Blog entries

That's Something to Get Excited About

Kate Dunn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:20:14 +0100

We met with one of our clients last week, a small liberal arts college. Their solution is up and running and we started our monthly results review meetings. The purpose of these sessions is to review the results, isolate best practices thus far and develop recommendations for things we can do differently so the results can continuously improve. I love this process for a lot of reasons. Here are a few:

The world is changing rapidly. What marketers did for the last 50 years is not what they will do in the next 50. What sales people did for the lRead More...

Authenticity is King

Kate Dunn — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:11:50 +0100

There's a DIG Marketing Minute this week about the importance of content in helping prospective customers and donors find you via the internet. It is content that fuels an effective SEO and social media strategy. Great content helps position your sales force as experts and helps your customers overcome their challenges, which minimizes attrition and increases profitability.

So content is critical to success in today's world...but so is authenticity. If the social media world Read More...

Sales Rules

Kate Dunn — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:58:43 +0100

Selling Power Magazine CEO, Gerhard Gschwandter, believes the world will have 15 Million fewer sales people by the year 2020. So, take a look around the bullpen and try to figure out which 3 of the 18 sales reps will still be in sales in eight short years.

Here are some characteristics of those who won’t be around: They…

… Haven’t read a non-fiction book sincRead More...

Is Anybody Listening?

Kate Dunn — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:45:39 +0100

My weekends are exhausting! No kidding. My husband went to see my son's team, the Davidson Wildcats, play the College of Charleston Cougars. Someday I will write a lot about the college baseball experience but today I'm in a different place. With my husband out of town, I was left to shuttle the other two offspring around. Saturday was filled with a pitching lesson, gymnastic team practice, a trip to Target and a few hundred loads of laundry. Sunday included a trip to VirRead More...

In Search of the Silver Bullet

Kate Dunn — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:57:06 +0100

Here’s the Wikipedia definition for silver bullet:
The term has been adopted into a general metaphor; "silver bullet" refers to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technological development or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem.

Daily I interact with people who think there is some sliver bullet to marketing. They fall into two or perhaps three gRead More...

DIG MiniView Part 3 with Scott Goldberg, Divisional Vice President Sales of Retirement Services ...

Kate Dunn — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:13:04 +0100

Click here to listen.

Topics covered in part three:

The Sales Role During Implementation

Front Line Sales vs. Senior Management

B2B and B2C Sales Roles

The Importance of Sales

DIG MiniView Part 2 with Scott Goldberg, Divisional Vice President Sales of Retirement Services ...

Kate Dunn — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:01:25 +0100

Click here to listen.

Topics covered in part two:

Selling in the New Millennium

The Role of Business Acumen in a Complex Sale

Successful Integration of Marketing and Sales

Success Criteria for Marketing Campaign from the Sales Side

DIG MiniView with Scott Goldberg, Divisional Vice President Sales of Retirement Services at ADP

Kate Dunn — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:38:24 +0100

Click here to listen.

Topics Covered:

The path to senior management

Lessons learned as a new rep carried into management roles

Key aspects of successful compensation plans

Role of training in sustained sales success

Management's role in the turnaround of poor sales performers

The importance of subject matter expertise

WhatTheyThink.com Webinar: Trends in Digital Printing

Kate Dunn — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:11:19 +0100

If you missed it, here's the link to a recorded version of the webinar.

If you missed yesterday's @WhatTheyThink webinar featuring #AppForum11 Track Chairs see it here.

We had over 450 people register for this presentation!

Organizations Need Fuel

Kate Dunn — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:52:33 +0100

I have a problem with most diets...

They expect you to eat regularly. I don't. Most days I don't even think about food until I hit the back door, which sometimes is close to 8 pm depending on the kid's schedules. Most working days I consume one meal and like 6,000 cups of coffee. Everybody tells me that eating one meal a day is bad, everybody tells me I've ruined my metabolism. I understand that my body needs fuel at regular intervals to work optimally. I just don't thRead More...

The Business Kitchen Table

Kate Dunn — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:47:23 +0100

I was working with a client today who is trying to come up with a positioning statement to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They are in an industry where, unfortunately, most companies look a lot alike from the customer’s perspective. I asked the owner and one of the salesmen to articulate for me what it would feel like for one of their customers to leave them and go to a competitor. They answered that challenge by giving me a list of what equipment they had and services thRead More...

That Wasn’t Easy

Kate Dunn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:57:21 +0100

Last Friday I realized I needed a projection screen for an event on Saturday night. I checked the Internet before leaving the office to confirm Staples carried them and headed off to the nearest one to pick it up. I had exactly 20 minutes to execute this mission. I quickly found the area in the store and located a display box meant to symbolize the actual item that is too bulky for retail shelves. I picked up a few more items for the office and headed to check out. This is where it gRead More...

Conditions of Employment

Kate Dunn — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:09:24 +0100

I spoke with a company today who is in the process of providing training to their sales team. Margins have been shrinking in this industry for years due the commoditization of the product and increased competition. This trend was exacerbated by the recession and many sales reps have seen their incomes drop anywhere from 30% to 50% in the last few years. The management team decided to spend a bundle on training to help the sales team learn to position their products as value genRead More...

Pt 3 of Dig MiniView with former VP of Marketing, Katie Gilstrap

Kate Dunn — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:57:45 +0100

The former VP of Marketing for fastest growing community bank on the east coast discusses what she has learned and how marketing is changing.

Click here to listen.

Agencies vs. Marketing Service Providers, What's the diff?

Kate Dunn — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:41:30 +0100

Terms pop up and are adopted in the business world and often there is not a clear understanding of what they mean. Join Kate Dunn for the final part in her DIG MiniView with Devin Voorsanger, VP of Agency Services and Business Development as her discusses the difference between agencies and businesses calling themselves marketing service providers.

Click here to listen

The Un-Amtrak, Unexpected Customer Service

Kate Dunn — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:02:05 +0100

A new survey exploring attitudes and preferences toward customer service conducted in the U.S. and around the world found that 61% of those surveyed will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service.

On the flip side, only 37% of those surveyed believe that companies have increased their focus on providing quality service. Another 27% feel businesses have not changed their atRead More...