2002 Debunker Newsletters

What I've Learned in 2002-Part II—December 30, 2002

In this final Debunker of 2002 I'm going to discuss some of the things I've learned while analyzing a lot of web sites and creating and revamping sites for a number of businesses, including my own. The opportunity is immense because so few businesses make the commitment to putting up and maintaining a high quality web site. Here's what you need to do-and the pitfalls to avoid. Read more.

What I've Learned in 2002-Part I—December 9, 2002

During my 25 years in the business world I've tried to continue to learn valuable lessons from my successes and failures. In Part I of the final Debunker series of 2002, I'll tell you a few things I've learned and re-learned, marketing and business-wise in 2002 (excluding what I've learned about web site marketing, which will be the topic of Part II in two weeks). Here's what I've learned working with clients, prospects, and others-and marketing my own services. Read more.

Marketing is Like Exercising—November 25, 2002

The good news and the bad news: Marketing, indeed, is a lot like Exercising. Here's why…

Increase Your Business Productivity—November 11, 2002

Last week's business headlines reported that U.S. productivity in the 3rd quarter (compared to 2001) was up 5.3 %—the largest gain in nearly 29 years. Can businesses continue to become even more productive without over-extending their current people resources? Escalating numbers of workers report that they are frazzled, stressed, and over-worked. Is there room left to make significant gains? I believe there is: especially among mid and high level white-collar workers. Read how.

SWOT your business-Part III—October 28, 2002

The finale of a 3-part series. Part III provides the questions that you need to ask and answer to conduct a SWOT analysis focused on Marketing & Sales. It's a great way to tune-up your business for 2003! Read more.

SWOT your business!-Part II—October 14, 2002

In Part II of this 3-part NoSpin Debunker series, I'll talk about how to actual conduct a SWOT analysis that is focused on Marketing & Sales. Think of a SWOT as a Cliffs Notes version of deconstructing your business, taking a fresh look, and jumpstarting your company to steer it a new direction(s) to grow your business. Here's how to do it. Read more.

SWOT your business!-Part I—September 30, 2002

Didn't SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,Threats) analyses go out of style eons ago? Nope. While scores of trendy methodologies and tools for analyzing and dissecting businesses have popped up and then faded in the last 20 years-nothing has proved as reliable as a good old-fashioned SWOT analysis. A SWOT is the fastest, most efficient, most cost effective way to get a solid understanding of the realities of a business and best first step to recommending and implementing changes to improve growth and profitability. Part I re-introduces the concept of SWOT and subsequent parts will talk about how to do a SWOT—helpful hints, questions to ask, etc. Read more.

Flying Under the Radar: only if you want to hide from prospective customers—Sept. 16, 2002

This week's guest debunkerer is marketing veteran Michael Corley who start out—Let me tell you a dirty little secret that has nothing to do with Tom and Liberace. YOUR COMPETITORS PROBABLY (and if you are in healthcare then they definitely) KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, WHERE YOU'VE BEEN AND WHERE YOU ARE GOING. Prospects are a lot more important than Competitors, and Michael tells you why. Read more.

Take Advantage of Corporate Turmoil—August 5, 2002

The vast majority of CEO's in the U.S. are NOT crooks, but they are foolishly remaining silent about the current mess, and most are in hiding. Is your CEO one of those who is acting like other cowardly lemmings: laying low and keeping an invisible profile until some of this blows over? Are you listening to the PR gurus who are publicly lambasting Martha Stewart for not telling her story and privately telling their clients to keep as a low of a profile as possible? If so, you are missing a huge free marketing opportunity to stand out from the pack. Read more.

"Ready, Aim, Fire" vs Cowboy Marketing—July 22, 2002

Some time back, a lot of business folks jumped on the bandwagon deriding the traditional "ready, aim, fire" approach to planning and decision-making. The thought process being that people were getting tied up in their underwear going "ready aim," "ready aim," "ready aim," ad nausea, and never taking decisive action-certainly not a good thing. So instead, the pendulum swung to the other end of the spectrum. It became more fashionable to advocate shooting from the hip and taking action-any action—for action's sake. Hence, the rise of cowboy marketing. Here is a checklist to look at before you pull that trigger on your next promotional campaign. Read more.

BADD: Business Attention Deficit Disorder—July 8, 2002

BADD is the evil twin of Business Focus and the the Achilles heel of most businesses-large and small—that end up NOT making it. BADD companies are in (or say they are in) too many products and services, or too many unrelated types of products or services, or too many vertical markets or too many geographic markets. BADD executives really delude themselves (and fool others) that they can make anything happen in their own "space." Here are the NoSpin tips on how to focus your business and avoid becoming a BADD Company. Read more.

