Sales Archives – Page 2 of 11 – Sunwapta Solutions

29 Mar 2017

If Marketing Is a Growing Asset, Would You Invest More?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T11:10:41-06:00March 29th, 2017|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: business, inbound marketing, marketing, Marketing Assets, Marketing Services, Marketing Strategy, Oil and Gas, sales, small business|

For most Oil and Gas (O&G) service companies, marketing works like this. You put money into it, and if it works, you get some leads. Marketing is an ongoing expense instead of an asset. Stop spending, and you stop getting results.

Sales Assets

Sales work much the same way. The biggest difference is it is primarily composed of people. If customers are spending somewhere and you want more sales, you either motivate your sales team a little more or hire additional sales people.

There are two common types of sales people everyone talks […]

22 Feb 2017

To Win, Understand Your Buyers Better Than Anyone Else

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-21T16:33:38-06:00February 22nd, 2017|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: adding value, Brand Strategy, business, business strategy, Buyer, Buyer's Journey, inbound marketing, inbound sales, marketing, Marketing Results, Marketing Strategy, sales, sales process, small business, Steps in Buyer's Journey, Vendor, Working on the Business|

Ultimately buyers are responsible for making wise purchases. However, they usually need help. That is your opportunity to guide them through the buyer’s journey.

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Buyer’s Perspective

When buyers don’t know how to differentiate their vendors or the solutions they provide, they focus on price.

It is easy to blame vendors for not making things clear in their marketing and sales literature. How many buyers know what questions to ask a supplier, so the important differences are evident?

To get […]

6 Dec 2016

The Mystery in Marketing

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:06:36-06:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|

Alien Spaceship X-Files

The Truth is Out There

This month’s theme (Oilfield Pulse) is about conspiracy theories. This theme immediately got me reminiscing about the X-Files television series. It is possible, that somewhere behind all the woes we are facing as a province and industry, there is cigarette smoking man who is somehow in on it.

Or, maybe the truth is more mundane.

It could be that we still don’t have those pipelines because people don’t want them in their backyard for an abstract benefit […]

3 Nov 2016

Fear, the Sounds of Silence, and Some Marketing Strategies

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-12T14:25:51-06:00November 3rd, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: alberta, business, communication, economy, fear tactics, government, marketing, marketing solutions, ndp, Paul Simon, politics|

Like many people, I’ve been following the U.S. election. It has become nasty and full of hate. The Internet, the media, and social media are amplifying the effect. A year ago, we watched the Conservative Party try a few...

6 Oct 2016

The Hidden Costs of Failing to Innovate in Sales

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T17:45:18-06:00October 6th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: Challenger Sales, CRM, inbound marketing, innovation, marketing, outbound marketing, ROI, sales, Sales Teams, smarketing|

What are you doing to innovate how you market and sell your products and services? If you are trying to survive and even thrive at today’s oil prices, these two functions are the key to competing and staying profitable.

27 Jun 2016

Who is the Hero In Your Story?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:09:16-06:00June 27th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, business advice, business success, changing roles, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, everyday heroes, happiness, leadership, manhood, marketing, masculinity, Steve Jobs, Storytelling, success, Work|

Who Is The Hero in Your Story

Great leaders and businesses have a story to tell. The best understand who the hero should be.

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Many men have lost their place in the bigger story. We bought into one narrative that has not worked out and are now struggling to find a new one as the world rapidly shifts underneath us. Some are looking for a hero, and some are seeking to become one again. We […]

16 May 2016

Finding Balance On The Road To Competitive Advantage

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:10:29-06:00May 16th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|Tags: Balance, business, business strategy, Competition, Competitive Edge, Customization, Industry, innovation, marketing, Standardization, Tightrope|

Elephant on Tightrope - Balance

Businesses must walk a fine balance between innovation and standardization.

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I don’t usually mention this, but I initially studied to be an engineer before circumstances sent me off on a different path. Maybe that training causes me to notice things or maybe seeing patterns is just a part of me.

Quite a few years ago, I observed something about Calgary road designs. It seems like every major intersection project was an […]

2 May 2016

Be Careful What You Ask For On the Internet

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:10:50-06:00May 2nd, 2016|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, Technology, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, Comedy, exploration, forrest gump, internet, internet comments, Internet Trolls, marketing, masculinity, online bullying, pirates, polar, polls, public relations, science, small business, social media, social media abuse, Work|

You probably wouldn’t let the Internet name your baby. So what could go wrong in naming your $289 million polar research vessel?

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What happens when you are building an expensive new polar research vessel, and you want to generate some visibility for the project? Why of course, you hold a public naming contest on the Internet.

This is exactly what the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) did.

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The new ship, […]

5 Apr 2016

Going High to Access Alberta’s Ocean

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-17T13:22:16-06:00April 5th, 2016|Categories: Current Events, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|

Imagination, Innovation and a Boy in Box

Alberta wasn’t always landlocked. Now is the time to reimagine our competitive advantage.

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Alberta wasn’t always landlocked. Anywhere from 600 million years ago until 85 million years ago, give or take some rounding errors, the salt water of the ocean covered Alberta by varying degrees.

Then for 2 million years, Alberta went through about 80 glacial cycles. The last ice age finished about 10,000 years ago, bringing us to relatively modern times.

The federal government got elected […]

21 Mar 2016

Manage Your Brand: Win the Hearts of Customers

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:11:51-06:00March 21st, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse, Sales|

Happy Customers - Branding

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People buy Apple products, because Apple has a powerful brand that connects to their ideal customer.

Consumers can see the connection to the iPhone in their hand or the MacBook Pro in their lap along with the company itself.

It doesn’t matter if the products are manufactured offshore by companies and people they don’t know exist. It doesn’t matter if the components in the phones are fabricated by other companies most of us have never heard of. […]