Comments on: Baby Steps http://blog.actusmr.com/baby-steps/ Actionable+Usable Marketing Research Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:21:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: paulkirch http://blog.actusmr.com/baby-steps/comment-page-1/#comment-212 paulkirch Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:36:51 +0000 http://actusmr.com/?p=368#comment-212 Bronson - I think you've touched on a valuable lesson here. There are firms that will do anything to win 'any' work and often they do an injustice to the client, or to themselves. Knowing where your strengths lie, but also knowing where you're positioned goes a long way toward establishing credibility. I have heard people say that it's a luxury to turn down work. I actually believe it can be a strong statement when you can stand behind what you say are your strengths or ideals. Great job in recognizing this and living by it. Another area where this really applies is targeting your efforts. If you're going after any and every piece of business, you can't focus your prospecting or marketing in a way that allows you to be efficient or effective. For those in research, picking a couple of verticals or areas of expertise, such as healthcare or finance, can allow you to build a reputation as an expert in those areas. In fact, I was just at the MRA CEO Summit in Boca Raton, Florida and one of the firms was talking about how 2010 was one of their best years ever. They felt they weren't as impacted by the economic challenges. When exploring further, they were seen as experts in serving healthcare research. Over 90% of their business came from that vertical and they were seen as real experts. It was one of his differentiators and it was something clients saw as a real value. Thanks again for your input. Bronson – I think you’ve touched on a valuable lesson here. There are firms that will do anything to win ‘any’ work and often they do an injustice to the client, or to themselves. Knowing where your strengths lie, but also knowing where you’re positioned goes a long way toward establishing credibility. I have heard people say that it’s a luxury to turn down work. I actually believe it can be a strong statement when you can stand behind what you say are your strengths or ideals. Great job in recognizing this and living by it.

Another area where this really applies is targeting your efforts. If you’re going after any and every piece of business, you can’t focus your prospecting or marketing in a way that allows you to be efficient or effective. For those in research, picking a couple of verticals or areas of expertise, such as healthcare or finance, can allow you to build a reputation as an expert in those areas. In fact, I was just at the MRA CEO Summit in Boca Raton, Florida and one of the firms was talking about how 2010 was one of their best years ever. They felt they weren’t as impacted by the economic challenges. When exploring further, they were seen as experts in serving healthcare research. Over 90% of their business came from that vertical and they were seen as real experts. It was one of his differentiators and it was something clients saw as a real value. Thanks again for your input.

]]> By: Bronson Ma http://blog.actusmr.com/baby-steps/comment-page-1/#comment-210 Bronson Ma Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:36:31 +0000 http://actusmr.com/?p=368#comment-210 The one thing that came to mind is when we started Bronson Ma Creative (www.bronsonma.com) back in 2003, we looked at a lot of opportunities to acquire clients for the firm as a creative services firm for your branding and marketing needs. In the beginning, just like any other businesses, it was crucial for us to build up a strong client base and prospective client list. There were a lot of opportunities that came across (good and bad) and we were very selective in making sure we were not spending efforts chasing after opportunities we knew were not be a good fit for us. Could we have gotten those opportunities that were low hanging fruit? Probably, but it would be bad for our business model and sent out a wrong perception of the value our firm can offer to the marketplace. There is nothing that can sink a business faster than having customers who are not your ideal customers and you spend too much efforts and time serving them and not getting paid for what the work calls for. The results – you resent doing the work for the customer and the work itself suffers because you are trying to find ways internally to cut costs and efforts. Therefore, the end product is not as good as it can be. By turning down opportunities that were not a good fit for us, we were able to spend more time chasing after qualified work. And in the midst of it, we learned valuable lessons on what kind of work we really enjoy doing and the type of customers we truly enjoy working with. The one thing that came to mind is when we started Bronson Ma Creative (www.bronsonma.com) back in 2003, we looked at a lot of opportunities to acquire clients for the firm as a creative services firm for your branding and marketing needs.

In the beginning, just like any other businesses, it was crucial for us to build up a strong client base and prospective client list. There were a lot of opportunities that came across (good and bad) and we were very selective in making sure we were not spending efforts chasing after opportunities we knew were not be a good fit for us. Could we have gotten those opportunities that were low hanging fruit? Probably, but it would be bad for our business model and sent out a wrong perception of the value our firm can offer to the marketplace.

There is nothing that can sink a business faster than having customers who are not your ideal customers and you spend too much efforts and time serving them and not getting paid for what the work calls for. The results – you resent doing the work for the customer and the work itself suffers because you are trying to find ways internally to cut costs and efforts. Therefore, the end product is not as good as it can be.

By turning down opportunities that were not a good fit for us, we were able to spend more time chasing after qualified work. And in the midst of it, we learned valuable lessons on what kind of work we really enjoy doing and the type of customers we truly enjoy working with.

]]> By: paulkirch http://blog.actusmr.com/baby-steps/comment-page-1/#comment-209 paulkirch Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:37:17 +0000 http://actusmr.com/?p=368#comment-209 Thanks Bronson. I couldn't agree more, though at the time it may not seem that way. Do you have an example of something related to your business, along these lines, that you can share? Thanks Bronson. I couldn’t agree more, though at the time it may not seem that way. Do you have an example of something related to your business, along these lines, that you can share?

]]> By: Bronson Ma http://blog.actusmr.com/baby-steps/comment-page-1/#comment-207 Bronson Ma Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:53:27 +0000 http://actusmr.com/?p=368#comment-207 Great post Paul! We should not give up easily because there is always new things we can learn during the process. I think often it is what we learned during the process that is more valuable than the prize we were going for in the first place. Great post Paul! We should not give up easily because there is always new things we can learn during the process. I think often it is what we learned during the process that is more valuable than the prize we were going for in the first place.

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