I left Fenway Park this past Monday at 2 PM following a Red Sox bottom-of-the-ninth victory over Tampa Bay and immediately encountered thousands upon thousands of Boston Marathon runners plodding their way through Kenmore Square to the finish line.
By Ken Lizotte CMC
Lately, the age-old business development dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd has been haunting professional service firms more than ever before. Too many firms nowadays look alike, with marketing strategies seemingly unable to distinguish them from the competition.
By Ken Lizotte
To the un-initiated, the concept of transforming oneself into the leading thinker in your field might seem rather overwhelming. Others worry that they may have too few “original” thoughts. Yet creative thinking can be catalyzed and nurtured.
By Ken Lizotte
Have you ever thought about or noticed a competitor utilizing “thoughtleading” as a business development strategy? Positioning yourself and your firm as leading-edge thinkers in your field involves publishing articles and books, speaking regularly to professional groups, getting yourself noticed by the media and surveying your target market in order to produce research data that only you possess.
By Ken Lizotte
Every year, he would beat me. I didn’t even know his name, or even that he existed at all, and he certainly didn’t know me. Yet over the years I began to recognize his name above mine on the list of finish times for Concord’s annual 4th of July 5-mile Minuteman Classic. He was always 2, 3 or 4 minutes ahead of me even in years when I thought I had run especially well. Rennie Slater, my nemesis… grrrr.
Every day of every work week, your business needs to keep winning new customers, holding on to current ones, winning back old ones and effectively driving sales campaigns and revenue goals. Beating out the competition is part of it and continuously offering high value is all of it.
By Ken Lizotte
It’s a big job getting published. You’ve got to conceive the idea, locate an appropriate publication, buttonhole editors and make your pitch. And when an editor finally tells you, “Go ahead,” you’ve got to write the damn thing! By the time it’s all over you’ve achieved lots of little victories and a larger sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
By Ken Lizotte
Smart consultants well understand the value of relationship-building in developing and keeping new business. What better vehicle for relationship-building than an event at which lots of high-level business prospects will show up in one place to listen to you?
By Ken Lizotte, CMC
If you are just launching a consulting practice, thinking of doing so, or have been in business for a while but client projects are stagnant, it pays to evaluate your chosen approaches to practice management and consider less orthodox strategies so as to ramp things up.
By Ken Lizotte
Public speaking is a potent business development vehicle. It’s a chance for people to meet you, get to know your expertise and your product and your business. Who knows who might be in your audience that’s a perfect fit for what you have to sell?