The amount spent, annually, by U.S. companies on field sales efforts is 3X their spending on all consumer advertising, more than 20X the spend on all online media, and more than 100X what they currently spend on social media. Selling is, by far, the most expensive part of strategy implementation for most firms.
If you want to produce special work, it’s worth collaborating with special people.
Constantly chopping and changing your specialty will hinder your success.
Having the courage and determination to focus on one subject or area of expertise gives you the solid foundation that is absolutely necessary if you’re to come up with a truly great idea, one that will be key to your future success.
Too many creative people think they don’t need to specialize, that they can have lots of ideas in lots of different subjects all of which are going to be great.
Respect don’t revere.
Putting anyone on a pedestal is dangerous. It implies they’re better than everyone else; but they’re not.
We’re all stepping-stones for the next generation.
It’s no good having great ideas if you can’t sell them.
Without inspiration, our creativity dries up and we start repeating ourselves.
To be a successful creative person you have to be fascinated by the world and all its wonders, absurdities, failings, and mishaps.
Getting noticed is a prerequisite of any good idea.
Of course, the danger is that your passion spills over into obsession and you become a bore.
Nobody wants to be one of those.
I work in advertising but I don’t live it.
From your smart TV to your iPhone to your iPad, we’re seeing more but reading less.
All courtesy of digital technology.
When I’m asked, ‘When do you do your best thinking?’ My answer is always, ‘When I’m not thinking.’
That is why a brainstorming session is a complete and utter waste of time for the truly creative person.
Creativity doesn’t work like that. Too much thinking jeopardizes the creative process.
You can’t be good at everything. The skill is to work with someone who is good at what you are not.
Facebook’s pages platform reaches only six percent of a brand’s followers; and it’s headed down to one to two percent.
If businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising.
The research interview process does more than merely ignore critical components of why people behave as they do, it changes how and what they think.
Participation isn’t enough.
Having a more clear-sighted view on people’s real world buying behaviours and thus which consumers actually matter to the generation of revenue and profit begins to gives us a framework for thinking about participation.
The expanding reach of intellectual property has introduced more and more possibilities for opportunistic litigation: suing to make a buck.
Sample trolls and patent trolls are business models who have developed as a result of this.
Our rational mind is always looking for evidence to support our dominant beliefs…
the stronger the emotion, the stronger the belief, and the greater the tendency to seek out supporting evidence.
This confirmatory bias is why we often overlook the flaws of the ones we love, even if that loved one is a brand.
We focus our attention on the positive qualities of the brand while ignoring the deficiencies.
Burn your business cards.
Whenever we introduce ourselves to another person, we usually lead with our title – whether it’s on our business card or what we claim ourselves to be.
In fact we’re robbing ourselves of some really great opportunities.