Blog

18
Jun

No Booth? No Problem.

For some of us, working a trade show without a booth is like walking a tightrope without a net-exciting and scary at the same time. A client who is making the leap-at least for one show at the end of this month-asked us to help train his people who were going to attend. The truth is that in some ways taking

Read more

11
Dec

‘Mad Money’ Mad for SXC on CNBC

We’ve been blogging a lot about our clients recently, but that’s OK. They deserve the recognition, and you deserve to know about how such excellent companies succeed. SXC Health Solutions, a client for which our consultative sales training and sales process development services helped make a $1 billion sale (see video on our home page), received several minutes of air

Read more

9
Dec

National Innovation Award Goes to Client CEO J. Lyell Clarke, III

J. Lyell Clarke, III, the president and CEO of our longtime client, Clarke Company, received the 2011 National Membership Leadership Award for Innovation from Vistage International at the group’s national convention on November 4. The Vistage Member Leadership Awards honor the inspiring business and community achievements of Vistage members who best exemplify the organization’s values and its six cultural imperatives of

Read more

9
Nov

Client Named #1 “Fastest Growing” by Fortune

Congratulations to SXC Health Solutions, a Productive Strategies client that Fortune Magazine recently ranked #1 on its 2011 “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list.  SXC management credits the key role that FOCIS, our consultative sales training course, played in the company’s recent rapid growth. (See “The Billion Dollar Sale” at https://productivestrategies.com/billion-dollar-sale.aspx.) FOCIS teaches the behaviors of the very best salespeople, the 20 percent

Read more

30
Sep

Invite a Response

My recent Productive Insights column, “Do Prospects Respond to Your Voice Mails and E-mails?” offered a number of ideas about how to answer “Yes!” to that question.  Now readers are responding to our column. One tack we haven’t taken ourselves but that might well work in some industries is to issue an invitation for a phone conversation via Outlook: Schedule an appointment

Read more

24
Aug

Where Is Clean Tech Headed?

Where Is ‘Clean Tech’ Headed? Where is clean tech headed? What, exactly, does it mean to you?  If you’d like to find out, stop by Midwest Clean Tech 2011 (September 14, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, www.midwestcleantech2011). Now in its fourth year, the event is worthy of attention, in part, because one of its goals is to demonstrate that the Midwest

Read more

2
Aug

How Much Are Legal Services Worth?

How much are legal services worth? If you’re an attorney, usually more than clients appreciate, right? That’s why pressure to lower fees is everywhere and assumes a variety of forms. Gaining prominence are auctions for legal services, reports  Patrick G. Lee in today’s Wall Street Journal.  Also called “reverse auctions or competitive bidding,” Lee explains, the tactic is used primarily by

Read more

2
Aug

Cost Reduction within Marketing and The Sales Process

Yes, there is pressure throughout firms today to reduce costs-and the sales department is not exempt. The paradox is that during slow times there is an even greater need for the work done by both sales and marketing. In an ideal world firms would increase their investments in lead generation so that new business development could offset business cycle weakness.

Read more

20
May

A Simple Way to Show You Care

By Don Minner, Senior Consultant When was the last time you thanked your customers for their business? I’m not talking about the “thank you” expected immediately after winning an order or assignment. I’m talking about the last time you proactively went out of your way to thank your customers for doing business with you. I would guess that it’s not

Read more

24
Apr

5 Reasons to Market with Social Media

By Don Minner If you’re still waiting for that social media “fad” to go away so you don’t have to apply it to your business, you can stop right now. It isn’t going away. While not all social media outlets are right for every company, most businesses will benefit from getting their feet wet and connecting to their current and

Read more