The world is changing and good marketing matters more than ever
For most B2B brands out there, the role of marketing has changed drastically during the COVID-19 crisis. Marketing, as we understood it a few short weeks ago, has fundamentally changed. My guess is it will continue to change for months to come. But more than even a few weeks ago, getting marketing right matters. Here […]
Helping Your Dealers Starts with Understanding Their Business
Heavy equipment and truck dealers manage a lot of competing priorities: Staffing, sales and marketing, evolving technology, and dealing with market forces. Brands often want to help, but many run into an obstacle that prevents them from making a difference. They just don’t understand the dealer’s business from the dealer’s perspective. Understanding that perspective means […]
In the world of dealer sales, a little understanding can outperform a lot of technology.
Here’s a common story: A brand introduces a technology platform designed to support marketing and selling through their independent dealers. It fails after a long, painful implementation process. No one – brands or dealers – is happy about the experience. You wanted a happy ending? There can be one, but only if the story starts […]
Three essential branding tools that improve lead gen and ROI
Every marketer is concerned with lead gen and ROI. Every marketer gives lip service to the importance of branding, but few make it a priority.
Tell better stories, get better results: 4 rules for communicating technical marketing messages
Every holiday season, I repeatedly witness a phenomenon that we can all relate to. Every family has at least one person who insists on monopolizing the conversation, regaling us with lengthy accounts of bygone days. What I observed is that it isn’t so much the stories are bad, they are just badly told. And that […]
Handing off a warm lead to a dealer is precarious. We can fix that.
Only one out of three independent dealers respond in a timely manner to an inbound lead generated from a brand’s marketing campaign. Let that sink in: 66% of inbound leads—your leads—end up in a digital black hole. Marketing campaigns get complicated when your brand sells through independent dealers. You put in a lot of time, […]
Stop making the same mistakes: Start your annual planning now
We all start the planning season, usually in the final stretch of the current year, with a B2B marketing version of New Year’s resolutions. This year will be different. I won’t fall into the same traps that have tripped me up in years past. Just like that treadmill in the corner collecting dust, we begin […]
Having the ROI conversation before it’s too late.
As a marketing firm, we’re often asked to demonstrate ROI. And we should be. Our clients need to know that their marketing dollars are having a positive impact. But showing a clear return on investment is a team effort—a nimble dance between agency and client. Unfortunately, the ROI conversation often occurs way too late in […]
Industry change drives training.
The exponential rate of change in today’s world is reflected in the kitchen and bath industry. Products, especially, are becoming more complex.
In 2018, Ten Pound Hammer took on the project of asking dealers in the custom kitchen and bath industry about the issue of training to determine dealer attitudes toward training and their most important training issues.
How to do training that actually works (and creates revenue).
Over and over, dealers in the kitchen & bath industry express the need for quality training materials. Similar to a sales-and-marketing mindset, training materials must be engaging. And no matter what format they were commenting about, dealers agree that boring, confusing, or incomplete material is not helpful and therefore altogether unnecessary. Moreover, outdated materials created […]
Five things to know before creating your new training program.
Training helps professionals become better communicators, more effective managers, or more profitable salespeople. Training is the connection between your people, your products, and your customers that ensures a return on time and financial investment. Training is marketing. It is an extension of your brand. And it is critical to your success.
Training means revenue for brands.
Training helps professionals become better communicators, more effective managers, or more profitable salespeople. Training ensures a return on time and financial investment as it links your people, your products, and your customers together.
