Finding New Markets

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Jerry Vieira

 

Where does one begin the search to find new markets?

The good news is: new high-potential market opportunities are typically discovered closer-in than you would imagine. Some await discovery hidden in the clutter of your current customer list. Others find you, not the other way around.  In either case, your task is to recognize and quickly assess their viability.

The biggest barrier is not that opportunities do not exist, but rather that firms have not dedicated a resource, and put in place the discipline to continually explore, vet and test their viability. New market opportunities can quickly and positively impact the bottom line. So, the key to growth is learning a) how to consistently be on the lookout, b) how to recognize possibilities and c) how to test their reality and viability.

 Places for discovery:

Here are… Read more

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Foundational Marketing

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jerry Vieira
Foundational Marketing

This gallery contains 2 photos.

You can’t build a durable home on a weak foundation.

We’d like to share an insight that has helped executives and business owners sort through all the hype and claims over the last several years about an ever growing list of “gotta-do” new marketing and sales techniques.

 If you’re a General Manager, business owner or C-level executive, your marketing team probably approaches you annually with a laundry list of funding requests to support their critical marketing and sales programs for the coming year.  Those requests may include any or all of; a website upgrade, a branding program, a social media expansion program, a blog, a publicity and PR program or maybe even a new six-figure trade show booth – not to mention the additional staff to help manage it all. How do you decide… Read more

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Networking from the Front of the Room

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Jerry Vieira

There are two statements I hear repeatedly when speaking with professional services firms. The first is, “It’s a relationship business.” The second is, “We generate the majority of our new business through networking and referrals.”

In fact, service professionals (attorneys, bankers, financial advisors, consultants, brokers and accountants), tell me that they are encouraged (if not by their bosses, by everything they read) to attend a lot of networking events, engage in conversation, not drink too much and hand out business cards.

They are, in effect, being encouraged to play a numbers game. The more events attended and the more cards handed out, the more new clients. Why this approach? Because, it has worked in the past – and if it is not done, new client opportunities dry up. With all the hype in recent years about branding,… Read more

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Revitalizing Stalled Sales

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Jerry Vieira

 

As the economy continues to bounce along, (some say showing signs of a small movement off its bottom while others disagree), business owners and managers are getting impatient to find ways to boost revenue.  Not only are we seeing evidence of this within our own client base, but also our “Insights” blog post on “Diagnosing Stalled Sales”, published in June of 2011, has re-surfaced recently as the top-read posting on the all time QMP blog popularity-list.  The second most popular blog on that list is “The Marketing and Sales Audit”.  Business leaders are looking for revenue answers.  Standing idly by and waiting for the economic recovery is no longer a reasonable option.

As I re-read that “Diagnosing Stalled Sales” post, I realized that it was too diagnostic and not prescriptive enough.  After all, what good is a diagnosis without a treatment? Apologies… Read more

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Getting Things Moving: A Process and Checklist for Overcoming Barriers

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 

Program delays challenge management in all types of enterprise – profit, non-profit, public and private. Stalls, stumbles, delays and barriers seem to randomly and inconveniently attach themselves to all types of organizational initiatives initiatives. Whether a firm is struggling with a critical initiative intended to dig its way out of a stuttering economy or dealing with the challenge of quickly responding to unprecedented growth in customer demand for its new product, all initiatives hit roadblocks.  

Some suggest that roadblocks are simply a way of life in business – inevitable. That may be true. But if these banes are inevitable and ubiquitous, shouldn’t the management tool kit and training programs of the firm include an effective method for dealing with them?

I am not going to tell you that I have discovered some… Read more

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Lean Marketing and Sales: The Art of Optimizing both Customer and Company Value

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

“Lean is the process of maximizing the value delivered to customers by eliminating any wasted activity or expense that does not create, communicate or enhance customer-received value.”

In this QMP Insights blog we offer an approach for improving both top and bottom-lines through the application of “Lean” principles to six key areas in the marketing and sales function of a firm.

Getting Started with Lean in Marketing and Sales:

There are three foundational principles that must guide any application of lean principles to the marketing and sales function

First, the law of economic value is always at work. That law states: All economic value accruing to your firm has as its source, the customer’s perception that they will receive more value (economic, emotional or physical) from your product or service than… Read more

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The Marketing and Sales Audit: Try it, You’ll Like It

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 

The word audit can strike fear into the heart of almost any person or organization that is its target.  “Audit” conjures up an image of someone in a position of authority digging through your paperwork and records looking for evidence of malfeasance, mistakes, incompetence or non-compliance.  For any of these breaches, the consequence could be fines, penalties, reprimands or even dismissal – all ugly possibilities.

However, when a business considers performing an audit on their marketing and sales function, they typically just want to answer two basic questions:

  1. What, if anything, can we do to improve our sales effort?
  2. What, if anything, can we do to improve our marketing program?

