Most businesses that have a mission statement probably spent a lot of time and thought (and money in some cases) carefully crafting it.  Over zealous and well meaning executives and consultants meticulously toiled (and probably feuded) over getting it ‘just right’ in hopes that it would both pull their team together, and at the same time impress prospects enough to want to do business with such a company. While no doubt there are many examples of truly great mission statements, for the most part I think they get trivialized or forgotten altogether by employees and largely ignored by their customers and prospects.  My hunch is this is due, in large part, to the fact that most mission statements are too long,  too cliche and too ‘formal’. What if your company was forced to declare a one word mission statement.  This word would have to be an action (verb).  Something that said “Billy, I want you to take this business, go out into the world and  ______.  Such a mission statement would certainly be easier to remember.  It could even be written (or symbolized) on every surface of your company to help remind people.  It could even make for a nice tattoo. With this blog post I am kicking off a collaborative project to research and publish the most powerful and effective one word mission statements.  I’d like to challenge well established, successful, and well known businesses to go through the effort of selecting their one word mission. So...

More times than I like to admit, I limit myself with glass ceilings and false beliefs about what I am capable of doing. It bleeds over into my professional life as a marketer, both strategically, and from an execution point of view. When I think of myself, I’m never at my best. When I focus on the success of others and look up, is when I’m humbled and pleasantly surprised with what can be accomplished. This clip from the movie Facing the Giants, is a great example and reminder of what we can accomplish when we put our trust in others who want what’s best for us. It’s also a great lesson that often times the thing that is holding us back is a false belief. Whether you are an executive or a coordinator, ask yourself, “What are the false beliefs that are holding us back as individuals and organizationally?” What’s the ‘death crawl’ that your team needs to suffer through to emerge victorious and stronger as a company and as a person. What words of wisdom or inspiration can you offer in the comments below to help others become stronger emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually?

Why do so few companies have video testimonials from their clients on their websites?  Why don’t I?  There is absolutely no cost or technology barrier anymore.  So what’s our excuse? It might not look good enough.  A good heartfelt moment trumps technical quality any day.  Go back and look at your home movies if you don’t believe me. My clients might not be willing to do it.  Ask them, you’ll find out what you already knew in your heart, they’ll usually be happy to do it if their company would permit it. I’m not sure what to say, or have them say.  Forget video for now, go get someone to help you mine or craft a good reference letter and testimonial with them first. We have too many other things going on.  You’ll always have too many other things going on.  Once you get a video, it’s done and you can use it again and again. We don’t want our competitors seeing who our clients are.  Want to keep your competition at bay from your clients? Let them see how thrilled your clients are with you and they won’t waste their time.  And believe me your competitors can find out who your clients are whether you put them on video or not. Ask any B2B professional services company how they get the majority of their business and they will usually reply “word of mouth referrals.”  So why on earth would we not be leveraging one of the most sustainable and powerful ways to capture and distribute word of mouth referrals? What’s...

If your website is getting long in the tooth or is long overdue for a major redesign but you don’t want to spend a huge budget on designers, developers, and a content management system, one of the first places one should look is no further than WordPress. WordPress can do 80-90% of everything most B2B companies would need in terms of a simple lead generation/lead capture website.  You’d be amazed at how many websites are being built on WordPress.  Granted most of them have that ‘wordpress’ look and feel (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but the reduced time and budget to develop and deploy, you can put your dough into generating and converting traffic. Do not underestimate the opportunity cost of sending your prospects to a less than professional and up to date website.  Whether you want to believe it or not, it is usually the first or second impression one will get of your company and is a reflection and extension of you.  I’m not getting up on a design soapbox or being an aesthetic snob.  I’m simply saying if you wouldn’t go to a tradeshow in an old crappy suit or with a makeshift old booth, don’t allow your website (who is your 24-7 front line sales person) represent you in a poor light.  It’s too easily fixable.  If your website sucks, and you know it, check out WordPress and I guarantee you within a week and done completely on the side, you can have a much better website, selling tool, and source of company...

While it may seem simple, I’m amazed at how often a simple unique phone number for paid search campaigns is overlooked by clients and agencies.  At the very least, the landing pages of your B2B AdWords campaigns should have a unique phone number that can report the quantity of calls, and ideally record each call for reference, quality assurance, and training purposes.  Telecapture is a very easy and affordable solution to start.  It can be setup in minutes and your company can get immediate benefit from it.  Once you start using it, there are other more elaborate tools and methods you can use to track Google AdWords generated phone calls, as well as Bing, Business.com, or practically any on or offline campaign you would want. What phone tracking tools do you use?