Public Relations the Right Way—June 24, 2002

Guest Debunker author this week. Silas Deane, President & CEO of Logic Media Group, talks about doing Public Relations the right way—without the spin. Read more.

Why not Outsource your CMO? —June 10, 2002

What if your company really needs a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), but you don't have the time to recruit one and you're not quite ready to pay the big bucks that it is going to take to find and pay a new top-level executive FTE CMO? Is the answer to muddle along until you get a lot bigger and a lot more profitable? Or, is there an alternative that proactively helps you get bigger and profitable faster? Outsourcing may be the answer for your company. Read more.

Hiring Your Chief Marketing Officer—May 27, 2002

If you're serious about your Marketing, then you need to consider hiring a CMO. But what does such person look like-and not look like? Here's a list of NoSpin qualifications for your CMO and some CMO types to avoid. Read more.

The Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales-Part V—May 13, 2002

Some readers are probably saying, "Sure all this talk about Marketing sounds great in theory, but we just can't afford "real" Marketing until we get more business. All we can afford now is Sales." This is a very tough, and very fair issue, but we really need to turn it around. As I've talked about in a number of Debunkers over the past year, the question is rather, "If you want to grow your business, how can you afford NOT to invest in Marketing?" Read more.

The Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales-Part IV—April 29, 2002

General George Patton as a Marketing executive? Come on-get real! Part IV of this series looks at the division of Marketing and Sales functions for small and medium-sized businesses that want to grow and keep growing. Read more.

The Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales-Part III—April 8, 2002

Is there a best way for small and medium-sized companies to organize their Marketing & Sales functions? The debunker offers some recommendations and helpful hints, starting with: Marketing is a required business function that should be separate from Sales. Read more.

The Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales-Part II—March 18, 2002

For many small and medium-sized businesses, relying on "feet-on-the-street" and "relationships" is their singular marketing and sales approach. They use individual sales people who leverage personal and business relationships and the contacts of top managers to find customers and create sales. Bad idea to make this your predominant marketing and sales approach for the long run. Marketing must be part of the balance, and here's why. Read more.

The Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales-Part I—March 4, 2002

Both Marketing and Sales are endemic to Selling and forever intertwined as the critical components of the "selling' process-with direct Sales being one important vehicle to actually get goods and services sold-especially critical in the world of selling B2B services, software, and other complex products. But these two important business components are often misunderstood. Part I of the Debunker series, the Yin & Yang of Marketing & Sales, will discuss what "Marketing" and "Sales" are all about-and then move on to recommend ways to make them more complementary and productive for your business. Read more.

CEO's Overrated as Marketers? —February 18, 2002

Two weeks ago, I posed the NoSpin Poll question: How good is your CEO at Marketing and Selling your company's products and/or services? The results: about 2/3 of respondents said that their CEO rated "awesome" or "very good" and the balance rated CEO's as "mediocre" or "pathetic." Here's my read on the results from my NoSpin poll: that a reasonable portion of the 2/3 of respondents who are pretty impressed with their CEO's marketing and sales talent are fooling themselves. Read more.

Your WEAKEST LINK? —February 4, 2002

FAQ's are frequently asked questions that sales prospects are asking and clear, concise answers that are working in sales situations. An important page that is often overlooked as a key web site section is your "FAQ's." But typically-if a web site even has a set of FAQ's-they are rather boring, meaningless, or outdated corporate drivel. Here are some recommendations to make your FAQ's a strong sales/marketing piece versus your WEAKEST LINK. Read more.

Marketing on the Cheap in 2002—January 21, 2002

Marketing "on the cheap" means getting a maximum out of your marketing dollar— whatever your investment is. Hopefully, you're increasing-and not decreasing your investment-in 2002. But in these tough economic times, how can you stretch your marketing dollars in this year? Here are a few recommendations for getting the most bang from your marketing buck this year. Read more.

New Year's Resolutions for Marketers—January 14, 2002

22 more Resolutions—this time for the Marketing Department to help bring in more sales and profits in 2002. Last week's NoSpin Debunker suggested 22 possible Marketing Resolutions for CEO's. This week's Debunker offers resolutions for folks in the Marketing Department itself. Say after me, "As a Marketer in 2002 I am going to..." Read more.

New Year's Marketing Resolutions for CEO's—January 7, 2002

Sure, the economy's still pretty lousy. Lots of folks remain nervous about the future. But it's a new year-and who knows what might happen? Many firms that sell B2B will hunker down and just try to survive. Hence, it's an excellent opportunity for you to go and take business away from them and sell MORE products and services—not less. Here are a bunch of possible New Year's Marketing Resolutions for CEO's to help their companies thrive, instead of just survive, in 2002. Or read the Nashville.com version of this Debunker. Read more.