Sales

*Trust* is the bonding agent which connects business and customer together. I'll Spell It Out Trust:  a relationship of reliance. Relationship:  "...is managing and nurturing a company's interactions with its customers...The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new customers, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former customers back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and customer service." Reliance:  "...a system's ability to maintain its functions...

Persuasive Selling We all know that customer testimonials are a primo tool leveraged within new business development initiatives. We like validation for our choices, and testimonials can be a low-key, non-invasive way to present a winning scenario that a prospect just might relate to (in whole or part) - whether it was due to similarities in budget, accelerated timing, market, customer base, etc. We want the same big win that the person offering the testimonial got.  We want to be successful, too. I'm...

For small businesses, it can be a challenge to look uber-polished and sophisticated with every communication and customer relationship tactic. If you're also repositioning and rebranding the company as we are at Ovation, in many way's it's on par with a brand new start-up.  There's the Web site, collateral, product sheets, trade show materials to develop. On another level is logowear, corporate gifts of various values, advertising for awareness and image building. There's also the requisite...

Gotta Speak the Language Last week, I was in Des Moines, IA attending a marketing conference sponsored by the Iowa Banker's Association titled "Blue Ribbon Banking: Marketing for Success."   At Ovation, we're considering our sales strategy for the bank vertical and this local conference provided good timing. My banking experience is limited to the typical consumer relationship, so I thought it particularly important to visit with bank marketers in hopes to better understand their pain points. ...