Xavier Lederer explains how to grow your company by focusing on your customers.   You are not competing directly against your competitors, you are competing to be unique in the marketplace. What does your most valuable prospect look like? “Probably a lot like your existing valuable customers. The easiest and most profitable growth will be achieved by adding additional customers very much like your current most valuable customers,” explains Robert Bloom in his book “The Inside Advantage.” Clients you resonate with…

Amanda Setili provides business intelligence from a small business owner who found a solution to the issue of finding workers during the pandemic.  “Like many businesses, Dan & Whit’s General Store in Norwich, Vermont has been having a problem finding enough workers. Out of desperation, they came up with an out-of-the-box solution. One longtime customer recalls the email she received from the store’s owner. It said, “You want to do yoga? Come into Dan and Whit’s. Breath. Grab a can…

David Edelman shares an article that extols the benefits of video as an effective business communication tool.   “When you buy a new car, do you really want to learn about it from a 300-page manual, or would you rather have a curated curriculum of two-minute videos that you work through at your own pace, which are not only tied to your specific car, but also reflect learning about your own dealer’s services, the add-ons you personally purchased, and questions…

Xavier Lederer explains a key step to take to help grow your business. You are not competing directly against your competitors, you are competing to be unique in the marketplace. What does your most valuable prospect look like? “Probably a lot like your existing valuable customers. The easiest and most profitable growth will be achieved by adding additional customers very much like your current most valuable customers,” explains Robert Bloom in his book “The Inside Advantage.” Clients you resonate with…

Kaihan Krippendorff takes a look at the history of the music industry to demonstrate how Spotify excels at delivering customers what they want when they want it.  In 2006, a pair of Swedish entrepreneurs banded together to fight an ongoing problem: Piracy in the music industry was costing artists, retailers, and record companies billions of dollars in lost sales. Customers who had previously gone to CD or record stores to purchase music were now evading legislation to download songs for…

Kaihan Krippendorff identifies how the concept of a flywheel can be applied to business.  Most evenings, when I’m not traveling, I make time to get in at least half an hour on my Peloton bike. It helps to wind down at the end of the day. I’ll turn on a show (lately I’ve been slowly savoring this season’s episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and waiting in anticipation for season 2 of Ted Lasso) and pedal to break a sweat. As…

Robyn Bolton challenges an article posted in Fast Company that claimed the most popular design thinking strategy is BS. How might we ruin a perfectly good and useful tool?” This might not be the question that innovators, design thinkers, and brainstorm facilitators wanted to answer.  But it seems that it’s the one they did. “The most popular design thinking strategy is BS,” proclaimed the headline on a June 28 article in Fast Company.  “The ‘How might we’ design prompt is…

  James Black provides an update on how COVID-19 forced museums and cultural institutions to reshape how they interact with the public and still provide an engaging experience. As the WSJ noted, “With galleries and museums closed due to Covid-19, online offerings blossomed—giving viewers the chance to experience outstanding exhibitions and masterpieces in a new, digital way.” (12/13/20). From an analysis of the activities of 20+ institutions around the world, completed via desk research and interviews with various CEOs, board…

  Susan Meier shares an always-relevant post on storytelling that explains why brevity, honesty, and making it memorable are key components of a good story well told.  There’s a passage from the childhood classic One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish that I personally consider to be the best story ever told: ‘My hat is old, my teeth are gold. I have a bird I like to hold. My shoe is off, my foot is cold. My shoe is…

  Robbie Kellman Baxter shares a tale from the trenches of subscription-based business success stories. In this episode, how a subscription business can become successful by focusing on subscriber outcomes.  Robbie Baxter: How did you come to run Instant Ink? Looking back, would you say it was inevitable? Or are you surprised at where you’ve ended up? Anthony Napolitano: Well, I’m thrilled to where I ended up. I can’t say it was fully planned and chartered for sure. I think…

