Many businesses approach their company literature and website as if they were simply repositories of information. And that’s why they’re so easy to ignore. Every marketing vehicle exists to sell. Sure, there may be important information you have to convey. But rather than simply laying it out there at its most dry and factual, why…

One of the reasons that so much marketing material looks the same is that we expect that it should. A bank brochure or a college viewbook or an annual report has a certain visual “vocabulary” that we’re all used to, and projects tend to be designed toward that vocabulary. That opens a door for any…

One of the toughest things about selling is starting from zero every time.  But what if there was a group of prospects who already know you and what you do?  There is.  Your exes.  Think about customers or clients you’ve lost over the years.  They probably left for a variety of reasons.  But circumstances change. …

Not that long ago, making a movie about a comic book superhero was risky.  A handful did well, but most fizzled.  Then a funny thing happened.  Somebody remembered that people go to movies to see a story.  Suddenly, compelling storylines, well-crafted scripts and A-list actors started turning Batman and Iron Man into not just blockbusters,…

Recent research shows that prospects are now about 60% through the decision-making process before they ever talk to a salesperson.  How do they get that far?  Online, of course.  What that means is that your website is either making or breaking your chances of winning a customer long before your salespeople get a shot.  And…

Recently, Jeff Lynne released an album which consisted entirely of new versions of hits he’d written for his old band, Electric Light Orchestra.  Even though the originals were hugely popular, Lynne felt, after decades in the business, that he could do them better now.  This poses a huge question for your business.  Can you see…

In 1977, Peter Lynch became head of an obscure Fidelity Investments mutual fund called the Magellan Fund, with $18 million in assets. By the time he stepped away in 1990, the fund had grown to more than $14 billion in assets, averaging a 29.2% annual return.  Lynch famously did a lot of his research by…

“If at first, the idea is not absurd,” observed Albert Einstein, “then there is no hope for it.”  This is especially true with marketing — and why so little of it is truly remarkable.  Powerful marketing is almost always unrecognizable as such at first.  Dig into the history of almost any great ad campaign, and…

We often want to know why the prospects who didn’t buy from us made that decision?  But the flaw in that question lies in its answer.  If they say it was price, we think we need to lower our prices.  But the truth is, we don’t know what would have made them buy from us…

As change continues to be the only constant, one result has been that industries that have been around for decades have disappeared or are in danger of doing so.  It’s safe to say that few businesses are safe from this threat.  So ask yourself two giant questions.  First, what kind of business or breakthrough would…