business strategy Archives – Page 3 of 4

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 Sep 2016

How Does Your Value Stack Up In A New Market?

By Doug Wagner|2017-07-12T19:42:21-06:00September 6th, 2016|Categories: Branding, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Oilfield Pulse|Tags: adding value, Brand Strategy, business, business strategy, Creating Value, Entering a New Market, Existing Market, Expansion, Finding Clients, Market, Market Opportunity Assessment, marketing, Marketing Strategy, New Market, Oilfield Hub, Oilfield Pulse, perceived value, Products, Retail, Services, Target, Target Canada|

If you are unprepared or desperate, entering a new market can kill your business. Deep pockets won’t always save you either.

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Remember Target expanding into Canada back in 2013? They had deep pockets and resources. Then after a series of missteps, they pulled out roughly two years later, incurring financial losses in the billions.

Target Canada made a lot of mistakes starting with […]

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 […]

7 Apr 2016

The Power of Knowing Your Entrepreneurial Focus

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T11:44:15-06:00April 7th, 2016|Categories: Business Strategy, Manifast, Mindset and Motivation, The Good Men Project|Tags: advice, business, business strategy, business success, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, focusing on results, leadership, mission, purpose, self focus, strategy, success, workplace|

It is very difficult to focus on a business mission and yourself at the same time. Clarity makes all the difference.

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“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Robert

Robert has somewhere between seven and a dozen small business ventures on the go at any time.

If he sees an opportunity or has an idea, he is quick to launch it. One of the businesses started out in managed information technology services. Then a client asked
if he could build her a […]

17 Dec 2014

Case Study: Writing a Compelling Mission Statement

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T12:25:14-06:00December 17th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Manifast, Marketing|Tags: business growth, business strategy, case study, Mission statement, success, tips|

Purpose or mission driven businesses are not only more satisfying to start, run and be employed at; they also tend to significantly outperform their competitors financially.

So I’ve been thinking a bit about mission or purpose driven businesses recently. There are more and more examples coming out where mission or purpose driven organizations are outperforming their competition.

In fact, two of the books I am reading right now touch on this very concept from a client attraction and retention perspective.

The first is “Getting Naked” by […]

15 Jul 2014

Managing Business Risk in the Dark Ages of Social Media

By Doug Wagner|2018-01-03T19:20:18-07:00July 15th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|Tags: business, Business Culture, Business Risk, business strategy, Corporate Culture, entrepreneur, marketing, Marketing Strategy, small business, social media|

Back in the dark ages, villagers and townspeople would often react to a rumor and then take action swiftly to bring justice upon the presumed guilty party without waiting for the authorities to resolve it. The more emotionally attached people were to the crime, the less real or confirmed information they needed to follow the crowd and exact revenge.

Unfortunately two things were often true:

There was a […]

6 Jun 2013

12 Success Attributes for an Ideal Coaching Client

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-07T21:12:45-06:00June 6th, 2013|Categories: Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|Tags: business advice, Business Coaching, business strategy, business success, Coachable, Coaching, Coaching Client, Continuous Improvement, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Go-Giver Coach, Ideal Client, Ideal Clients, Ideal Coaching Client, Learning, self-awareness, small business owner, success, Trust|

Are you a business coach wanting to find better clients or working with a coach and want to get more from the deal?

I was thinking about what an ideal coaching client would look like. Then I realized that the attributes of the ideal coaching client are that exact same attributes for:

Personal Success
Career Success
Sales Success
Leadership Success
Business Success

Yes, coaches want to work with clients who REALLY want to win, take action and apply what […]

24 Oct 2011

Start Your Engine of Growth

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-31T12:26:32-06:00October 24th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Working on the Business|Tags: Brand Strategy, business advice, business growth, business strategy, business success, Engine of Growth, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Eric Ries, Lean Startup, Manifast, Marketing Strategy, SaaS, Software, Startup, Sticky Engine of Growth, Working on the Business|

We are in the midst of launching our new Manifast product. In fact we are committing to launching our MVP in November 2011. This has gotten me to thinking about marketing, sales and most importantly our revenue model. Do we have our engine of growth defined?

In “The Lean Startup” Eric Ries talks about three engines of growth for startups:

The Sticky Engine of Growth (customer retention (churn) is key)
The Viral […]

19 Jul 2011

Are You Working on the Business?

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-24T13:03:07-06:00July 19th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Working on the Business|Tags: business, business advice, business growth, business strategy, business success, Dysfunctional Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, leadership, small business, small business owner, strategy, success, Working on the Business|

What does working on the business really mean?

As a business owner (or entrepreneur) you spend a lot of time working to build your business. You are:

Finding new customers,
Keeping existing customers happy,
Providing your product or service to customers,
Hiring good people,
Retaining your employees,
Keeping on top of the finances,
Putting out fires,
And generally growing your business.

And many business owners can generate a lot of revenue and even profit doing the above. They may even significantly grow their businesses.

So isn’t that […]

21 Feb 2010

Business Strategy: What Do You Really Want to Optimize?

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-21T15:53:41-06:00February 21st, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|Tags: business, business growth, Business Optimization, Business Performance, business strategy, business success, Clients, Customers, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, innovation, Selling Your Business, small business, small business owner, strategy, Working on the Business|

Before you spend resources on improving your business performance, it is best to know where you want to go. This means getting clear on your business strategy.

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Improving Business Performance

There are two main ways of improving business performance:

Optimization – Making things better, best practices, incremental improvements,
Innovation – Doing different things, doing things differently, leaping past the competition.

It is easy to think there is a magic bullet for optimizing your business’s performance. […]