Doug Davidoff

Marketing As GPS

My speaking schedule requires me to travel regularly to destinations I have never been to before. Travel to an unknown place is obviously more exhausting than traveling to the familiar ones. The most exhausting part of traveling to a new place is commuting to and from the airport. This is where I (and others like me) always get the feeling of being lost without knowing for certain whether or not I am.

Should You Turn People Off?

April's issue of Fast Company magazine has a great column by Made to Stick's authors, Dan & Chip...

Warren Buffet & Fast Growth

I'm still catching up on my reading. Today, on a train to New York City, I finally had an...

CBS News & Commoditization

CBS gave Katie Couric more than $15 million per year to lure her away from The Today Show, in an...

A Marketing Manual From Apple

A very interesting article in USA Today today: Apple Buffs Marketing Savvy to a High Shine. It's...

Listen to Proctor & Gamble

I have been preaching for quite some time that marketers need to stop focusing on their solutions,...

The Westin, Continental Airlines And How It's Still The Little Things That Count

When I travel on business, I stay at a Westin. When I fly, I’m more and more likely to choose...

Your Opinion

It always happens. We finish developing a company’s message, we’ve put together some of their...

Innovation And Commoditization

Lori Colman has an interesting post on B2BMarketingTrends. She writes that Innovation is the...

Corning, Wendell Weeks & Fast Growth

USA Today published an interview with Corning CEO, Wendell Weeks. It is truly a profound interview...

Whose Problem Are You Solving?

I'm in the midst of reading an excellent book, Made to Stick. The authors, Chip & Dan Heath, make a...

What's in a Name? Questioning Cingular's Switch to ATT

What’s in a name? When is it worth it to change a name? I was watching TV this evening and saw, for...

Would Your Company Make A Good TV Show?

Idea Sandbox has a great post about elevator speeches, and how television shows provide a great...

Why Google Wins

I was working with a client today, discussing ways to monetize content on the web. He was talking...

Anna Nicole Smith & Commoditization

Walking through the airport in Indianapolis, I saw the news flashing across the televisions in the...

Congrats Colts - And Another Riff on Industrial-Age Media

Watching the Super Bowl served an illustration to a number of insights to the opportunities and...

Value Proposition Foundations

The central theme of any business is a value proposition, or promise, designed to solve important...

Want To Create Value? Change Your Focus!

I have two definitions of value that drive everything I do: The first is: You create value when you...

What American Airlines Can Teach Us

The airline industry is one of the most commoditized industries in the world. From a marketing...

Do You Know What Keeps Your Customers Up At Night?

How much time do you spend within your company talking about what the world looks through your...

Hertz - Not Exactly

I was recently on a business trip to Chicago to make a presentation. I am a member of Hertz’s #1...

Most Messages Are Meaningless

Last year, I presented a proposal to a prospect, who is now one of my favorite clients. The...

Putting Customers At The Center

Peter Drucker often talked about the fact that a customer is everyone's boss. Enlightened companies...

To Attract The Right Prospects, Be Willing to Repel The Wrong Ones

I’ve just returned from a meeting with a group of other fast-growth entrepreneurs.

Rapid Prototyping

I was talking with a client of mine this morning about my comments about embracing mistakes. In my...

Want Fast Growth In 2007 - Don't Push For Too Much Too Soon

The beauty of a new year is that we all begin at zero and anything is possible. Our revenue goals...

Why Warren Buffet Is Wrong

A client company recently hired a new salesperson. She’s got a ton of talent and she is very...

The Wrong Question

I recently had a conversation about some marketing initiatives. As we were outlining our...

Developing A Compelling Brand Promise Teleconference

The key to building a great pipeline is great messaging. The foundation of a great message is in...

Objections To Gitomer Tactics

Jeffrey Gitomer’s recent column about handling objections demonstrates that traditional sales...

Let Salespeople Sell

Salespeople are among the highest paid people in any company. It is not unusual for a salesperson...

Who Cares?

No!

Fast Growth for Wal Mart - Not

The Washington Post, among others, reports on Wal-Mart's recent announcment of a decrease in...

Why Should A Prospect Talk to Your Company?

Why should a potential buyer spend time talking with your company? Take a moment and jot down your...

What is Possible?

Too often, we are limited by our own limiting beliefs; or by what the rest of the world says is...

Oompa Loompa’s and Fast Growth

Implementing an effective go-to-market strategy can be, and usually is, very frustrating....

Before You Go-To-Market, Be Sure The Market You’re Going To

As I see it, there are three kinds of markets – Growth, Mature and Declining. Here is how I define...

The Borat Buzz

The movie Borat won the box office this past weekend – showing on less than one-quarter the screens...

