This past February 22nd, marketing genius Seth Godin wrote on his blog, “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. He continues: “I’m not sure this is true. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if you watch the dollars, you don’t have to worry so much about pennies. “Big brands don’t sweat [...]

I got a lesson in counter-intuitive sales thinking this past Saturday at “The Bay: Canada’s Department Store” (company’s slogan). The only problem is, that’s the opposite to how sales psychology works. A sales presentation, regardless of its form (brochure, in-person, billboard, commercial) or medium of delivery (TV, radio, Internet, in-person shopping experience) should be: Readily [...]

‘Met with Cheryl Scoffield, principal of Executive Sales Support (E.S.S.) yesterday to talk about her new venture. I’ve known Cheryl for about 2 years and was successful in creating the brand for her initial website and business. Our discussion covered a lot of ground, including her recent decision to “open up” to those she was [...]

There’s word abuse going on out there and it’s gettin’ ugly. Besides being flagrant and redundant, overuse of the word ‘passionate’ is driving me crazy. Everyone’s ‘following their passion, expressing their passion, stating their passion, talking about their passion,’ and so on and so on and so on. What ever happened to words and phrases [...]

Yesterday, the CIBC and an insurance company proved – over the phone – they were still engaging in “push” marketing, instead of modern web-driven “pull” style. A representative from the bank called to ask whether I was interested in life insurance. Before being able to respond, the fellow plunged into a rapid-fire ‘pitch’ which required [...]

Mainstream media, such print-based newspapers, are feeling the pain of the growing influence of the Internet. Plummeting subscriptions and falling ad revenue are two symptoms. Another is the Toronto Star announcement of last week that a third of their editorial work would be outsourced to (cheaper) foreign interests. And so was my phone call from [...]

I discuss my latest visit to a Canadian Tire store and re-verify that the chain consistently delivers the most frustrating retail shopping experience to me, detail why I continue to go and what CanTire needs to do to improve service.