  Robbie Kellman Baxter takes a look forward at subscription businesses in 2021 and provides a few tips on how to improve sales through improved membership strategies.  The time leading up to American Thanksgiving is often especially busy, with a combination of major conferences, ambitious sales goals and, of course, planning for the upcoming year before people check out (physically and/or mentally) for the holiday season. You’ve probably spent some time already thinking about your goals for next year, and…

  Supriya Prakash Sen shares an article that identifies how Digital Business Ecosystems could be the answer to addressing the multiple needs of the consumer, and how COVID-19 has accelerated the need to change. As purchasing behaviors change over time, so too does the landscape that solution providers operate in. In 2020, consumers are spoilt for choice; but consumers are short on time and often overwhelmed by the options on offer. Consequently, the balance of power for businesses has shifted…

  If you are looking for ways and means to improve client attraction, spend, and retention, read on. David A. Fields provides practical steps and innovative approaches to improving your firm’s offerings. If your consulting firm’s offerings aren’t generating gleaming stacks of revenue, it’s time to develop a Level 3 Offering. You’re not alone if the projects that sustained your consulting business in the past have recently become difficult to close. Prospective clients are confused about how to please their…

  James Black shares the first post in a series that explores the development of customer understanding in 2020.  To kick off the new year, I suggested ‘20 Questions to Help Your Brand or Business See 20/20 in 2020.’ To help brands and businesses assess the state of your business and identify opportunities, I wanted to take a closer look at the topic of Customer Understanding. Developing a deeper Customer Understanding is helpful to identify opportunities to strengthen your business….

  Kaihan Krippendorff asks a most pertinent question to help companies identify a strategy that will improve customer relations and revenue.   The former president of Starbucks, Howard Behar, told me a few months ago that the most important decision Starbucks made, that led to many of the disruptive choices this category-defining company made, was their decision to be “in the people business serving coffee” rather than the “coffee business serving people”. In other words, Starbucks decided to view their “customer”…

  This article from David Burnie’s company blog identifies the value of the contact centre, and how it helps to prevent customer attrition.  The contact centre is a necessity for any mid-large size organization. It is where customer inquiries are handled across multiple channels, such as the phone, email or live chat. It is a bustling place of energy, activity and collaboration and often a starting point for many who want to forge a career in corporate. When built and…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Richard Cho with Growing Abundance Mindsets.  Through his time at Gartner, Bridgewater, and McKinsey Richard developed a set of tools, frameworks and practices that have been adapted from leading business thinkers and applied across multiple Fortune 500 company teams to successfully drive new initiatives. Often times technology problems are usually business engagement problems, and he has a track record of getting these initiatives on track. Richard is passionate about building world-class cross-functional digital teams that go after big…

  Robbie Kellman Baxter explains why a free trial is not always the best tactic and identifies three  reasons a subscription business isn’t attracting new members. Recently, a CEO of a major professional association asked me what I thought of a 30 day free trial for new members. He worried that potential members would sign up for the free trial, binge the value in that free period and then cancel without paying. But his board was concerned that not enough…

Jason George explores the relationship between the human need for ritual, community, and purpose, and the organizations or entrepreneurs who see that need as their next opportunity.   Come all ye faithful Some of the devoted choose to meet in the early morning, braving the cold and arriving at their nondescript buildings in the predawn darkness. The name on the sign outside might reference “soul” or “cross,” but there is nothing outwardly grand about these places. The real draw is…

In the digital age, Amanda Setili explains why every company — big or small – needs a platform strategy to connect with customers.   Today’s businesses now live or die based on how well they cultivate and connect those who they do business with. Just look at the seven most valuable companies in 2019—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent. Each created their success by deliberately and aggressively building powerful platforms to connect customers, content…

Robyn Bolton shares five techniques that can help you understand your toughest customers in this post recently published on Forbes. Let’s be honest, we love talking to people who just ‘get’ us. I believe this is because we often must hold a number of conversations with people who don’t ‘get’ us. In business, the people who don’t understand us are the ones we desperately need: Our customers. Many might not understand why your products or services cost so much, why your…