John Mellencamp is a Hypocrite

I used to be a huge John Mellencamp fan even when he was John Cougar and John Cougar Mellencamp....

Why The Financial Services Industry Is In Trouble

A client of mine, who happens to be a financial advisory firm, just got word that they’re...

Role Players, II

In my last post, I discussed that one of the main differentiators between a complex sale and other...

Role Players, I

Business to business (B2B) sales can be very complicated. There are lots of issues that impact a...

Sometimes It Just Takes Time

I was talking with one of my clients today. She runs a small business that is poised to grow. In an...

Is Notoriety Enough?

I just attended a mid-size trade show. My first thought when I saw all the booths, sales materials...

No Laughing Matter

I was watching the premier episode of Studio 60,, a television show that takes place in the...

It Never Hurts To Ask

What is the best way to find out what a potential customer thinks? Why not ask them? It seems...

The Illusion of Certainty

When I was at Merrill Lynch, I kept a sign above my desk that read: “Don’t confuse brains with a...

Fake Experiences & Lies

Why is it that marketers often feel that lying is an effective strategy? This time it’s Ameriprise....

Need A Job?

Few topics get as much attention as outsourcing does. It's too bad that so much of that attention...

Forget About The Competition

I remember when I first became interested in selling. My parents (who owned a travel agency) were...

Don't Interrupt - It's Not Polite

I am a raving fan of a coaching company that I have been a client of for more than eight years....

Is Disney Resting On Its ‘Magic’?

You may have noticed fewer blog postings from me of late. This has been for a couple of reasons....

Two Great Insights

Competition is a part of life, and it should never be the focus of a business. John Moore of Brand...

Happy Birthday To A Fast-Growth One-Year-Old

Time certainly does fly when you are having fun. I’m reminded of this fact as I realize that The...

The Three Levels of Value

My experience working with fast-growth companies has taught me that there are three levels of value...

Is Jack Welch Wrong? The New Rules

It’s been a busy summer. Keeping up with client demands and taking some vacation time with the...

What is a Brand?

I just picked up the book Brand Harmony. I'm only a few pages into it and it's already given me...

The Magic Bullet?

I remember when “Sharp Dressed Man,” by ZZ Top was released in 1983. I was in high school, and all...

What Do You Want to Be?

What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a question I often think about. I came across this...

Ask an Eight-Year-Old

On a recent business trip to Boston, my eight-year-old son asked me to get him a David Ortiz...

Cinderella Man

I know – Cinderella Man is not a new movie. But, I’ve got two kids, a wife, a growing business;...

The Carnival of Marketing for June 25

I can see that the carnival is picking up in popularity as the number of submissions and the breath...

Solutions, Solutions Everywhere – But No Value To Be Found

I seem to be ranting a lot lately about words and phrases that drive me crazy. Forgive me, but I’m...

You’ve Got Mail (But Don’t Forget To Call)

Just because you have a technology, does not mean you should use it. Salespeople seem to be...

The Carnival Is Coming Back

The field has been cleared. The last pieces of cotton candy have been cleaned off the furniture....

Another Buzzword to Kill

I would like to nominate another buzzword (or sentence to be more specific) for elimination. Here...

Is The Focus At Your Company Internal Or External?

I’ve written, ad nauseam, that if companies want to be successful in today’s “Wisdom Age,” they...

Is XM Radio Selling Out?

I have been a fan of XM Radio for several years. I have to admit that, originally, when I heard...

Five Words to Never Use In a Sales Situation

Business week online has an excellent article, Five Words Never to Use In An Advertisement. It...

Why “Value-Added” Is No Longer Valuable

I propose terminating a popular buzzword – “value added.” Why? Because if you have to say something...

Choking On Alphabet Soup

I know I'm not the first to say this: I hate companies that use initials.

The Only Meaningful Marketing Metric

The summer issue of Booz, Allen, Hamilton's Strategy + Business has some great stuff. One of the...

Are Leads Groups Dinosaurs?

I was asked today about whether I wanted to participate in a “leads group.” For those of you that...

When is Free Too Expensive?

A new daily newspaper made its introduction to my neighborhood recently. It’s delivered to my door,...

Respect

I am a proponent of building a customer/client community. I am a big fan of word-of-mouth (WOM)...

Make A Promise

As companies look for ways to reinvigorate both the quality and rate of their growth in the...

When Does Transparency Lead to Commoditization?

Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba over at The Church of The Customer recently blogged about CoffeeCup...

Human Capital?

I recently heard a consultant talk about the need to recruit and retain talented “human capital.” I...

The Carnival of Marketing for May 7

There’s a lot of great stuff on the web to help anyone who is attempting to accelerate the growth...

