How to Plan a Client Appreciation Event for Maximum Marketing Impact
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Educating Customers – Rather Than Selling! (A Summary of our Panel Discussion)
One of the main tenets of Long Cycle Marketing is that we spend a lot of time educating customers rather than selling to them – using the traditional “salesy” approach popularized by Zig Ziglar. You have my money in your wallet, and I have your product in the trunk of my car. I’m just here […]
Infiltrating a Large Organization
As your company grows, you may find yourself courting large organizations and large companies as clients. As in, MUCH bigger. While this can be intimidating (in fact, large organizations are often DESIGNED to be impressive and even intimidating!) working with a large organization is not really any more challenging than working with smaller companies. In […]
Educating Potential Customers – Avoiding Yawns of Boredom
The people who make their living in the aviation industry are not particularly impressed by PowerPoint presentations and brochures. And yet, many of the sales presentations and education sessions we have the pleasure of attending are fraught with some salesperson or spokesperson reading words from a slide, or handing us a dull corporate brochure that […]
How Long is Your Sales Cycle? Ours is Four Years.
Well, UP to four years. The best customers buy from us when the time is right for them, not when it’s right for us. Of course, that requires a healthy pipeline of new and established clients, some good planning and forecasting, and a solid and sustainable (aka “cost effective”) Phase Two in our marketing system. […]
Executive Brief Video Excerpt – Advertising Media with Benét Wilson and Michael Dye
We’d like to thank Benét Wilson and Michael Dye for joining us for our Executive Brief panel discussion this month! Benét and Michael are both expert at using advertising media to attract more customers, readers, clients and/or students! Benét has attracted HUGE social media audiences for Airways News, the Aviation Queen blog, AOPA and Aviation […]
Aviation Advertising – Don’t Abandon Tradition, Build on It!
While our conversation with Benét Wilson and Michael Dye last week focused a lot on “new” methods of advertising in aviation industry, there are some benefits to some of our favorite traditional methods, including trade shows, magazines and direct mail. Especially when you combine the old with the new! Aviation Advertising – Trade Shows Benét […]
Finding the Right Advertising Methods
Advertising can be one of the biggest expenses in your marketing budget, so it’s very important to choose the best advertising methods to reach out to new potential customers. This problem has been with us for quite awhile . . . Half of your advertising dollars are wasted. The trick is knowing which half! John […]
New Year Resolutions vs. Real Commitment (AKA Investment!)
New Year Resolutions are for amateurs and dabblers. Apologies in advance, this post is going to be a bit of a rant, and I know that if you’re reading this I’m “preaching to the choir.” Your indulgence, please. For most of the businesses we work with, New Years is just like any other day. We […]
Three Ways to Save a Sale
“Do you have any programmable Christmas trees?” We asked a very distinguished looking gentleman in a red flannel shirt. “Nope.” “Why not?” “Because they’re nothing but trouble, that’s why not. You don’t want to get it home and plugged in and have it not work right after a week, now do you?” John and I […]
31 Aviation Marketing Tips from from the 2014 Master Class
Since we get to work with the smartest people in the Aviation industry, it is not surprising that we learn a lot. In the case of these 31 aviation marketing tips from the 2014 Aviation Marketing Master Class, sometimes these are ideas that we’ve heard before, but applied in a new way that makes all […]
What Prospects Need Vs. What They THINK They Need
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. Henry Ford If you sell a complex product or service, you know what it’s like to talk with a customer that has a very different idea of what they think they need versus what YOU believe they need. Our […]
Happy Thanksgiving – We’re Thankful for You!
Whether you’re a long-time client, a new member, a casual reader of our articles, or just follow us on social media, we thought we’d take the opportunity of the Thanksgiving holiday to say, “Thank you” – for one or many of the reasons below: Because you work in aviation, making the field better and more […]
Avoid These Three Expensive Marketing Mistakes
If you’ve been reading any of our materials, you know that ABCI strongly advocates against ANY random acts of marketing,but after an insightful conversation sharing conversations we’ve both had with larger aviation companies, we thought we’d share these three particularly destructive and dangerous situations: Marketing Mistake #1 – “I’ve run several expensive, full-page ads in […]
Are You Afraid to Raise Prices?
Aviation professionals who don’t have much experience with marketing and sales assume that if you offer your product at a lower price, you will sell more products. There are many reasons this assumption could be dangerously incorrect. This model assumes that your product is a commodity, like a can of beans, that has little to […]
Seminar Follow Up
One of the key items that we advocate is follow up. Seminar follow up. And presentation follow up. And even phone call follow up. So, we thought we’d give you an inside view of follow up, ABCI style! The Time Management for Sales and Marketing Teams Education Session at the NBAA National Convention was great […]
Five of the Best Marketing Examples from NBAA 2014
John and I were joking that the annual NBAA convention is so big and has so many participants competing for attention that the best tactic for being memorable would be to hire a marching band and maybe some elephants to march down the aisles. [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” […]
Will we see you at NBAA?
We’re making plans for the NBAA Convention in Orlando later this month. Here’s our plan: Tuesday – Static Display & Networking events – meeting with clients & partners at the Static Display Wednesday – 9:00 Facilitating education session: Time Management for Sales & Marketing Professionals. 10:30 – 6:00 – Meeting with clients & partners at […]
Panel Discussion – Marketing Data – Where to Get It, How to Use It!
This webinar is free, but seating is limited. Reserve your seat now! Join us Wednsday, October 15, 2014, 1:00 Mountain Time There is no shortage of marketing data for aviation professionals to take advantage of these days. But there is a shortage of knowledge about how to sift through the mountains of reports and data, […]
Sales success – How hard do your prospects and customers have to work?
Some of you know that we have a kid serving in the Peace Corps in Morocco. You might also know that we went to visit him last week – took him to Spain for a little bit of a vacation along the Costa Del Sol – some castles, boardwalks, Spanish food, beer, and so on. […]