The Sales Funnel Fallacy
The sales funnel, often depicted in materials promising a path to riches, has profound flaws. It implies two misleading concepts: Gravity: The notion that business arrives at your door via discrete steps in a gravity-driven funnel is nonsensical. No...
An old marketer’s explanation of the ‘Law of Purchase Duplication’
Against my better judgment, I recently engaged in a conversation about the 'Law of Purchase Duplication' with a young marketer. He seemed quite convinced that he was delivering a groundbreaking insight to a marketing dinosaur. In essence, the law argues...
‘How to harness the power of real time feedback’
Real-Time Feedback is the objective of any effective performance management system. We instinctively knew how to generate and leverage feedback as kids. Remember that cricket scoresheet a parent kept during a Saturday morning game? It could just as easily have...
Two drivers of the critical balance between data and gut.
Have you ever been in a situation where you just 'know' a course of action is right? No data, no detailed scenario planning, you just know. I have. Where does that confidence come from, and is it justified? Have you distinguished between genuine intuition,...
4 simple rules amateur writers often break.
Marketing is about stories, and most stories start with an event, situation, or circumstances recorded in narrative form. Being a marketer, I write frequently. Some of my musings are published on the StrategyAudit blog and often elsewhere. I also keep...
Pareto’s 80:20 Principle Evolves to the 20:30:50 Rule in Marketing
Pareto's 80:20 principle applies universally, though its proportions vary across markets and circumstances. While media choices have proliferated over the past 25 years, the core drivers of consumer behaviour remain largely unchanged. However, brand loyalty has eroded...
45 years of marketing experience in 6 simple statements.
‘Marketing’ is a word used and misused widely. Perhaps that is because there are so many definitions around, including my own: ‘The generation, building, protection and leveraging of competitive advantage’ After 45 years of marketing, I have gained some...
A marketers explanation of Economic Value Added.
Economic Value Added, EVA, is another of those annoying acronyms accountants tend to use to confuse simple marketers. Therefore, it is a term marketers must understand if they are to hold their own in the boardroom. EVA is a calculation used to measure the net...
Four basic strategies to maximise the effectiveness of your marketing investment.
'Marketing' & 'Communication' are two words that should not be compounded. They have entirely different meanings. The confusion of meaning amongst quasi marketers is the beginning of wasted marketing budgets. It is also the source of much of the dumb...
Why you should be up front with price.
Imagine the difference. You go into a sales call and the first item on the agenda is the price. The potential buyer knows that the price stated is the price, without variation. The whole conversation therefore is about quality, delivery, and all the...