Author Archive
California Real Estate No Longer California Dreaming
“Locally the median price has dropped about $100,000 in 2007 and is expected to drop another $100,000 in 2008,” said the central coast California realtor, “but we are in better shape than many areas.”
Not too many years back realtors were knocking on doors trying to find listings because property values were shooting up. […]
The Worst Time to Sell Your Business is When Your Profits are Down
Julie and Michael owned their music business for over 25 years. Like all businesses they have had their ups and downs but in general business was pretty good. They had no formal exit strategy but eventually planned to sell their business and retire.
Over the years their business had grown […]
Changing Oil and Changing Times: The Independent Auto Repair Service Dilemma
If you see fewer auto repair shops in your area then you are witnessing a trend that is spreading throughout the auto repair industry. The small independent auto repair shop is getting squeezed by both the dealers and the ‘backyarders’ creating shrinking margins and putting many auto repair independents out of business. […]
What is the Difference Between Sales and Marketing?
In traditional business, marketing is what brings your prospect to your door, gets them to call, send an email or in some cases actually buy. Sales is everything that happens after the prospect has contacted you.
Traditional business is still with us though it has clearly been evolving very rapidly in recent […]
What are the Consequences of a Weak or Incomplete Search Engine Marketing Plan?
Sarah and her husband Sam run a construction supply company. They have put their life savings into their store and have stocked it with a deep and wide inventory of tools and supplies. Great care and planning went into their layout and merchandising and it is an impressive store. […]
How to Leverage Your ‘Touch Points’ When Building Web-Based Marketing Strategies
‘Touch points’ can be defined as those customer contacts that are critical to your sales process and sales cycle. An easy way to determine these touch points is to map out, flow chart or whiteboard your sales process from first customer contact through completed sale to ongoing follow up.
Some […]
Reactive vs. Strategic or Who Really Cares if Your Company is a Dinosaur?
It happens in business, it happens in politics, it happens in life. There are those that wait for things to happen and there are those that make things happen.
There are those that are in control and those that are controlled.
There are those that have concluded it is […]
Marketing and Sales: An Evolutionary Process
In business, not much happens until a transaction is agreed upon. The strategy of how to make these transactions occur is called marketing. The techniques and procedures for closing the sale is called sales.
Without sales, there is no business.
The successful business is always looking at ways to improve the strategy and process. […]
Business Intelligence and Business Espionage or Why Don’t We Just Call It Spying?
The nasty word ’spying’ conjures up images of hidden cameras, microphones and James Bond. “Hey, watcha doin’, spying on me”? For some reason one is supposed to feel very much intimidated by being spied upon. A big social issue in the United States is how much surveillance should be “allowed” by government […]
Breakthrough Employees or How Does Our Company Get To Where We Want To Go?
There are employees and then there are breakthrough employees. Once in a blue moon the average company hires someone that can make a dramatic difference. This is usually done by chance in the routine hiring process…someone retires, quits or is fired and someone else is hired to take their place.
The sheer number of hires […]
