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 Moreover, outdated materials created […]
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.
Think outside the slide. Or confessions of a reluctant PowerPoint addict.
PowerPoint: The go-to presentation format, projected in conference rooms everywhere. You know it. You use it. You hate it. It’s a fascinating paradox of corporate America. Among the few things we can agree on—within a team, department or organization, there is a universal loathing of PowerPoint. Yet, when asked to put together a presentation, we […]
Product training: The critical job that (almost) nobody is doing.
We produce a fair amount of technical work that’s used by our clients to inform dealers how to sell, install, and maintain all kinds of products. But even with pieces written and designed to communicate the right information in an engaging way, it doesn’t mean the brand can sit back and watch the sales roll […]
Sales is a Tough Job. Strong Marketing Makes it Easier.
I was at an event recently. The professional kind with a buffet line and well-dressed people balancing small plates of food while maintaining a white-knuckle grip on a cocktail. The topic of marketing came up, mainly because I’m a marketing guy and I started it. Then I hear this: “Sales and marketing are the same […]
The death of branding and other myths.
Brands don’t matter. At least that’s the word these days. Marketers have been trying to sell the power of branding for years, and it’s always been an uphill struggle. In this supposedly post-brand world it’s gotten even harder to convince marketing decision makers that there’s benefit to brand building. A Post-Brand World? For the moment, […]
Product launches? Actually, they really are a lot like rocket science.
There’s a saying that most products launch like a rocket and drop like a rock. The comparison of product launches to rocket science, well, it’s kind of a no brainer. You’ve got the hours upon hours of research and hard work. The passion and anticipation, with equal doses of hand wringing and worrying. All the […]
