This post is about charging what you’re worth, with a great lesson on pricing from the Late Pablo Picasso. Too many products or services are seen as being very similar to others and as a consequience are treated as commodities. When that happens your prospects and customers will shop around and whoever charges the best price for that product or service tends to win the business. But if you can set your product or service apart from all the others out there, you can charge what your product or service is really worth […]

35 Great Articles, Nov 12-19
Here is this week’s Linkfest, a quick burst of 35 hand-picked articles from 12-19 November 2011 for you to digest over the next few days. They’re all articles and stories I’ve particularly enjoyed or from which I’ve gained useful insights as part of my daily routine of keeping abreast of the latest thinking and developments from multiple sources. Topics include marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, mobile and more. I hope you enjoy these articles and find them useful and interesting. Click on the headings in the main article to go to each story.

32 Great Articles From The Past Week
Here are some links to some of the great articles I’ve enjoyed over the past week. As an avid reader and someone who keeps abreast of the latest thinking, I consume vast quantities of information each week from a wide range of carefully curated sources. Now, time permitting, I hope to share some of my personal picks each week via this “Linkfest”. I do hope you enjoy these articles and find some of them useful and interesting.

A Sister’s Moving Eulogy for Steve Jobs
In this post I want to share with you the most touching of the many tributes I’ve read following Steve Jobs’ sad passing. It was a eulogy written and delivered by his biological sister, Mona Simpson, during his memorial service on October 16, 2011 at the Memorial Church of Stanford University. What can I say about this amazing eulogy? It was one of the most powerful, touching, intimate and heartbreaking pieces I’ve ever read. It is a must-read piece that almost ranks right up there with Steve’s own famous Stanford address […]

Is your brain damaging your business?
Why do so many senior people struggle to delegate key tasks even when they know they are limiting growth by being the bottleneck in their business? The latest scientific evidence shows that it’s not only down to skill; it’s their brain getting in the way. There is always a lot more to be done in a day than you can achieve by yourself, and the key to success is knowing what to let go of. But letting go creates uncertainty, and your brain hates uncertainty almost more than anything else.

Marketing your business in our age of mass empowerment
This is a large post, but also an important one if you haven’t fully embraced or adapted your marketing approach to today’s vastly changed business landscape. For 150 years mass marketing was about the ONLY economical way to get your message out there. But today we’re living in a new age of mass empowerment fuelled by commercial clutter, the rise of internet, sophisticated online search, social media, broadband, wi-fi and smartphones. It spells the end of mass marketing as we’ve known it for most businesses [...]

Why bookstores have coffee shops and what that means for your website
Can you imagine trying to persuade Lady Gaga of anything? She is, after all, a clearly determined and opinionated individual. You would be facing up to a fairly formidable personality – you don’t get to be an international superstar by being quiet and open to persuasion. Maybe the reason that Lady Gaga is successful is she prefers tea to coffee. Lady Gaga is one of several [...]

How to write emails that give you no choice but to read on
America’s No.1 sales authority Jeffrey Gitomer recently received an email from me. He says the email gave him no choice but to read on. His interest had to do with the subject line, the headline, the design of the content, and the copy. He liked the email so much that he wrote a widely syndicated article spelling out the 11 factors that compelled him to respond. He kindly allowed me to reproduce the article here, and he makes some great points as he analyses what made the email work [...]

11 easy steps to a best-selling podcast on iTunes
Every day, your customers, prospects, and employees are inundated with information from e-mail, voicemails, spam and memos. So how do you get your important messages across to them in a way that doesn’t get lost in all of that noise? The answer is podcasts. Podcasts are the new way of distributing audio content. They are audio or video recordings that your prospects and customers can subscribe to, receive, download, listen to, or watch using a computer, iPod, M3 player, iPhone, iPad or smartphone [...]

From temp to business owner … my tribute to an amazing lady
Unusually for me, this post is not about marketing strategies. Instead I want to tell you about an amazing and inspiring person who has touched my life and left an indelible impression. Her name was Beryl Miller. She was someone we can all learn from. She was my PA in my first two businesses, and a short while ago, sadly, she lost an 18 month battle with cancer. Beryl was a remarkable person. Although she can’t be with us any more, I hope her example will inspire you [...]

The Power of Persuasion
The ability to influence and persuade others is a critical skill if you’re in business. Some people seem to have an inborn ability to influence others. Those lucky few, who appear able to very skilfully and elegantly engage others are often unable to explain how they have come to possess such an important and essential business skill. But if we consider influence as a science, something else happens: something much more empowering and efficient.

The Influencing Skills of Barack Obama
The seven critical skills that make the US president so influential. Barack Obama is undoubtedly one of the greatest influencers of modern times. His accomplishment in going from a relative unknown to the most talked about person on the planet in less than 18 months provides a lot of valuable lessons to anyone marketing a product, service or person
What does Marketing Wizdom Do?
We don’t offer one-to-one consulting, we don’t do marketing for anyone and we don’t provide any marketing services. We do run a 3-day Quantum Leap Workshop where business founders learn how to create breakthrough marketing results. In addition we mentor groups of business founders, drawn from the top 1% of entrepreneurs, into market leadership in their fields. Each group attends a retreat every 3 months, and participation is by invitation only.
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How I created 3 great websites in 2 days March 17, 2010 -
Why 8% of sales people get 80% of the sales June 13, 2009 -
Do not use Twitter for business July 9, 2010 -
Marketing your business in our age of mass empowerment November 18, 2010 -
The forgotten cost of discounting June 23, 2009 -
Million dollar copywriting tips July 2, 2009 -
From temp to business owner … my tribute to an amazing lady July 6, 2010 -
LinkedIn: 100 Million can’t be wrong! July 1, 2009 -
7 steps to a killer social media plan May 23, 2010 -
What’s your definition of marketing? February 15, 2010
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What Picasso can teach you about pricing November 21, 2011 -
35 Great Articles, Nov 12-19 November 19, 2011 -
32 Great Articles From The Past Week November 15, 2011 -
A Sister’s Moving Eulogy for Steve Jobs November 4, 2011 -
5 Hidden Habits of ineffective people November 3, 2011 -
How I use Twitter October 30, 2011 -
5 Ways to Get Results on LinkedIn October 26, 2011 -
How to be credible when you connect on LinkedIn September 20, 2011 -
Is your brain damaging your business? June 20, 2011 - Apple’s Final Humiliation Of Microsoft January 27, 2011
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Robert Clay: Hello Kristen, thank you for your comment. Yes I a...
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Kirsten Osolind: Hmm. Sounds like you are speaking about "business...
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Robert Clay: Hi Shaleen, glad the article resonated with you. L...
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Robert Clay: Hi Rod,Apologies for the delay in responding. I ...
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Rod Stobo: Robert, I'm concerned this makes discounting soun...
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Shaleen Sinha: I believe this is the first time I have ever bothe...
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Robert Clay: Yes Doug, differentiation is a challenge for most ...
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Robert Clay: Hi Giles, yes I agree. £95 might seem like a lot ...
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Doug Brockway: Knowing where to precisely hammer the nail is inde...
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Giles Farrow: Economists will tell you that in a perfect market,...
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