At its purest intent, and to be most effective, a marketing and sales audit should not be to uncover incompetence, to fix blame… Read more

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Don’t Give Up on the Top Line (no matter how tough things get)

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

The Most Common Reaction to Economic Turmoil: Expense Reduction

There’s a line in the Willie Nelson tune “Nothing I can do about it now” that goes like this:

I’ve survived every situation
Knowin’ when to freeze and when to run.

Two years into the current economic downturn, there is plenty of evidence that companies are trying to do both. Firms continue to take aggressive steps in reaction to reduced demand. Cisco just announced layoffs of 6,500 employees. Other big name firms such as Merck, Lockheed and Boston Scientific also announced staff reductions.  Borders finally threw in the towel, closing its last 400+ stores.  It once had 1,200 outlets, employing more than 35,000.  And most recently, HSBC indicated it will let go between 25,000 and 30,000 employees.

Small to… Read more

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Sorting Fact from Fiction in the Sales Pipeline

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

The Big Deal

Every sales manager, business owner, general manager and CFO, at some point in their careers, have been entertained by the overly-enthusiastic sales person describing the “Big Deal” that was about to close. And unless those managers were completely naïve and inexperienced, a twinge of skepticism should have arisen. Was what they were hearing, in fact, real?

When hearing about a “Big Deal”, managers must confront the challenge of what to do about it – ignore it, or prepare. Preparation may comprise some or all of capacity planning, inventory commitment, equipment capacity increases, cash planning and workforce planning. Failure to anticipate these factors can result in an inability to deliver to the customer what they want, on time, should the deal actually break. On the other hand, a kneejerk financial commitment based on… Read more

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Looking in the Performance Excellence Mirror

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 

A Performance Excellence Culture is the Nutrient-Rich Soil that Enables your Business to Grow and Thrive

Between 1986 and 1996 the Evergreen Research Project was undertaken to identify business practices that were common to high performing firms.  A team of 50 leading academics and consultants compiled data on dozens of companies and the 200 most common business practices used.  The objective: find those few practices that truly made a difference.

The findings were published by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria, Bruce Roberson and McKinsey & Company in a book entitled, “What Really Works: The 4+2 formula for sustained business success” published by Harper Collins.

The conclusion:  High performing firms adhered to four common behavioral imperatives, plus two behaviors from another secondary group of four.  Success was demonstrated by a 15X greater Total Return to Shareholders than companies not practicing… Read more

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The 8 Client Personality Types

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

Aristotle, (though some attribute it to Mary Poppins), is purported to have said, “Well begun, is half done”.  We’ll stipulate that neither Ari or Mary were talking to a group of consultants, or consultantive sales folks, but consultant types quickly learn that early preparation can make a big difference in their ability to achieve a success.

Beginning well requires quickly determining whether all the key ingredients of a “complete” success even exist.  These ingredients include; 1) a client executive that has the personality to affect organizational change, 2) the potential of a major economic benefit for the client, 3) a style match of the consultant to the culture of the client organization and 4) solid gains beyond just your fee, for you, the consultant.

The Executive Personality Factor:

Early in their careers consultants learn that project success is rarely generated solely… Read more

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The Biggest Sales Myth

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 A sure bet on what sales people believe…

One of the first topics commonly included in sales training programs and books is a discussion of “Sales Myths”.  Over the years I have heard a number of these myths and have my own favorite set of a half-dozen or so that we use in our sales training program. 

 The myth that is particularly revealing is implied in this question we ask to sales people:

How many of you have ever lost to an inferior offering?

When I ask this, I always accompany it with a warning that it’s a trick question. In spite of the warning, a nearly unanimous show of hands is the response. 

That’s when the trap closes.

It’s all about perspective

The truth is that you never lose to an… Read more

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Diagnosing Stalled Sales

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 

When the machine is down

You have probably heard the story, in one variation or another, about the stay-at-home Dad whose washing machine broke early one wash day. Realizing that certain members of the family were down to their last set of socks he quickly ran to the internet and found someone that could come right out and repair it. In a very short time the technician arrived and was escorted to the laundry room where he inspected the machine. After just a very few moments, he stooped down, removed a small rubber mallet from his tool bag and quickly and solidly whacked the machine in the lower right side with the hammer – without leaving a scratch or a dent. The machine immediately began to hum, fill with water, and run through the wash cycle. The technician handed the… Read more

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The Need for Asset Optimization Discipline

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Jerry Vieira

 

When the going gets tough …  

… most business executives cut expenses.  Consultant services are among the first to go.  In tough economic times we consultants too-frequently hear some variation of, “Your proposal is great, but we simply don’t have the cash at this time to move ahead with it”.  And lest you consider this blog posting an appeal to businessmen to hire consultants, let me assure you right-out, it is not.  It is an appeal to businessmen to adopt an asset and investment optimization discipline and thus create a powerful force for growth, in both good and bad economic times.

By asset optimization I mean a process for assuring that every dollar of cash, every employee and every hour of time is aligned and consistently targeted at the best possible opportunity for growth – and if it isn’t,… Read more

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