by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
The baby boomers have been setting consumer trends for half a century now, and as they move through their 50s and into retirement, they will continue to do so. We are likely to see a significant change in consumer behavior for this demographic – consumption patterns...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 25, 2016 | Media Relations
When the news media come knocking on your company’s door, it often represents a golden opportunity to get your message across in a very credible way to your customers, your investors, your employees and your potential partners. Are you ready to seize the moment?...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Market Research, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategies
Metrics are an essential element of modern marketing. The numbers related to the processes of a business can be useful in a variety of ways, and one of their most important uses is measuring the success or otherwise of a marketing plan. Even small businesses can now...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Networking
Owners of all kinds of small businesses are learning the value of networking. There’s a growing realization that doing well in business is often a matter of looking around and seeing what others are doing right and wrong – and doing the right things as often as...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Networking
Every time we attend a business function such as a training course, a trade show or an annual conference we have the opportunity to network. In fact, most of us network frequently, although we may not think of it exactly that way. Networking is the social part of...
by Chris Hunter | Feb 24, 2016 | Internet Searching, Market Research
To try and attract just the information you want means appreciating 4 broad areas: 1. How to construct a question 2. How search engines work 3. How to evaluate what you find 4. When to call it quits, (or not even bother starting!) and look for an alternative source...
by Chris Hunter | Apr 3, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
by Chris Hunter | Feb 20, 2016 | Internet Searching, Market Research
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
by Chris Hunter | Jan 17, 2016 | Direct Mail
by Chris Hunter | Nov 22, 2015 | Branding, Image, Marketing Plans
Business names are features of our urban landscape. We see them in lights on top of buildings, on billboards and over franchise outlets. Any time we pay attention to a particular business name, we trigger a set of memories and associations. If we have had good or bad...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 25, 2016 | Media Relations
by Chris Hunter | Dec 25, 2015 | Financial Ratios & Formulas, Pricing
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
Professional services firms have awakened to the need to market themselves as a means of acquiring new clients. However, once the client’s added to the list they’re too often simply “communicated with” rather than “marketed to”, and...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
Things are going well for your business. You and the team are busy taking orders and delivering services and no one has time for marketing. Then it happens – quietly, almost imperceptibly – sales slow and continue slowing for a month. Of course you’re concerned. ...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Marketing Strategies, Networking
Once you have customers you need to keep up the selling process to retain them and grow their business. One of the most effective ways to do this is to focus on the needs of customers through a process that is generally called “relationship marketing”. The...
by Chris Hunter | Apr 3, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
by Chris Hunter | Apr 3, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Pricing
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
Very informative presentation on how to make sure you’re getting the return from your company’s effort in social media outreach. Â Click the picture to view the slidedeck . . .
by Chris Hunter | Jan 23, 2016 | Market Research, Marketing Strategies
Trend-spotting is big money these days. If you can spot the “next big thing” you could be among the first to cash in on it. What’s even better is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to know what’s about to happen. Big companies...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 30, 2016 | General - Marketing, Selling Skills, Selling Skills
by Chris Hunter | Jan 30, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
If traditionally most business owners have focused their energy on selling a product, more and more are trying their hand at offering services rather than goods. Recent data shows that service firms – which offer expertise in areas as diverse as Web marketing,...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 4, 2016 | Advertising & Advertisements
Advertising is expensive. You’re buying space in a newspaper or magazine, airtime on radio or television, or some other medium to carry your message; how do you know it’s working? How do you know how well it’s working? Every time you run an...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 30, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
by Chris Hunter | Jan 23, 2016 | Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service Strategies, General - Marketing, Market Research
by Chris Hunter | Jan 14, 2016 | Coaching & Soft Skills, Interviews & Onboarding, Meetings, Selling Skills, Selling Skills
Carefully planned and executed, the business lunch can be a valuable tool for acquiring new business, gathering market intelligence, or increasing business from existing customers. It’s also a way of smoothing over little hiccups that occur from time to time in the...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Marketing Strategies
Case studies (or case histories as they’re sometimes called) are a highly effective way to promote a business. They can show how a product is used and what it can accomplish for the user. They can relate the history of a consulting assignment and detail the...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 21, 2016 | Market Research
Retail environments around the world are changing. The change is structural and irreversible, and it’s based on a shift to value as a purchasing goal. Retailers that offer what the consumer perceives as value will come out on top; those that can’t compete...
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
Every businessperson knows someone who claims to have made a fortune by “going online” with their business. Many organizations have successfully transitioned to trading on the Internet, but an equal or perhaps greater number have tried and failed....
by Chris Hunter | Jan 23, 2016 | Marketing Strategies
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
A marketing plan clarifies the key marketing elements of a business and maps out directions, objectives and activities for the business and its employees. The marketing plan draws on the broader perspectives outlined in a firm’s business plan. The business plan...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
by Chris Hunter | Jan 31, 2016 | Trade Shows
Trade shows are a part of every industry. They can sometimes seem to be expensive gabfests without a hard-core business purpose, or else expensive networking opportunities that take business owners and team members away from the office and chargeable hours. But used...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Networking
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans
by Chris Hunter | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategies
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Marketing Strategies
by Chris Hunter | Jan 17, 2016 | Direct Mail
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Marketing Strategies
by Chris Hunter | Jan 31, 2016 | Trade Shows
by Chris Hunter | Jan 24, 2016 | Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategies
Successful marketing is about planning, execution, and always a bit of luck. Sometimes this luck involves finding a “gateway” that leads to an entirely new area of marketing opportunities that hadn’t been previously explored. One of the classic...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Pricing
B2B marketing is never easy because you’re usually dealing with somebody that has costs very much in mind. However, even more important than getting something at the right price is making a purchase that delivers real business value. Value isn’t just about...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 23, 2016 | Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service Strategies, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Strategies
Executives from departments that don’t normally have interaction with customers — IT for example, have learned that getting the customer to tell them what the business should do makes it much easier for the business to justify the costs of doing it. As one...
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Coaching & Soft Skills, General - Marketing, Selling Skills, Selling Skills, Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
Everyone in business today has heard of the Internet and World Wide Web and most of us are wondering if we should get on the band wagon and have a website for our business. And, if so, just how do we go about it? This is the first article in our two-part series What...
by Chris Hunter | Feb 2, 2016 | Web Sites & E-Marketing - Part 2
Everyone in business today has heard of the Internet and World Wide Web and most of us are wondering if we should get on the band wagon and have a website for our business. And, if so, just how do we go about it? This is the second article in our two-part series What...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 26, 2016 | Networking
You’re terrible with names. You forget someone’s name within ten seconds of their introduction, and it embarrasses you. In fact, it’s possible you won’t even approach someone whose name you have forgotten. As a result, you will miss out on a...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 17, 2016 | General - Marketing, Marketing Strategies
Marketing methodologies developed back in the 1960s and 1970s are now so far out of date that they would bankrupt any business using them. In those earlier times marketing consisted largely of coming up with a showy, big-budget commercial and buying as much expensive...
by Chris Hunter | Jan 30, 2016 | Selling Skills, Selling Skills
Chris’ combination of academic credentials, career experience and temperament ideally suit his calling as a business development advisor. Clients say he has a mind for business and a heart for service.