The old ritual of reading the morning paper is quietly dying, replaced by web surfing.  Online activity now sees a huge spike beginning at 6 a.m. each day as people wake up and plug in, checking e-mail, Facebook, weather, traffic, school calendars, shopping and more.  Texting takes off in the morning as well – morning…

Here’s an actual Facebook message we received this week.  “Saw a bank billboard today with the words: ‘Your Money Matters To Us’ on it.  Now first, that’s just wrong thinking to me.  Your DREAMS matter to us; Your HOME matters; Your SUCCESS matters to us, etc…right?  Not a cold, carllous, ‘your MONEY matters’!  To top…

A blogger recently used that phrase, and it seemed timely – and timeless.  When it comes to marketing your business, you have to let go of any devotion to (or aversion to) any particular medium.  Whatever works is the best tool to use.  It might be something on the leading edge of Web 2.0, or…

“What’s wrong?”  It’s one of the most powerful questions in the English language.  Now add three more words: “What’s wrong with our service?”  Most business leaders could easily learn what their companies are not doing well.  But if they ask, they have to do something about the answer, and few look forward to that.  So…

Most people who were around in the 1980s remember the New Coke fiasco.  What you may not recall is why it happened.  Pepsi was gaining ground with its “Pepsi Challenge” blind taste tests.  So Coke worked on a new formula until it found one that beat Pepsi in taste tests, then launched it as New…

“You do not get,” the scripture declares, “because you do not ask.”  So try this.  Look at everything that constitutes your marketing – website, brochure, advertising, social media presence, etc.  Does each one ask the prospect to do something?  Not enable them – ask them?  If not, why not?  Isn’t that what you want?  If…

The fastest way to become known as a wonderful conversationalist is to get people to relax and talk abut themselves and their interests.  You may end up saying very little, but they’ll remember that they had a lovely conversation with you.  This is vital in sales.  Most salespeople spend far too much time worrying about…

It’s a sad statistic that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.  But other than divorce lawyers, rarely does anyone consider the impact of this disappointing trend on business.  It suggests that more checking accounts get opened, more appliances get sold – a lot of duplicate purchases and transactions are made as couples set…

One benefit of the surge in online media is that it’s never been easier to ask consumers what they think.  Why does this matter?  Because too often, we make changes in the way we do business because it benefits the organization.  What if we could find out what our customers want, and restructure around that? …

Most companies make a lot of small contributions to various charities during a given year.  But what if every business picked a single nonprofit whose cause meshed well with their business, then created a program to involve customers and generate support for that charity?  There are plenty of examples.  Kellogg set up a page on…