The Ansoff Matrix and the Financial Planning Business
One of the most popular articles I've written was about the Ansoff Matrix. The Ansoff Matrix is a tool a business can use to help come up with innovative ways to grow. It's divided into four quadrants and looks at the options of selling new or existing products to...
How many touches?
I heard a couple of speakers recently who run successful financial planning businesses in Australia. They spoke about a range of topics, but both mentioned how they have a schedule in place to ensure they can 'touch' their clients in a number of different ways...
Is there a better way?
At a recent work conference I heard a talk by Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson from www.schoolofthinking.org. He introduced a concept called CVS2BVS which I'll explain here. CVS refers to the Current View of the Situation. In a sense, it's your reality, how you perceive...
How do they know?
This blog is aimed at people in the professional services industry. Typically these people sell information or knowledge and the product can be somewhat intangible to the client. One of the big challenges in selling professional services relates to how you let your...
Things I’ve Read This Week
Seth has written a couple of thought provoking articles over the past week that I'll share here. The first one starts off with this text: Ever notice that most car specs focus on acceleration, not braking? It's more fun to focus on getting fast than it is on getting...
Thoughts On Service Standards
I've had some interesting experiences recently in my interactions with a couple of companies and their ideas of service standards. Example 1 I was doing some work for a client that required us to get some articles approved by an external compliance area. They were...
At The Resort
I'm at a work conference staying in a resort in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia. I've heard some great speakers today and there are more lined up tomorrow so over the next few weeks I'll blog about some of the things I've learnt. But today, I want to...
What I Learnt At the Dinner Table
The other night eating dinner we had an interesting experience which relates to running a business (it does....I promise). My youngest son is usually pretty slow in eating - generally he's the last to finish his evening meal. But the other night, things were...
Robert Middleton on Playing the Game
As a blogger on marketing for services businesses, I feel that one of my duties is to introduce my readers to other people who can help them. A bit like when someone tells you about a new band or movie, I think that there's some value in introducing my readers to...
The Invisible Touch – Key #4 : Relationships
I've been writing about some of the keys Harry Beckwith has in his book called The Invisible Touch. The final key, and the one he considers to be the most important, is that of Relationships. Beckwith makes the point that the other three keys - price, packaging and...