Comments on: You Can Kiss Your Competitors Goodbye

By: Michael Benidt

Michael Benidt — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:55:48 +0000

Click on Matt’s name to go to the James J. Hill Business Reference Library Blog. The Hill Library is Sam’s old hang-out at http://www.jjhill.org – and a resource we’ve written and spoken about regularly. Matt is one of their top researchers and a great guy, too.

Matt has also been a guest writer for this blog, but he’s too modest to tell you all those things.

Thanks, Matt

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:11:24 +0000

A recent survey found that adults reported 65 billion situations in which information was needed to make a decision in the last year. 65 billion! The best thing about the Internet is that it empowers anybody to get onto it and poke around for that needed information. The worst thing about the Internet is that every Web site is different, and every information seeker is different. So there’s no standardization. In order to conduct effective online research that can come even close to being considered trustworthy, you need a plan. And when it’s your business, that plan had better be better than “well, I thought I’d try Google?” I haven’t read Sam’s book, but I’ve seen him speak on the topic, and I’ve seen the table of contents, and he lays out plans for dozens of different areas of business research and names specific tools to conduct that research. A daunting task made manageable. I also agree that the notion of competition is changing, and that partnerships that highlight the strengths of each partner – and allow for focus just on those relative strengths – can provide a compelling recipe for success.

By: Michael Benidt

Michael Benidt — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:55:03 +0000

Thanks, Ardath,
Discovered her blog, Marketing Interactions, when I was looking around to see who had written about Sam Richter's book. She was one of the first in an article called, "Warm Calls are Not a Myth"
In fact, it's her second article about Take the Cold. Nicely done.

By: Ardath Albee

Ardath Albee — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:44:27 +0000

Interesting post!

To your comment about people needing Internet research tools, I was catching up on some articles over at Marketing Profs and saw this line in an article by Jason Prescott – “A 2006 study by Outsell reported a 31.9 percent failure rate among business users when researching topics using the major search engines.”

Something tells me it hasn’t gotten any better, either. In fact in another study quoted in that article, only 11% of people who searched found what they were looking for on their first query.

Plus, add in the fact that salespeople spend more time doing research and admin tasks than in face-to-face customer conversations and you’ve got a compelling issue that can be solved – or at least sped along – by the tools in Sam’s book.

I also like the idea of partnering with your competition. I do a lot of that. Usually, what I find is that we all have differentiated skills that, when combined, can create compelling offerings and better outcomes than they would perhaps if used alone. One thing’s for sure, it’s always interesting.

Thanks for the post!
Ardath