Understanding markets is important. Big trends. Overall pictures. What clients want generally. Where to position your firm to hit a “sweet spot”. But when you’re communicating, you must speak to clients, not markets. Markets don’t hire you, clients do. Markets don’t build relationship with you, clients do. Is that just a semantic difference? Fiddling with words? I don’t [...]
Archive | June, 2011
Weekly Wisdom No.71: Lady Gaga Business Lessons
Lady Gaga evokes strong responses from many diverse people. It’s easy to criticise her raw meat dress, outlandish behaviour, garish make-up, and everything else she does to attract media attention. However, in this challenging business environment where customer expectations are continually rising, competition is fierce and marketing noise is confusing and constant, she has something [...]
Inspiration – Innovation – Ideas
When was the last time you were sitting in a conference room with the obligatory mints and bottled water, when it happened? That flash of brilliance where you were inspired to innovate and you generated new ideas that catapulted the performance of your business over the next six months. How often does that happen? Not a [...]
We don’t need any terror experts
A new Australian Defence report slams the quality of terrorism studies in Australia and overseas, saying the field is dominated by self-proclaimed experts who are inexperienced, do little primary research work in the field and have rarely met with genuine extremists. The study concluded there were common deficiencies in much of the writing on terrorism [...]
Weekly Wisdom No.70: You get what you pay for
Nobody goes to Aldi expecting the same quality of goods as you would from David Jones or Grace Brothers. With regards to pricing non-commodity products such as professional and personal services, the value is determined by the buyer not the seller. I didn’t say ‘price’, I said ‘value’. Every client wants to save money [...]
Working from home – business or hobby?
The number of business coaches, trainers and speakers in my Mentor Program who work from home are growing exponentially. The excitement and trepidation rise as you take your seat at your desk realising you are independent, answerable only to yourself, free to manage and prioritise your time, efforts and schedules. Many consultants, trainers, coaches and [...]
Physician, heal thyself
Geelong dentist Paul Gardner, a confessed “God-botherer” has been described by a tribunal investigating his professional conduct as likely to re-offend. He has been accused of spouting fundamental Christian views during consultations. Lawyer Patrick Monahan, acting for the Dental Board of Australia said Mr Gardner has failed to comprehend the seriousness of his actions and [...]
What to do when sales decline?
Anyone responsible for winning business has probably been there. Whether you’re the partner of a legal firm, the budding associate director looking to be promoted within an accounting practice, the enthusiastic financial planner, the seasoned recruitment consultant, etc. It’s that place that makes us shudder and cringe as we awkwardly look around to see who [...]
Weekly Wisdom No.69: Stupid Questions
There’s no such thing as a stupid question. You’re kidding me! There are heaps and I hear them all the time from salespeople, accountants, bankers, financial advisers, recruiters, lawyers and practically anyone who is responsible for marketing and business development, from veteran and neophyte alike. Who are you currently using? You do the research and [...]
5 Easy Marketing Tips
When marketing your business, designing your brochure, planning your website, creating an advertisement, or any other marketing effort, we suggest investing time and effort to effectively encompass these 5 tips. Market for your prospective customers and clients not yourself: What appears beneficial to you is not automatically valuable for your desired audience. What is this [...]
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Peter Abbott: Totally agree with you Ric. This government has d...
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Ric Willmot: Remember how boat arrivals under the last six year...
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Scott Brown: Oh, and quoting Cromwell, a holier-than-thou Purit...
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Mick Cosgrove: I prefer Cicero, 55BC: "The budget should be b...
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Research Survey on Referrals in Professional Services
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It’s not too late to ditch the tax, Julia
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Catherine Deveny hate speech continues in spite of spelling
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Wayne Swan: It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary
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Why you must ban social media while working
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Psychologist, Peter Hart unable to adapt to pyjamas
Value Offerings by Ric Willmot
