The Great Marketing Circus – PR’s magic, revealed!

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The marketing arena can easily be compared to a three-ring circus. A few clowns, a few death-defying leaps and the ring leader is expected to single-handedly bring it all together. Of course, we can’t forget the one person everyone expects to see – the great magician: shrouded in mystery, quite dramatic and never without ability to manifest greatness from thin air at the drop of a hat.

So, in a recent RFP, when the company asked what PR ‘tricks’ our agency had up our sleeves, I came to the stunning realization that there really are people out there who believe that the practice of public relations is truly magical.

Believe me, if this were possible, all PR practitioners would operate from the beach. You know – a check in at the smoothie stand every so often and a wave of their wands a couple times a day for good measure.

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About the Author

Allison Brinkman
PR Manager, Eisen Marketing Group
[email protected]
 
 
Alli found herself saying the same thing Greeks have been saying for centuries when she provided an opportunity to work with EMG clientele: Opa! (Hooray!) An adventurer at heart, she constantly seeks new challenges and celebrates unconventional solutions. No need to cross the Mediterannean and absolutely no Trojan Horse – she is what she is, and that fresh, candid honesty makes for one serious professional.

A diehard Ohio State Buckeye football fan, she knows the value of a little friendly competition – and even has a trivia-loving alter ego ‘BMoney’ to honor that streak. When it comes to clients, however, she isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves, put her game face on and ensure nothing less than the best. Scarlet. Grey. All colors. All colours – she integrates impossible to absolutely.

Having lived abroad twice in both France and Luxembourg, Allison takes advantage of her global perspective in everyday life, and applies that knowledge when discussing global and cultural differences. Her ‘let’s go!’ attitude will gladly take her to the ends of the earth in search of answers, inspiration or just out of curiosity. Give her a minute (or 10), and she’ll gladly tell you all about winter in Stockholm or the music scene in Prague. Go Ask Alli…

Is it the or is it THEE.

Allison is a graduate from The Ohio State University, and has worked in marketing, public relations and event planning for Paramount’s Kings Island, The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and UWeekly Newspaper.

To PR or not to PR: PR is not a verb!

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This is not an article debating the changing landscape of the public relations or advertising industry, or preaching best practice advice, but rather an examination of the two simple letters that encompass all that we (as communications professionals) do: PR.

As a public relations professional, I respect that there are some commonplace misconceptions about what “we” do here at our agency, and likely every other PR agency on the planet for that matter. The perception of what we do is made worse by certain reality television shows that not only make me want to claw my eyes out but insult my intelligence and profession as well. There is a significant difference between a PR firm and a publicist – which allows me illustrate my point: all publicity is PR, but not all PR is publicity.

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About the Author

Allison Brinkman
PR Manager, Eisen Marketing Group
[email protected]
 
 
Alli found herself saying the same thing Greeks have been saying for centuries when she provided an opportunity to work with EMG clientele: Opa! (Hooray!) An adventurer at heart, she constantly seeks new challenges and celebrates unconventional solutions. No need to cross the Mediterannean and absolutely no Trojan Horse – she is what she is, and that fresh, candid honesty makes for one serious professional.

A diehard Ohio State Buckeye football fan, she knows the value of a little friendly competition – and even has a trivia-loving alter ego ‘BMoney’ to honor that streak. When it comes to clients, however, she isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves, put her game face on and ensure nothing less than the best. Scarlet. Grey. All colors. All colours – she integrates impossible to absolutely.

Having lived abroad twice in both France and Luxembourg, Allison takes advantage of her global perspective in everyday life, and applies that knowledge when discussing global and cultural differences. Her ‘let’s go!’ attitude will gladly take her to the ends of the earth in search of answers, inspiration or just out of curiosity. Give her a minute (or 10), and she’ll gladly tell you all about winter in Stockholm or the music scene in Prague. Go Ask Alli…

Is it the or is it THEE.

Allison is a graduate from The Ohio State University, and has worked in marketing, public relations and event planning for Paramount’s Kings Island, The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and UWeekly Newspaper.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out explores how businesses employing a consultative sales method realize dramatically increased revenues. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out: How Complex Selling Really Works and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the five decisions individuals go through before making the final buying decision
  • how to bring other team members into the sales process and the benefits of this practice
  • determining the right number of client needs identification interactions before presenting a solution balanced with the client’s desire to hear the solution given their time investment
  • role of the sales professional in orchestrating solution presentations made by client personnel

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Sales Strategy From The Inside Out and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Sales Strategy From The Inside Out.

Complimenting Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:


Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:35 — 44.8MB)

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Customer Satisfaction: A Flawed Measure

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Your customers want more than “satisfying” transactions – they want engaging relationships

To master the new discipline of the emotional economy, business leaders need a new way to think about “customer requirements” and a new set of tools to help structure their businesses around them. But exactly how should they construct a new definition of customer requirements?

Traditionally, the customer’s perspective has been evaluated by assessing “conformance to requirements,” often (though not always) by using a generic measure of customer satisfaction. Early practitioners of the quality movement postulated that customers would be satisfied with and would continue to purchase a product or service if it met their functional specifications and fulfilled their requirements.

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About the Authors

John H. Fleming, Ph.D., is Principal and Chief Scientist – Customer Engagement and HumanSigma for Gallup and coauthor of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter. He coauthored an article on Gallup’s HumanSigma model in the Harvard Business Review (July/August, 2005) and has published more than 20 research articles and book chapters in such prestigious refereed journals as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Cognition, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. John received his doctorate in social psychology and master’s degree in psychology from Princeton University and his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. To read John’s complete biography, click here.

Jim Asplund is Chief Scientist, Strengths-Based Development and Principal, Performance Impact Consulting with Gallup and coauthor of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter. As a founder and director of Gallup’s Performance Impact Consulting practice, Jim pioneered research to develop Gallup’s HumanSigma approach, which improves organizational performance by managing the employee-customer encounter. He was the primary architect of the HumanSigma measurement system and is the principal consultant for many of Gallup’s best-documented longitudinal case studies of the financial benefits of HumanSigma. To read Jim’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21d – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Masters of Loyalty

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21d – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Masters of Loyalty explores how professional salespeople can move customers beyond being merely satisfied to true loyalty such that they have stopped shopping and are highly resistant to competitors’ appeals. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Masters of Loyalty: How to turn your sales force into a loyalty force. and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • what true customer loyalty is
  • why customer loyalty programs do not make customers loyal
  • the benefits of attaining real customer loyalty
  • how to earn customer loyalty using the Action Selling process

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Masters of Loyalty and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Masters of Loyalty.

Complimenting Masters of Loyalty, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:


Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Masters of Loyalty, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:19 — 36.2MB)

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