Sales and Marketing


Recent Sales and Marketing Articles

Pride of Ownership

Jan 1, 1997

"If you give people ownership of something, they take better care of it," declares Bob Ottley, owner of One Step Tree and Lawncare, in North Chili, N.Y. A...  Read more

Tips for Planning Employee Recognition Events

Jan 1, 1997

Microtest, a $50-million computer and LAN products supplier, celebrates National Customer Service Week each year. The Phoenix-based company designs a seri...  Read more

Help Employees Take Responsibility

Jan 1, 1997

Our customers request little from our employees other than a pleasant disposition," maintains Linn Moedinger, vice-president and chief mechanical officer ...  Read more

Giving Dead-End Jobs a Future

Jan 1, 1997

How do you motivate entry-level employees to give excellent customer service? Carolee Pierce, general manager of Facilities Management and Consulting (FMC...  Read more

Hurry Up and Wait

Jan 1, 1997

How does Dr. Henry Samson, an optometrist located in New Haven, Conn., improve customer service? Samson realized that patients dread filling out "intake" ...  Read more

Declare War on Poor Service

Jan 1, 1997

According to an industry survey, Holy Cross Hospital, in Chicago, has climbed from the 13th to the 98th percentile in patient satisfaction rankings. How? ...  Read more

Everybody Say Cheese

Jan 1, 1997

Frank Meeks, president and owner of Domino's Pizza Team Washington, a 52-store chain in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, has always understood the...  Read more

Listen to the Bartender's Advice

Jan 1, 1997

Christopher Bear, president of the Texas School of Bartenders, in Houston, initially thought quality awards were for big companies, not for a small compan...  Read more

Let Awards Go to Their Heads

Jan 1, 1997

Employee recognition programs motivate employees to deliver quality service--which leads to satisfied customers. With 100 employees to motivate, the J& S ...  Read more

Make Exceptional Service the Standard

Jan 1, 1997

While standards won't substitute for passionate commitment to service excellence, they do encourage consistent behavior that satisfies customers. That's w...  Read more

A Day in Their Shoes

Jan 1, 1997

Would your business do better if your employees could view the world from your customers' perspective? Yes? Then put them there with empathy train...  Read more

Recruit Only the Best

Jan 1, 1997

Whenever someone provided him with great service, Blayne Blowers made an unusual offer: He handed the person a card that read, "I was impressed by your se...  Read more

Screen-Test Prospective Stars

Jan 1, 1997

To fill job vacancies, Shane Jones, CEO and owner of Ace Personnel, in Shawnee Mission, Kans., used to interview 10 people out of the hundreds who respond...  Read more

Share the Wealth

Jan 1, 1997

Training your employees to use the latest version of computer software is a major challenge. Meeting this challenge is critical for Diva Garza, president ...  Read more

Hire Education

Jan 1, 1997

Want to hire employees who give great service? Here are some hiring and training techniques that work well for HGO Technology, a 70-emplo...  Read more

Keys to a Prized Solution

Jan 1, 1997

Is your company learning all it can from its mistakes? Consider the approach used by Shirley Singleton, CEO of Edgewater Technology, a $12-million custom-...  Read more

It's the Fit That Counts

Jan 1, 1997

Businesses say they want new employees to share the company's commitment to customers. David Blumenthal, president and CEO of Flash Creative Management, a...  Read more

Healthy Home Videos

Jan 1, 1997

At a service company, changes in personnel can cause the quality of service to suffer. To prevent uncomfortable and potentially aggravating situations for...  Read more

Form Follows Function

Jan 1, 1997

If you want to provide good service, hire the right employees for the job. But what jobs are they really doing? You may need to redefine the funct...  Read more

Customers Can Sell for You

Jan 1, 1997

If you need to increase sales but can't afford a salesperson, what else can you do? Paul G. Lewis, CEO of MC 2 , a computer network design, insta...  Read more

Preventive Maintenance

Jan 1, 1997

Smart car owners make sure their cars get routine checkups. They rarely do the same for their fine antiques, which may be more valuable than the family ca...  Read more

As Much Fun as Pulling Teeth

Jan 1, 1997

Knowing that fear and anxiety make many people put off going to the dentist unless they have to, dentists follow stress reduction protocols, such as worki...  Read more

Primary Care for Customers

Jan 1, 1997

Cactus & Tropicals, a $2.2-million Salt Lake City nursery, publishes Plant Care tip sheets, makes house calls, and faxes advice to customers with...  Read more

Make Your Customer a Winner

Jan 1, 1997

Out-of-the-box thinking comes naturally to David Diederich, president of Pactech, a $4.5-million company located in Rochester, N.Y., that designs and manu...  Read more

Keeping the Dream Alive

Jan 1, 1997

When the sizzle of a sales pitch fizzles in the wake of the work necessary to fill the order, it's a great time to offer customers a perk to keep them occ...  Read more

Mapping Eliminates Mystery

Jan 1, 1997

"Where's my order?" is perhaps a customer's most frequently asked question. And how a company answers this question is a hallmark of its customer service....  Read more

Peer Pressure Motivates

Jan 1, 1997

By making its 45 employees responsible for setting service standards and accountable to each other for their performance, a $1.7-million ...  Read more

Ideas You Can Deliver

Jan 1, 1997

To compete with bigger chains, a video store offers some unexpected conveniences.  Read more

The Good, the Bad, and the Erotic

By David H. Freedman |  Dec 15, 1996

Inc. Technology's editor thinks about the new fast pace of business, and offers an overview of issue Vol. 4, 1996.  Read more

Software That Thinks

By Sarah Schafer |  Dec 15, 1996

Here's a look at how companies can use artificial intelligence to track customers and predict market trends.  Read more

$ex Sells

By Fred Hapgood |  Dec 15, 1996

Entrepreneurs selling erotica goods on the Internet are learning tricks most cyber-merchants should know.  Read more

Getting a Line on Customers

By Sarah Schafer |  Dec 15, 1996

A quick look at how two companies turned to technology to take a nontraditional approach to marketing.  Read more

Private Connections

By Jim Cope |  Dec 15, 1996

Want an alternative to the Web? Many company are reaching customers by creating private on-line services.  Read more

My Company Is Small. How Can I Attract My First Big Client?

By Christopher Caggiano |  Dec 1, 1996

The president of a direct-marketing agency tells how he landed his largest client.  Read more

Replace Yourself

By Susan Greco |  Dec 1, 1996

You may be the best salesperson your company has ever had, but it still might be time to hire a sales manager.  Read more