When you are thinking about how to communicate to your prospects and customers, what is your primary consideration?

Is it to whom you are speaking? In other words, is your first concern to understand whether your prospects are male or female, the ethnic group to which they belong, their income...

We are in the midst of a revolution not seen before in any of our lifetimes. Communication is no longer one way, that is, from the few to the masses. Today, whether you choose to utilise YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, Pinterest or any of the plethora...

As 'Social Media' has become too big to ignore, most companies are dabbling with it in some way. Of course, there are businesses that take Social Media extremely seriously. Meanwhile, others are merely dipping their 'toe in the water'. Of course, the million dollar question that every company wants to...

The World Wide Web is the biggest revolution in communication since the invention of the printing press. The printing press started the democratisation of information. Knowledge was no longer concentrated in the hands of the very few, but could spread far and wide. Without print, the reformation and renaissance in...

When Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450 he precipitated the democratisation of information. Neither the reformation nor renaissance, in Europe, could have happened if the printing press had not been invented.

Since print, of course, we have had radio, cinema and television. While no one would underestimate the importance...

When you walk into a meeting, with a potential customer, what is the conversation you have?

Does it, at some point, lead to you revealing the features and benefits of your offering? If so, in what context are these presented?

At best, in most sales situations, benefits are delivered as...

Why is it that before we get married, we are engaged? Why do many public toilets say the word 'engaged' on the outside when they are locked? The term engaged means busy or taken. When we use the term to engage with customers, we mean 'keeping them busy' or 'occupying...

We now live in a world where everyone has the opportunity to own their own media channels. Utilising Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or any of the multitude of platforms that exist today, provide every individual with the opportunity to get their opinions and thoughts heard, in a way that most...

There is no doubt that in a web enabled digital age the role of a salesperson has to change. Quite simply, in most markets, prospects now have more access to choice and information than ever before. This has altered the way buyers access choice and make decisions. Simple logic would,...

We used to live in a world where everyone knew the places to go for information. In the main, people would obtain their news from the same few newspapers, radio stations and TV channels. Specialist knowledge, whether in business to business or the consumer marketplace, would then be delivered through...

Too many businesses are ignoring mobile. While up until now many companies have 'got away with it', this situation is becoming increasingly untenable. Over a third of the UK adult population now use smart phones, with a similar percentage in the US, and the market is growing existentially.

The Web...

The seven 'deadly' or 'cardinal' sins are commonly thought of as envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth and wrath. However, in marketing today, there is another sin being committed by companies the world over. This offence creates so much dissatisfaction for prospects and customers alike, the punishment for committing such...

I was on a three hour train journey the other day. The staff were perfectly friendly but the way they worked was quite farcical.

First, someone came through the carriage offering coffee and tea. The person with the 'milk and sugar', I was reliably told, was following on. Unfortunately,...

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the way of improving visibility by trying to ensure one has as high a web ranking as possible when relevant searches are undertaken. This is visibility in 'unpaid' or 'organic' search results as opposed to those opportunities which companies pay for in order to be...

Since Google launched their Google+ social network in June 2011 a lot has been written about whether it will be able to rival Facebook as a real alternative. Many people make a big deal of the numbers.

While Facebook currently has somewhere in the region of 800 million users...

Marketing is no longer purely transactional. Historically, the major measure to assess whether a company's marketing was effective, or not, was Return On Investment (ROI). A company would undertake, for example, a direct mail campaign and the metrics they would look at were the number of responses and deals done.

For a vast majority of companies Social Media is still new. However, because many of the customers a business would like to reach, spend an increasing amount of time on these platforms, companies have come to recognize the importance of being involved. Therein the frustration starts to build. Businesses recognize...

There has been much said about the 'wisdom of crowds'. That is, how we can use the opinions of numerous disparate individuals to make better decisions than we ever could on our own.

The web has enabled all of us to create and access this knowledge, in a way not...