advances in technology. If you have read my book “First, Best, or Different” or you frequent my blog, you know that I am very critical ...
02nd August 2007
“If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.”
Groucho Marx (1890-1977) Comedian and actor
Facts tell, while stories sell.
Have your salespeople tell stories. I have found that most successful sal...
02nd August 2007
With product life cycles shortening and global competition increasing, manufacturers are increasingly turning to outsourcing as a means to speed up time-to-market, while also remaining cost competitive. No where is this more true than in the consumer ele...
02nd August 2007
One company that staunchly opposes offshore outsourcing is Hesperia, California, based Mer-Mar; oddly enough, Mer-Mar is a contract manufacturing and assembly company and is, by definition, an outsource manufacturer. With over 30 years experience speciali...
