by Steve Facini In Arthur Miller’s famous play “Death of a Salesman”, the main character, Willy Loman, is a salesman trying to reach the American dream.  He is a man obsessed with trying to become sucessful, or at least happy, but he encounters many unforeseen problems that lead to his tragic death. Now, almost 70 […]

If you sell a physical product or service directly to consumers, you’ve probably at least considered running a promotion to help boost flagging sales. Sometimes it even seems like you have to do it, if every single one of your competitors is running some kind of holiday coupon or discount. For some businesses, however, it […]

by Steve Facini When I attend business conferences, the thing I am most careful to prepare isn’t my business cards or my elevator pitches—it’s my etiquette. Being respectful, acting with integrity, and being thoughtful with others’ time is the key to squeezing the most value out of every handshake and every minute spent away from […]

Do you want the long answer, or the short one? The simple reason that you should never treat your customers like they’re stupid is that Why You Should Never, Ever Treat Your Customers like they’re Stupid. What do I mean when I say not to treat your customers like they’re stupid? Well, for one, I […]

by Steve Facini In addition to their normal responsibilities of managing client portfolios, navigating a complex regulatory environment and trying to figure out where the economy and stock markets are headed, Financial Advisors sometimes feel that they should also be experts in digital marketing.   Though the basic tenets of marketing remain the same – developing […]

I was reminded recently of a piece of advice offered by Tim Ferriss in his book “The 4-Hour Work Week”. While Tim presents some game-changing strategies for being more productive and re-evaluating your career priorities, some point out that a few of his suggestions are less than ethical. One such case study within the book […]

I recently had the good fortune of leading a roundtable discussion at The Transformational CMO Assembly hosted by the Millennium Alliance. Participating in the discussion was an all-star group of marketers spanning several categories who graciously shared their unique perspectives on the current state of marketing.  The group included: Jason Angrisani – Bloomberg L.P., Jerome […]

Is your blog turning people off? Once you win the battle of getting traffic to your site, you need to impress them enough to stay, read, and absorb your message. Otherwise you’ll have wasted all the time and dollars you spent getting them there. These five common sins of blogging are seen all the time, […]

I’ve been running into an all-too-common scenario at conferences and networking meetings: the death of the elevator pitch. When asked what their business does, I see far too many people who don’t (or can’t) explain it in the time it would take an elevator to reach their floor. I hear the word “ummm”, “well,” and […]

A lot of very, very smart people are weighing in on where they think the future of content marketing is going, so I’ve rounded up my three favorite predictions for 2016. After seeing what the experts had to say and adding my own insights, a broad picture began to emerge: blogging and content marketing in […]

While moderating a round table discussion recently at the Millennial Alliances Financial Services CMO Assembly “The Shift to the New Connected World,” several important themes became apparent. As we transition from the traditional marketing model to the digital/data-driven marketing model, the journey for each company is unique, but the overall objective is similar – creating […]

According to a 2014 Global Consumer Banking Survey conducted by Ernst & Young, customer experience was identified as the key ingredient for winning, growing and retaining customers in an increasingly competitive banking environment.  Those findings come as no surprise, especially in a commoditize world of retail banking but before we discuss what drives a quality […]