http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk Total Marketing Solutions is a specialist marketing consultancy whose purpose is to help the owners of small and medium sized companies achieve their business objectives for growth in sales and profitability. In short, we help business owners deliver results Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:15:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As one of many SME's located in the South West of England, we're flabbergasted by the Government's decision to halt the planned roll-out of next gen broadband across  Cornwall. Whilst we ourselves are lucky enough to have reasonable broadband capacity at the moment, sufficient enough at least to help us ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/07/14/no-next-gen-broadband-taking-short-sightedness-to-extremes/ There's no getting away from the fact that when you take the time to measure an activity, it gives you something very tangible you can then set about improving. Seth Godin points out that thanks to constant developments in IT, it's easy to optimize just about every aspect of our ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/07/07/too-well-optimised/ Can you remember your last great experience?  I thought I could quote mine - but after a great first interaction the company let themselves down on every future action!  I think every company has an element of great service - but is it consistent? Is it reliant on key members of staff or embedded in the culture of the organisation?With increasing ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/06/29/your-last-great-experience/ Motivation is usually the hottest topic on sales managers' agendas. However, we find that the principles of motivation are frequently not fully understood. In this post I hope to clear away some of the 'mist' that often shrouds this critical issue for all sales managers. Definition of Motivation Motivation is the means ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/06/10/sales-strategy/ With the sound of belts tightening already echoing throughout the land, now more than ever is the time to make sure that your price position is protected. It's true that cutting price is one way of giving your customer better value, but this can be a dangerous route to take ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/06/10/the-price-is-right-or-the-importance-of-protecting-price/ Now that all the hoopla has subsided it's time for our new coalition government to get on with the job in hand - and what a job it is. Of the many cabinet appointments announced during the last 24 hours, one of the most interesting to us was that of ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/05/13/and-now-for-something-completely-different/ It's a staggering statistic but on average  1- 5% of customers account for up to 40% of company revenue. It's even more staggering when these companies confess to being unsure about who their top - i.e. most profitable - customers are. Our consultant Rennie Gould has seen this problem surface ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/04/22/whats-so-important-about-customers-anyway/ I delivered a 1-day workshop on implementing a Key Account approach to sales for one of our most important clients earlier this week and I was struck by just how essential it is for sales and marketing to be joined at the hip if this strategic approach to sales development ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/03/25/key-account-management-marketing-sales-in-harmony/ Our last post was going to neatly lead onto the importance of marketing planning (click here for our official take on the importance of developing a good marketing plan.) But then a piece on the BNET report by business coach Ian Sanders outlined the approach taken by one Joe Oliver, ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/03/19/plan-to-fail-or-fail-to-plan-a-different-perspective-on-the-need-to-plan/ Following on from last week's post, what happens once you've got a clear idea of where you want to take your business and have a carefully crafted business and marketing plan? If it's early days for your company then it's time to think about developing a clear, concise marketing strategy ... http://www.blog.totalmarketingsolutions.co.uk/2010/03/09/spring-into-action-its-time-to-check-your-marketing-strategy/