The Problem With Marketing

I’d like to oversimplify the buying cycle for a moment. A buyer goes through six basic stages:

The Carnival of Marketing Coming to The Fast Growth Blog Next Week

We've had the honor of having several of our posts chosen for the weekly Carnival of Marketing. The...

The Dangers of Doing Things The Same

A True Story

Will Wal-Mart’s Lust for “Gracie” Be Its Deadly Sin

The Washington Post has an excellent article on Wal-Mart’s plan to go “upscale.”

The Recipe for a Successful Sale

Spencer Johnson, in The One Minute Salesperson wrote:

It May Be Time To Short Wal-Mart

I’ve never visited a Wal-Mart. Never been inside the building. The closest I’ve been is when I...

Does Your Offering Need A Prescription?

Are Your Employees "Raving Fans?"

I had an interesting conversation this weekend about employee loyalty. There was a concern about...

Hurricanes

What would you pay for a 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood? According to Home Depot’s website, it’s $15.99.

Can You Build a $20 Million Company With No Employees

I recently met with a new client at Starbucks to discuss how Imagine Business Development may be...

What the Alcatel/Lucent Merger Means to Fast-Growth Businesses

Make no bones about it. Lucent’s decision to merge with Alcatel is the admittance of complete and...

Why People Aren't Visiting Your Web Site

Scott Heiferman (co-founder of Meetup.com) has a great post on why people aren't using your...

The One That Got Away

There are only two questions you need to answer to determine if your business will be successful:

Twenty Times?

I recently attended as program on marketing. One of the panelists distributed a copy of Thomas...

Driving The Sales Process

One of the most painful experiences for salespeople is when they have presented their solution to...

Why Doesn’t Advertising Work Anymore?

USA Today reports that 80% of marketers surveyed in a recent Association of National Advertisers...

Tell It To Me Like I’m A Six-Year-Old

In the 1993 movie, “Philadelphia,” Denzel Washington plays the role of a trial attorney. who asks...

How to Structure a Powerful Presentation

When you go-to-market, you must be able to make a compelling presentation to your selected...

Hiring Salespeople

In the recent bestseller, Freakonomics, the authors point out that when the esteemed economist,...

How to Kill Lead Generation In One Easy Step

I have been flooded recently with an extraordinary amount of sales literature, phone calls and...

The Laws of Lifetime Growth

While I often times reference a book in this blog, it is not often that I actually recommend one....

What Is Your Promise?

Do you make a compelling promise to your audience? Can you tell your potential customers what they...

Jack Trout Blows It

In a column for forbes.com, Jack Trout takes on word-of-mouth marketing (click here to read). Trout...

But, I Don’t Have Time…

These are the times that try men's souls. … Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we...

A Four Seasons Experience Isn’t Always About A Four Seasons Experience

The Trouble With Automation

I’m all for automating processes to help make businesses more efficient. I certainly wouldn’t be...

The Challenge of Staying True To Your Core

Om Malik has an interesting post on Starbucks.

Why Salespeople Have Such A Bad Name

Sometimes, I just can't take it. As someone whose vocation and avocation is the professionalization...

The Trouble with Creatives

Spike Jones has an interesting post about awards season. I respect that as a creative, Spike...

Align Your Go-To-Market Model with Your Client’s Value Segment

A theme throughout everything that I write is the need to create value in every aspect of a...

Geoffrey Moore Nails It – Again

I just started reading Geoffrey Moore’s new book Dealing with Darwin and he nailed a point I’ve...

Thoughts On “The Ice Cream Maker”

Every now and then, several people tell me about a book at the same time. When this happens, I find...

A Follow Up On My Coffee Shop Experience

Regarding my Dec 22, 2005, posting – “Never Forget The Core Reason Why People Buy From You” -- Over...

How’s This For a Dating Strategy?

Scene: first date dinner, nice restaurant

Building The Bridge: A Story About How to Cut Your Sales Cycle In Half

Imagine Media, the publishing arm of The Imagine Companies, has released a new book titled,...

Great Stuff on Carnival of Marketing

Noah Kagan’s creation, carnival of marketing, is being hosted this week by Louis Gudema at Magic...

Saving Customers Money Is Good. Creating Value For Them Is Better.

I received an insightful comment on my posting, “The Hidden Truth About Creating Value.” The reader...

Rules to Live By

I was cleaning my office this past weekend and came across these rules. I felt they were worth...

The Opposite of a Remarkable Experience

Seth Godin got’s a great example of how the little things kill a client experience – the opposite...

Congrats Steelers & A Riff on Super Bowl Advertising

It is no secret to anyone who reads The Fast Growth Blog or anything else I write that I am no fan...

