Here’s why so many marketing and sales messages fail to deliver.
The average person is hit with the equivalent of more than 34 Gb (gigabytes) of information in a single day.
That’s more than enough info to max out my 64 Gb iPad in less than two days. In order to deal with this onslaught of input, the brain engages in some amazing mental gymnastics.
What messages cut through the noise?
Continue Reading For Greater Return From Your BizDev, Sales and Marketing Messages, Do These Three Things
I’ve spent the last couple of decades believing the surest way for any team, tribe, enterprise or community to realize its mission is to identify and build around a set of shared values.
The premise is simple. A group will rarely agree on everything. The identification of a set of common values provides a framework against which strategy, investments and actions can be tested.
Does a particular direction run counter to shared values? If so, it threatens the mission, and should be abandoned or reconstituted.
Shared values are the fabric of culture.
But it turns out I have been cutting the conversation short
Strong groups (of any ilk) intuitively understand that alignment around what we share is the initial hurdle to be cleared in pursuit of any goal. Shared values unite us.
Continue Reading What Do We Value Most?
Succession planning for many firms is what the preparation of a Last Will and Testament is to a majority of individuals. Who wants to take time today to consider the (distant) end to something?
It is easy to move both of these future focused opportunities to the back burner — until urgency takes over.
Continue Reading It’s Time To Rethink Succession Planning
The question I get more than any other from new (and sometimes, not so new) acquaintances — professional and personal — is “what was it like giving a TED talk?”.
That’s easy to answer.
Sure…standing on a TED stage was exciting. It has opened doors, instigated conversations and most significantly, provided a platform for a topic I deem important.
But the TEDx experience had a profound and lasting impact on the way I think about, prepare for and attempt to engage in any opportunity to convey an idea.
Continue Reading Three Lessons From My TEDx Experience
If you secretly fear your approach to business development is underperforming, you are not alone. In fact, you’re among a majority of law, accounting and consulting professionals and firms I know.
I know there is little comfort in numbers in this case; but this prompts a question: when will the lack of results from the way it’s always been done finally push rethinking the conversation?
Continue Reading Will Your Investments In Business Development Pay Off?
For a long time I bought the idea that some individuals simply don’t have what
Continue Reading Not Everyone Can Be A Rainmaker: A Debunking
Strategic planning involves identifying specific goals and defining the action steps necessary to realize those goals. The squishier the goals (a lofty business term, I know) the more difficult it is to map goal-oriented actions. This approach to planning a critical initiative had better come with a hefty dose of luck.
Continue Reading A Better Roadmap for Strategic Lateral Pursuits
Anyone building a professional service practice appreciates the value of relationships. A portfolio of dynamic connections is what fills a pipeline with new leads, referral sources and recurring engagements.
But staying in touch — creating and maintaining the kind of visibility that places you in the right place at the right time — can be a challenge.Continue Reading 7 Tips For Professionals On Maintaining Visibility And Nurturing Relationships With Prospects
Leaders face a tall task in planning for 2021. With hopeful light at what appears to be the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, it’s going to be tempting to try to make up for traction lost in 2020 in an effort to get back to “normal.”
This temptation is likely to result in multiple “strategic” projects and extra-long to-do-lists.Continue Reading The Trick To Strategic Planning For 2021
PLEASE NOTE — Fair warning — this is an opinion post. The intent, as always, is to offer fodder for productive conversation; it is, however, less about business development, marketing and communication, and much more about what we value. As always, I am indebted to you for your time and interest. — EF
It is one thing to subscribe to a position because of a belief in alignment with deeply held values. Or to adopt a platform based on affinity for a cause. Or even to advocate based on an assumption that historical roots run deeper than individual predilections.Continue Reading What Do We Value Most?
