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Happy New Year to you!
Perhaps you've already given some thought to your your new year's
resolutions. For me, coming up with a good new year's resolution was
simple...it was something that I started in mid-2002 and will continue in
2003.
Do whatever it takes to achieve success. For me, this has meant
spending a considerable amount of time outside my personal comfort zone and
it's been an interesting challenge. As a result, 2002 was a year of
tremendous personal growth...and the business has grown too!
So I'm adopting this theme as my new year's resolution for 2003. Try it
on...you'll see that it provides an interesting context for determining what
you should do on a day-to-day basis.
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For better results, spend less! |
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Speaking of business...
You may remember the days of $200K marketing campaigns with
fondness...spending money on activities because they "seemed" right, or
because you heard that other companies had conducted similar activities.
You and I both know that those days are gone. Today, for many
companies $200K may represent a significant portion of their entire
marketing budget, and they're limited to spending no more than a
fraction of this on any one activity.
So here's a bit of good news. It's easier to get great results from a
sales or marketing campaign with a small budget. In our experience, when
a company spends $20K or $5K...or less...on a marketing or sales
campaign, they're pretty focused on "getting it right."
Rather than hoping that the law of large numbers will make up for a
lack of attention to details, for campaigns of this size, companies
focus on the details and the process. In doing so, the ROI, the
percentage return on the activity, and in many cases, the absolute
dollar return is higher than for better funded campaigns.
Spend $2500 on a direct mail campaign, and you'll make sure that every
single piece goes to a qualified prospect. You'll also make sure that
each piece is followed up within four or five days by a sales rep, and
that the resulting information gets into the corporate SFA program.
So do yourself a favor...ask your manager to cut your budget. You'll get
better results! |
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Upcoming Revenue BootCamp |
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At our last Revenue BootCamp, we explored a number of highly
cost-effective methods of building business. These included:
- Targeting fewer prospects. Counterintuitive, but it works.
As you spread yourself more thinly over a broader range of prospects
in more verticals, you lose leverage. If you've never dealt with a CIO
of a hospital before, how do you establish credibility? On the other
hand, if you can cite your experiences with five other hospital
installations, you've got a chance of getting them to pay attention.
- Test, test, test. Take nothing for granted. One Revenue
BootCamp attendee indicated that his company evaluates the performance
of their corporate website on a quarterly basis, and over the past
year or so has removed a lot of non-essential content. In this case,
less is definitely more.
- Give up the price game. In this difficult economy, it's
"easy" to try to win a deal on the basis of price...but even if
you do win a deal you lose. You've just positioned yourself as the
loss leader. And most of the time the prospect is just playing you
against the competition. Let someone else be that sucker.
Our next Revenue BootCamp is scheduled for January 22nd, and as
before, we're limiting attendance to a maximum of 25 senior sales,
marketing and other company management.
So if you're interested in attending the Revenue BootCamp, please
visit our
website for more information about the event or to register online.
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Upcoming topics |
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In our next issue we'll continue to explore tactical activities that can
help you to drive the growth of your company. And to help us with
future topics...what are the key marketing and sales issues facing your
organization?
Talk with us about your key issues... » |
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Links |
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Upcoming Events - An exclusive listing of the "best" events in
the Boston area. Make sure you're networking with the "right" people to
help you grow your business.
Subscription Information - To modify your subscription
information or to send a sample newsletter to a colleague.
Recent Articles - Recent Acelera Group articles on sales,
marketing and partnering issues.
About
the Acelera Group - For more information on the Acelera Group
and how we assist technology companies in growing their business more
quickly and profitably.
Contact Us - To inquire about how we can assist your
organization. Or feel free to call us at 617.737.7100. |
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