The Invisible Touch Key #3 : Packaging
I've been writing about Harry Beckwith's book The Invisible Touch. I mentioned how Beckwith looks at four key areas for the marketing of services businesses. In previous articles I've written about how Price and Brand affects the perception of your service. This...
Expanding Your Business The Ansoff Way
At work today I was looking at ways we could grow our product range and I found myself using a tool called the Ansoff matrix. When I was doing my MBA a few years ago I came across this concept in one of the marketing subjects and found it useful and have used it ever...
The Invisible Touch – Key #2 : Brand
photo credit: kevindooley Last week I wrote about Harry Beckwith's book The Invisible Touch. I mentioned how Beckwith looks at four key areas for the marketing of services businesses. In last week's article I wrote about how Price affects the perception of your...
The Invisible Touch – Key #1 : Price
photo credit: mangee I've been reading The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith. I like Beckwith's books - he's one of the few writers around who writes specifically for those of us who sell services. In the book he looks at four keys to selling a service: Price...
Recurring Revenue for Your Business
photo credit: SideLong Jamie Harrop had a post a few days ago about charging clients a fixed monthly fee for the web / design / maintenance work he does for them. You can read his post here. In my business we do something similar for some clients - charging a...
Dan Gilbert – Exploring the Frontiers of Happiness
Alan Weiss featured this link on his blog - Dan Gilbert Exploring The Frontiers of Happiness Dan Gilbert has this excellent presentation on his exploration of happiness. It's a fascinating look at how we think about things - sometimes in a very irrational manner. It...
Thoughts on Value
I've been thinking about the concept of value - what do clients see as being valuable in the services we offer. In the financial planning world, I've seen a lot of planners who still feel that sending regular statements to clients is valuable. If the clients already...
Thoughts About Christmas Marketing
So it's getting close to Christmas and I've been looking around at the different marketing messages I'm seeing. Here's a few observations. Be Prepared All the major retailers prepare for Christmas months in advance. In your business, how far ahead do you plan? ...
What to do about GM and how we can learn from it
A few of the blogs I read have talked about the problems facing GM. Seth had a few comments in a post titled "What To Do About Detroit". In it, he talks about the concept of having hundreds of car manufacturers, leading to increased competition and innovation. ...
The Pool Shop
Does your business make it easy for clients to do business with you? Are there things you could do better to make your business more customer-friendly? At home, we have a swimming pool. Here in Australia, we're coming to the start of summer so we've taken the winter...