We all know what it’s like to send a qualified prospect our highest converting sales pitch, only to receive total radio silence in return. We get stuck wondering why our prospect didn’t respond, what happened since the last time we spoke, and what we should say next. In fact, losing touch with a prospect is…

A recent exposé in the Wall Street Journal told the story of Engineer.ai, a company that duped investors and customers with a mobile-app engineering platform that purported to use Artificial Intelligence to automate design and programming tasks, while in reality the work was done by inexpensive human programmers. The Journal’s story shined an uncomfortable light…

Imagine you’re a customer. A salesperson has lavished attention on you and your every need. As a result, you’ve made a purchase. Now, you’re ready to use the new product, and you’re looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype. But what happens next? Do you continue to get the same level…

How many subscriptions do you pay for right now? If you’re like 84% of Americans, you underestimated. On average, we’re dropping about $240 monthly on subscriptions. Subscription-based services are wholly interwoven into our lives. And this may just be the best innovation for businesses our economy has seen in decades. Subscription models don’t stop with…

In recent years, corporations have taken an increased interest in how their business activities affect society. Due to a range of influences, more organizations are practicing corporate social responsibility (CSR) – and boosting their bottom lines in the process. Some easy-to-recognize examples would be when major corporations team up with non-profits such as the NFL…

In marketing (as in life) many of us tend to have an all-or-nothing approach. We go ALL IN on something — the new podcast, daily live videos, posting to IG stories, starting up the blog again, getting consistent about sending out email newsletters, driving traffic with ads, and definitely absolutely planning out our next launch…

People are practically glued to their smartphones — so why not take advantage of it? It’s now easier than ever before to keep in touch with your customer base. Today’s consumers also expect companies to offer easy, convenient ways to communicate. Because of the changing world of digital marketing and consumer expectations, companies should use…

TL; DR: 15 Sprint Review Anti-Patterns Are we still on the right track? Answering this question in a collaborative effort of the Scrum Team as well as internal (and external) stakeholders is the purpose of the Sprint Review. Given its importance, it is worthwhile to tackle the most common Sprint Review anti-patterns. The Purpose of…

Social networks are not just powerful promotion tools. If you are trying to get clients, media mentions and good opportunities in your industry to grow a name for yourself and your brand, social media can definitely make the job easier. Obviously, social networking for business is not like networking to make new friends (well, that…

Video marketing can be huge for managed service providers. It’s a great way to interact with your target audience and current customers. But all too often, video marketing for managed service providers is niched into TV advertisements or product demos. Little do most IT consultants know, there is much more you can do with video.…

State of Digital Marketing – Priorities, Challenges, Trends and More In today’s connected, always-on world, over 4.33 billion people are now active internet users, which is about 56% of the global population. And this number only continues to grow. Interacting with friends, family and brands through social, mobile and digital channels is very much the…

This is my fourth blog in this series (you can find the first three on this topic here: blog one, blog two, and blog three). Let’s review. It’s past time to fix feedback and restore to its rightful place as a powerful and valuable tool for good. We must shed old ideas of what feedback…

About a month ago, I was interviewed by Jim Karrh, the consultant, coach, and discerning host of the podcast Manage Your Message. Jim recognizes that the way leaders manage their messaging makes a significant difference in their productivity and success. He’s a thoughtful interviewer, and we had a wide-ranging conversation on a number of leadership…

If you’re anything like I used to be, you started your business and immediately jumped on the social media marketing bandwagon — without any idea about what to do, how to do it, or how to tell if it was even working. When it comes to my business, I always want to know if my…

Traditional IT deployments were once slow and expensive endeavors. Organizations had to buy or build their own infrastructures, install software, configure applications, and employ teams of tech experts for inevitable maintenance. The shift to software as a service, or SaaS, has eliminated the need for customary IT infrastructures and created a software-on-demand model where organizations…

As Scrum Trainer I get to meet a lot of teams and hear of many different ways to do Scrum. Most are valid ways, yet some seem more aligned with the values of Scrum or the purpose of the specific Scrum Element. In this post we’ll have a look at the Sprint Review. The Sprint…

Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) is one of the biggest shopping days online. If you want to take advantage of the opportunity to skyrocket your sales, you need to come up with a Cyber Monday email strategy. With email marketing, you can send your Cyber Monday deals straight to the inboxes of shoppers. Plus,…

Employer branding is a trending topic, but it’s also not going away anytime soon. With social media platforms becoming the go-to source about your company and work culture, your organization must focus on building an employer brand strategy on social. “Many companies believe that social media marketing will be the most in-demand HR skill by…

Cyber Monday’s online sales hit an all-time high in 2018, capping out at a record $7.9 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. That’s an increase of 19.3% from the previous year — and sales are only expected to go up this December. Are you ready to hit “go” on your Cyber Monday email campaign? Here’s a…

As business leaders, we’re solving problems all day – including problems that haven’t happened yet. Add to that the extra pressure of time constraints, so when a problem comes up, it’s easy to quickly go into fix-it mode. That’s when we often become biased by our own expertise. Being biased isn’t the same as falling…

So many shiny objects. So little time. As soon as you focus on a successful marketing tool, along comes a squirrel to distract you. You’ve figured out blogging for business. You’re measuring your marketing efforts with a great dashboard. You’re rocking it on social media. Heck, you’re even creating videos for YouTube and LinkedIn. And…

Today’s ideal leadership candidates are not necessarily employees with the most experience or expertise. One of the key differentiators among top leaders is leadership agility, or the ability to balance competing demands. Agile leaders foster connections with team members and customers, enable teams to achieve peak performance, and encourage both innovation and change. Contents What…

Are you looking for a way to improve customer loyalty this holiday season? Business owners work hard every year to keep consumers committed to their brand when there are many competitors in virtually every industry. Shoppers spent a whopping 850 billion dollars last year between November 1st and December 24th. When you consider how much…