Marketing and Sales

On Feb. 1, Megan J. Brennan became the 74th Postmaster General and CEO of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Brennan’s intent to make the struggling agency more efficient, and thereby accessible for all mailers, was welcome news to marketers disheartened by years of red tape and negative press—but change doesn’t happen overnight.

Take a look at your immediate surroundings. How many paper products are within view? Don’t be surprised if the answer is higher than you first thought. From education to communication, information to technology, food to hygiene, paper enters and affects nearly every aspect of our lives.

Walter Hill Jr. wants results—and as his 35-plus years in brand promotion show, that hasn’t been an issue for the president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Icon Blue Inc. Hill’s success is the outcome of smart decision-making, coupled with a growing entrepreneurial spirit, that dates back to 1966 when he left Virginia for a fresh start in California.

Hungry conglomerates. Tightening budgets. Online print purchasing. The traditional reseller channel has taken its fair share of hits over the years. With competition at an all-time high, how do you, the distributor, win over accounts and attract long-term business? The answer is simple. You leverage the capabilities of your supply-chain partner. Together, you can match the unique needs of each client or prospect, turning the impossible task into business as usual.

We all reach critical points in our lives where our mental toughness is tested. It might be a toxic friend or colleague, a dead-end job, or a struggling relationship. Whatever the challenge, you have to be strong, see things through a new lens, and take decisive action if you want to move through it successfully.

Have you ever thought about where a person's email address comes from? Does it have something to do with his or her brand? It absolutely does.

Time is one of the most precious assets to most business owners. But with so many different time-wasting tasks taking up space on your to-do list, you need to prioritize and make cuts wherever possible. However, there are ways to save time without actually skipping any important items on your list.

The title of the article says it all when it comes to leading effective meetings. As the sales executive, you are the leader when meeting with clientele.

False Start: On occasion you may hear someone say, "I can talk to you now, but I only have a few minutes. In a snapshot, tell me what you've got."

Many people fall for this, and proceed to tell everything they've got in a two-minute verbiage vomit. The only thing this produces is a mess, and hearing "not interested."

If you want to think at the deepest level, you must examine what others say. You have to engage in active listening to get to another person's "why"—not their surface-level "what" and "how" communications.

Customer loyalty is the root of success for any lasting business. And when that loyalty turns into passionate advocacy, a "superfan" is born. For brands, these dedicated followers can help transform a satisfactory business into a sensational one. The obvious question for brands is then: How do you create superfans?

To answer this question, we focused on 10 brands that have passionate superfans, and then looked for the primary element driving that passion. Your business may have one of these elements, or better yet, it may have several.