Recently I was helping a client with her marketing strategy. After a couple of sessions what I had been saying really started to click with her. She realised that because she knows her business better than anyone else she is the best person to identify what makes it special.

She also appreciated that what she needs to address in her content material is to put into words what she actually...

In the pursuit of growth, business owners can not just rely on financial and control systems to underpin strong performance. However, these are two fundamental components of an integrated approach to successful business management.

 

To be truly successful a business must have high profit margins and be one of the lowest cost producers of its products or services relative to its competition....

From a theory point of view, consumer purchase decisions are usually based on marketing messages that attempt to establish and communicate a “value proposition” – people almost invariably buy for one reason and that is that they recognise value for money and are confident they will get the quality they expect.

It’s therefore essential that we understand what the value proposition...

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy?

Here are a few tips that might help you to measure, monitor and manage:

1 Analyse Your Sales &/or Fee Income. Hopefully there is a strong growth trend evident! As always, it’s important that you measure, monitor and manage, but be careful about what you measure. Some firms have a longer sales cycle than others...

In relation to the flowchart that I developed recently as a guide to assist the development of strategy formulation I have been asked to clarify, “what are some of the key strategic areas”?

There are several ways this question might be answered. Let me start by saying that there are many factors that can drive and influence the capacity of a business in pursuit of growth strategies. However,...

At Shellharbour on Tuesday 26 May, marketing expert Carolyn Stafford told economic gardening participants about a proven method of identifying where to focus marketing efforts for optimum results. 

 

Carolyn referred to it as the 7 Steps...

Leadership is critical when times get tough!

Planning the future of your business and making the right strategic decisions now in the light of past performance and your forward objectives can drive your business for growth as market conditions improve.

Now is the time to set a clear vision of where you are heading and to get your people fully engaged with team objectives. Do you set...

At the Boot Camp held on 6 May, program facilitator Bob Ashford questioned, “What characteristics does a business leader require for success?” In team format, participants discussed this issue and reported back their findings. The consensus of opinion was that leaders need at least 4 important capacities, namely:

A desire to undertake change; A clear picture of what you need to...

What’s the primary function of Client Relationship Management (CRM)?

Answer: Collecting and using information about customers and prospects. (Caution: there are customer privacy and data security considerations)

Why? Develop and cultivate the customer relationship with two goals in-mind: 1 Deliver value to the customer, and 2 create profit for the business

How?

Capture...