Archive for the ‘Finding Efficiencies’ Category
Buy Me….Now!
Marshal Cohen has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Fortune and Time Magazine. He’s also been a guest on The Today Show, CNN and ABC World News. As Chief Industry Analyst for the NPD Group, he provides critical advice and insights into why people make the purchase decisions that they do.
Do you know why prospects purchase your products/services? I mean, do you really understand what’s behind their thinking, their feelings, the obstacles they have to overcome, the choices and trade-offs they make? Because most entrepreneurs experience a disconnect between their sell cycle and their customers’ buying cylce, Marshal Cohen set out to answer these questions in a succinct and practical way in his compelling new book, Buy Me!
For BusinessCast 149, Robert and I sat down with Marshall, the Chief Industry Analyst from the NPD Group — one of North America’s leading market research and consumer marketing firms. Marshal gives real-life insights that will help you:
- Understand the buying process of your current/future customers
- Shift buyers’ attention from your competitors’ offerings to yours
- Move buyers’ attention from features to value
Whether you’re focused on consumers or businesses, listen to BusinessCast 149 and you will gain valuable insights that will help you to re-tool your products/services and can beat out your competition.
Managing the Numbers
“FINANCIAL NUMBERS“. Even the mention of the phrase can frustrate the most intrepid entrepreneur. The sheer abundance and sources of critical financially-relevant data in (and around a) business is often difficult to identify, never mind interpret. But, entrepreneurs need to acquire some dexterity in financial numbers to be successful. So where do you begin? After all, you’re running your business, looking for growth opportunities, putting out fires, establishing strategic partnerships and constantly updating your business strategies.
That’s where our special guest comes in for BusinessCast episode #139. Intuit’s senior marketer Barb Anderson provides insight on the first step of successfully working with financial data: managing the numbers. Barb taps into a wide community of growth-focused companies of all shapes, sizes, ages and industries. She shares very practical tips on how to get a handle on your financial data so that you can make better and faster decisions.
Complimenting Barb’s insights on how to manage the numbers, check out BusinessCast episode #98 — Financial Intelligence — where we interview the author of the book for quickly getting comfortable with interpreting financial data. Together, these two episodes give you insights and resources that will increase your financial skills and confidence.
Getting On Board
Have you ever wondered how you can effectively tap into advisory boards? After all, they are powerful sources of business, networks and more importantly, practical strategic and operational advice.
That’s why for BusinessCast #135 – Getting On Board – Robert and I sit down with a dynamic entrepreneur who has sat on several advisory boards as well as been a recipient of advisory boards’ important insights.
Our guest, Greig Clark is founder of the nationally successful company, College Pro Painters. Greig answers questions from two key perspectives: (i) from the board member perspective; and (ii) from the perspective of an entrepreneur seeking advice and support.
Greg shares his rare experiences by addressing several critical questions head-on, including:
- What benefits can you expect from working with an advisory board?
- What criteria can you use when choosing advisory board members?
- When have you outgrown your advisory board?
- What benefits can you achieve by being an advisory board member?
- What challenges will you face as an advisory board member?
Listen to BusinessCast #135 – Getting On Board and you’ll know how to get the most from your current and future advisory boards.
Q&A — Part 2
Over the last few weeks Robert and I have been collecting and consolidating the hundreds of questions that get sent to us each week via email, phone, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.
But, rather than answer all the questions ourselves, for BusinessCast episode #134, we brought in two of the leading trainers of Canada’s growth companies — Andrew Patricio and Roger Pierce — the founders of BizLaunch. Together, the four of us answer questions spanning Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Finance, Operations and Technology.
Listen to BusinessCast episode #134 and chances are we’ll be answering questions that you frequently face. Also, listen to our recent episode Q&A — Part 1 where we posed a host of other commonly asked questions to our very special guest, Peter Thomas, the founder of Century 21 Realtors.
Finding, Hiring and Motivating the Right People
Whenever Robert and I sit down and talk with entrepreneurs about their historic, current and future successes, one theme constantly emerges: entrepreneurs need strong teams. And that means they are always looking for ways to optimize how they find, hire and motivate staff.
That’s why for BusinessCast episode #127, we sat down with an entrepreneur renowned for effectively recruiting and retaining exceptional employees — in an industry where people are highly skilled, in great demand and highly mobile.
Chris Carder, President of ThinData, A Transcontinental Company, shares with us his approach to, and practical tips for, finding, hiring and motivating high performing professionals — people who will help you grow your business.
Also download a one-pager that describes how Chris and his team of executives retain and engage enthusiastic employees — drawn from ThinData’s years of growing to be one of Canada’s leading marketing companies.