New business can spring from anywhere: A cold call, networking at an industry event, or even from the competition. According to author Andrew Sobel, there are ways to capture new clients from competitors without crossing your ethical boundaries or coming across as threatening. Sobel identifies eight principles to follow, which include keeping an eye out for “trigger events.” These circumstances often present an opportunity for your agency to get its foot in the door with a competitor’s client, and include:

• A conflict
• Executive changes
• Reorganizations
• Economic events or shocks
• Turnover or retirements at the competition
• A service or quality failure on the part of your competition

Click here to get Sobel’s entire take on making the most of trigger events, as well as his other seven principles. But remember, competitors may be scoping out your clients as well!

Lead generation not quite up to par? Maybe it’s time for an audit! Jackie Walts, a 25-year direct marketing and lead generation professional, sings the praises of implementing a self-audit for businesses that are experiencing lackluster leads. “Unless programs are finely tuned by an experienced lead generation team, many end up being expensive experiments with results far below expectations,” she writes. “An audit of the current systems can give a road map on how to improve results.”

In her article, “Leading a Lead Generation Audit,” Walts outlines an eight-step plan for businesses to follow. The steps are:
Step 1: Plan the Audit

Step 2: Define Your Perfect Customer

Step 3: Program Review

Step 4: Review Sources and Results

Step 5: Review the Lead Response Path

Step 6: Review the Lead Funnel

Step 7: Check Sales and Marketing Communication

Step 8: Analyze Results.
To read details about each step, as well as her advice, check out the article here.

The U.S. economy is having a tough time: Spending is down, jobs are being lost, and necessity costs are on the rise. As a business leader, how can you successfully navigate your company through the storm? Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, has some answers. Surprisingly, some of McKee’s suggestions go against one’s typical gut instinct when faced with bleak sales (No discounts on services?), but he makes great points while explaining his theories.

For example, when it comes to his no-discount mantra, he argues that slashing prices is only devaluing your product or services. If you lower your services’ value, why should others not do the same? “It’s easy to rationalize discounting during a downturn, for your company’s sake (‘it helps to drive business’) as well as for the sake of your customers (‘they’re struggling and need the help’),” he writes. “But whether times are good or bad, discounting your price discounts your product in the eyes of your customers.” He suggests that if there is an unavoidable need to make your services more affordable, carefully and consciously lower the prices, rather than advertising a full-blown discount.

McKee offers more valuable insight (including his take on business marketing budgets) in his article “Five Don’ts for Marketing in Tough Times” appearing on BusinessWeek.

“Cold-calling isn’t rocket science.” That’s the title of a recent article by Colleen Francis, founder and president of Engage Selling Solutions. While it may not be rocket science per se, one could argue that there is a particular science to making the perfect cold call. Francis has whittled down cold-call prep to five steps:

1.) Make a good first impression
2.) Be honest and upfront
3.) Build rapport with a story
4.) Find out what matters
5.) Secure the action

In her article, Francis carefully lays out the logic behind each of the steps, noting that each builds the foundation for the following step [check out the full article here]. Overall, the call should last approximately five minutes, and even if it doesn’t lead to success each and every time, you are becoming more comfortable with the process.