customer research
Shaping Prospect Behavior and The Art of the Reward
In this Moment of Clarity I compare the parallels of training service dogs and marketing. In both disciplines, consistency and the use of incentives or “rewards” drives results.
Read More »Brutal Transparency
What happens when my client’s customers tell me my client is a dick? Find out in this week’s Moment of Clarity.
Read More »Rob Balon’s other life. Why research is the key to successful marketing.
Read More »Don’t waste your customer’s time on pointless research
I’m a huge believer in polling your customers to uncover key insights into how they buy, what they think of my clients, how they evaluate similar suppliers, etc. In fact, most of my assignments start with customer phone interviews because the information uncovered during these conversations is priceless when it comes to developing a strategy that is truly relevant to the people who actually buy your products or services. Fundamental marketing. So why did I recently refuse a client’s request to make these critical calls? Have I decided to cut the customer out of the marketing process and simply guess at what they need? If you believe that, I have some nice Florida swampland to sell you. Here’s the scenario. I had worked with this client’s sales team for several months with good results. However, I was also tasked with working with the marketing director. He had very different ideas[…]
Read More »The single most important thing you can do to grow your business.
First let me say that I’ve been guilty of what I’m about to share with you. In the past, as the founder and owner of a successful marketing firm in Milwaukee, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about what my customers want and how they buy. My biggest mistake was thinking that my company could do no wrong when it came to servicing clients. I thought we were the best and I knew my clients knew it. The sky was the limit and my ego was pushing this limit to the max. The irony is that my team regularly developed and executed customer surveys for our clients but we never did one for ourselves. After a particularly perplexing client phone call, I called my friend, Bill Lowell from Business Development Directives and asked him to perform executive interviews with a random sample of my clients. Something wasn’t[…]
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