Imagine Business Development & Clients Featured In SmartCEO Magazine

Imagine Business Development and two of its clients were featured in Washington SmartCEO's February...

Should I Blog?

I just got turned on to the Church of The Customer Blog. I also went out and bought their book,...

It's Time To Stop Giving Customers What They Want!

I just sat through a three-hour workshop for CEOs on the topic of customer feedback. It made me...

The Broken Plate Theory

The key to successful growth is broken plates. Let me explain. There are only three resources...

Where Are You Coming From When You Go-To-Market?

Despite all of the talk within business circles about customer-centered initiatives, the reality is...

What IF...?

What if your business could accomplish things you never thought it could accomplish? What if you...

Presence – A Warning Against Trying To Solve New Problems With Old Solutions

I’m reading a fabulous book, Presence, by (among others) Peter Senge, famous for The Fifth...

Find Your Prescription For Creating Value

It's tough being a doctor today. Traditionally, all medical professionals have operated under the...

Wall Street Journal Article Shows Madison Avenue Still Doesn't Get It

It finally sank in on Madison Avenue in 2005 that the 30-second commercial is fading as a means of...

Your First Discovery Of 2006: What Causes Sales?

Successful selling requires a number of things happening in concert. You need an excellent...

Never Forget The Core Reason Why People Buy From You

I love coffee shops. For some reason ,my neighborhood is a magnet for gourmet coffee...

The Hidden Truth About Creating Value: If You Don’t Create It, You Destroy It.

Over the last month, I’ve received several questions about creating value. For those who are not...

The Entrepreneurial Dilemma – An Abundance Of Possibilities

Over the last few weeks, I’ve become aware of a fundamental dilemma entrepreneurs face regularly:...

Trying To Grow From “Good To Great?” Don’t Get Stuck With Less-Than-Great People On The Bus

Before I begin I need to give a disclaimer, I provide outsourcing services.

McAdvertising

If you don’t yet believe that traditional approaches to advertising and growth are dead, I...

Carnival of Marketing

Noah Kagan’s creation, The Carnival of Marketing, is in its fourth week. It's a great way to get...

December Issue Of Harvard Business Review Tops Our Holiday Reading List with Articles On Strategy And Marketing

The December 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review is a must read for any executive or entrepreneur...

Don’t Be Tempted To Trade Customer Satisfaction

I just got back from a business trip in Toronto. Monday night I had the privilege of meeting with a...

What Sony Knows (And Has Apparently Forgotten) About Driving Growth

No focus group ever told Sony it needed to create a small rectangular piece of plastic that people...

What Is Strategy?

For those of you that don’t know me, I read a lot of books. What’s a lot? In a slow year I’ll read...

Why People Don’t Pay Attention to the Price of a Room at The Four Seasons

Be a ‘Purple Cow.’ Pursue the ‘Wow’. Make it ‘priceless.’

The "Freakanomics" of Growth

Every now and then, a book that focuses on non-business issues tells us more about running an...

Beware The Danger Of “WE”

“Our main consulting strategy is to convince clients that we do stuff they can't do themselves, and...

Why Microsoft Is One of the Most Profitable Companies in History

In a previous post, I defined commoditization. But what causes it? The answer to that question is...

What Bach, Beethoven, Bruce Springsteen and Eminem Learned That Can Help Any CEO

I just attended a conference where Boris Brott, one of Canada’s most famous symphony conductors was...

Why Dell, IBM and Intel are Able to Sustain Growth, pt 2

My salespeople are too creative.

Why Dell, IBM and Intel Are Able to Sustain Growth

Stop relying on genius to fill your sales team. In my work with growth companies, I am constantly...

How to Get Your Customers To Be Willing to Pay For A Sales Call – Part 2

The second opportunity for salespeople to create value is what we call The Design Phase. In The...

The 80/20 Rule Can Kill Your Business!

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist in the early 20th century created a mathematical formula to...

Making Your Sales Process Your Competitive Advantage

Businesses must change their focus. The sales force must create value. Salespeople can no longer...

How to Get Your Customers To Be Willing to Pay For a Sales Call - Part 1

Our study of best practice value creation demonstrates that there are three opportunities when your...

A Brief Explanation Why Traditional Sales Systems No Longer Work

Colorful new brochures, catchy new advertising, Blackberrys for the salespeople -- do any of these...

Welcome To Imagine Sales Consulting's Blog - Providing Knowledge for Fast-Growth Companies

Growth is the business imperative of the 21st century. Cover stories on magazines as diverse as The...

Commoditization - The Enemy of Fast-Growth

"A commodity is any good, service, or process that can be produced by any number of firms, and the...

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