In many sectors – especially professional services, where I have had my career – sales are often made with the help of a written proposal. And, while this could be a course all on its own, here are a few tips and pointers.

This is a course about sales. And most salespeople have no control over the prices of the products and services they need to sell. So, I am not going to talk about the economics, strategy, or internal politics of setting a price. I want...

A good salesperson never wants to leave their customer without making the best sale they can. So you need to learn the art of the upsell. And, for that matter, of the cross-sell and the down-sell.

Complex Sales are, by nature… Complex. And that means this is a big topic. In the late 1990s, I went on a 2-day course, so this video is, necessarily, the 101 version of what has stuck with me.

One way to understand the nature of an organization is as a process (the other is as a structure). In this video, we look at Organizations as Processes

A Brand Strategy is a long-term plan for the evolution of a successful brand and the growth of its brand equity.

Market research is the process for understanding the customers’ responses to a new service or product, by working directly with potential customers. Market research allows a company to discover who its ideal customers are and get...

Every buyer is unique. But, in most industries, it is impossible to target marketing at individuals. So, instead, we identify broad classes of buyers who share within the class a set of needs and buying preferences. Identifying those...

In our video on Marketing Mix, one of the 4 Ps was Place.

In our video on Marketing Mix, I identified Positioning as, perhaps, the most important of Jerome McCarthy’s omissions from his original 4 Ps of Product, place, Price, and Promotion.

How can your organization build the reputation it chooses? What it does and how the media represent it are important. So is advertising. But one way combines authenticity and control: good Public Relations, or PR.

Seth Godin is a marketer and a communicator. And, in 2008 he tapped into the emerging Zeitgeist, with his book, ‘Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us’. (

Have you ever been wandering about the internet and been surprised to find adverts for products you recently looked at? If you have, welcome to remarketing.



Maybe you looked at an online product and then, later that day, saw a...

I guess the first question a business should be asking is ‘do I need an advertising agency?’ However, if the answer is ‘yes’, you’ll need to know what advertising agencies do, how to select one that’s right for you, and how to prepare a...

Developing, Writing, and Producing an Advertisement involves a large creative team of creative thinkers, copywriters, designers, producers, editors, and many more. What are the main steps in the creative process?

Estee Lauder became interested in the beauty products business as a child. But, it was her marketing strategies that single out her genius. The things she did in the late 1940s still seem fresh and modern. That’s why I call her the...

People refer to Philip Kotler as the ‘father of modern marketing’. His contribution to marketing is vast and his ideas are foundational. What really stands out was his analytical approach to what was, before Kotler, a woolly and vague...

The internet has changed marketing and advertising. There are new rules, new tools, and new gurus. One of the first to see this coming, and craft new strategy and tactics, was Seth Godin.



I describe Godin as a Powerhouse of...

For some people, the idea of selling is scary, off-putting, even alarming. But, as a manager, you may sometimes be called upon to sell or help sell your organization’s products or services. But don’t worry. There is a straightforward...

Brand management is the creation and execution of plans to strengthen consumers’ brand perception of a brand.

A brand marketing plan is a plan for all the goals, activities, costs, and controls to promote a brand. So, how do we build one?

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon said that ‘Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.’ Let’s examine what we mean by the terms brand and branding.

A marketing strategy refers to a business's overall plan for how to reach prospects and turn them into customers. A marketing strategy contains the company’s or brand’s value proposition, key messages, data on target customers, and other...

Who are you marketing to? Do you know the characteristics of your prospective customers? To target your marketing well, you need an archetype, which marketers call the ‘Buyer Persona’ or sometimes the customer or marketing persona. And...