04 - Sales & Marketing

Making us Stickier

Posted in 03 - Product Development, 04 - Sales & Marketing, Book Review, Word of Mouth Marketing on July 10th, 2010 by Paul McArdle1 Comment

Over the 10+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve been lucky enough to gradually stumble upon a formula that provides us our own measure of stickiness with clients, and potential clients, in the electricity market:
1)  We have products, such as
NEM-Watch, that have proven sticky products (the manifestation of ideas) in their own right
2)  The way our clients perceive us (in terms of “making the electricity market understandable”) has proven to be understood by many (though not all) people who come into contact with us – as we have been told by those who responded to our recent survey
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3)  In addition, we’ve had some (though far from all) of our communications prove to be fairly sticky.

Given where our bus is headed, we have a keen interest in building on this base to make ourselves much stickier in future – in the above ways, and more


1)  Binary Review

It’s for this reason that this book was of great interest to me…

The Book

What we thought

Made-to-Stick

“Made to Stick
- Why some ideas Survive and others Die”

by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
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… and it did not disappoint

Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

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We’d like your input – how do you perceive us?

Posted in Positioning on June 7th, 2010 by Paul McArdle5 Comments

This may be the first time you have read an article posted on our “Behind the Scenes” blog – or you might be a regular reader.

Whatever is the case for you, you will have formed some kind of impression about our company, and the type of B2B software services we provide.

As such, we’d like you to tell us what you think of us, as this will help us to continue to develop and enhance the services we provide – now into our 2nd decade of service.

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A few more thoughts, about Positioning

Posted in Event Review, Positioning on June 1st, 2010 by Paul McArdle1 Comment

As noted previously, we’re continuing the ongoing Autopsy 2 process to give some consideration about how we’re perceived in the marketplace, and (to the extent that it is different from how we wish to be perceived) what we need to do to move this perception.

Hence, it was with interest that I rocked up to today’s Brisbane session of the “Thought Leaders” breakfast series held by the AIM.

Perhaps I’m not too quick on the uptake, but it was not until the breakfast had started that I realised I had been lured into a session that was part real information, and part infomercial for a consulting/coaching firm that runs by the name of (you guessed it…) Thought Leaders.

Today our presenter was Darren Hill, on of their mentors.

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Positioning – the battle for your mind

Posted in Book Review, Positioning on May 21st, 2010 by Paul McArdleBe the first to comment

I first read this book about 10 years ago. Re-read recently it to refresh my memory of some of the core concepts expounded by the authors – as it is very topical for the company, where we are at presently, and with several important decisions to be made.


1)  Binary Review

This one is a pretty easy read, with good insights (and many anecdotes).

The Book

What we thought

Positoning

“Positioning – the battle for your mind”

by Al Ries & Jack Trout
Thumbs up

Very topical for us

Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

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Marketing is sick, Sales is dead

Posted in 04 - Sales & Marketing, Event Review on March 3rd, 2010 by Paul McArdle5 Comments

Food for thought, this morning, when I trundled along to a breakfast event hosted by the AMI, featuring Dr Don E Schultz of Agora fame, and author of a number of books (none of which, it would seem, we have previously added to our shopping cart).

Don’s main thesis is that:

1)  The “modern” approach to marketing emerged in parallel with the industrial age of society, and hence is based on similar principles (e.g. a Taylorist view of the world – which leads into a “command and control” focus internally, and a top-down mentality in terms of push-based marketing to “consumers” (how I hate that term).

2)  Given that we’re progressing from this Industrial Age into what’s been termed by a number of people as a “Customer Age”, Don’s view is that marketing also needs a transformation.

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What’s Required of our “GM for Marketing & Sales”

Posted in 04 - Sales & Marketing, Role of GM M&S on January 4th, 2010 by Paul McArdle5 Comments

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This post is an incomplete work-in-progress (current issue posted on 4th January).  Check back later for updates! read more »

Vision (part 1) – Our clients

Posted in 03 - Product Development, 04 - Sales & Marketing, Company Results, Vision on January 1st, 2010 by Paul McArdle12 Comments

I posted, early in January, about where our bus is headed (you might refer to this as our Vision).  I have progressively refined this, since then, to improve the clarity of this core message.

For those who are interested, I have also started posting more details about some aspects of this Vision – as falling under any of these core headings.  This post provides more details under the first heading.

As part of the navel-gazing we have been doing recently (to coincide with our 10th birthday, which is rapidly approaching) we have been contemplating this question.  For us, there are plenty of opportunities (some mutually exclusive – at least for a company our size).

Being New Year’s Day, I thought it would be of interest to you to post a few comments about where our bus is headed into the future. Call this our very own New Year’s resolution.

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Book Review: The Anatomy of Buzz

Posted in Book Review, Buzz Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing on December 12th, 2009 by Paul McArdleBe the first to comment

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Perhaps more through good luck then good management, in our early days we put together the NEM-Watch product, which tends to be a product that “sells itself” – by generating a form of buzz.

Note that when I speak of buzz here, I do it within the framework of the industry in which we operate, which tends to have a staid image, as I discussed here.   Certainly our successes are not going to make it to the “Top Viral 100” list, if there is such a beast.

As a company with a small team of staff and a large number of clients, and aspirations to grow our number of clients further over the next few years, I have a keen interest in understanding how we can use principles of buzz to assist us in building up the profile of all of our products.

1)  Binary Review

Hence I found this book and excellent read.

The Book

What we thought

AnatomyofBuzz

“The Anatomy of Buzz”

by Emmanuel Rosen
Thumbs up

Thought-provoking

Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way.  If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.  Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you…

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