Laurence Ainsworth
Is This the Worlds Worst Sales Qualification Question?
Over recent weeks I've seen many businesses fall into this trap and rely on what I think is the world worst sales qualification question. It seems to be especially prevalent in micro businesses and in the creative industries.In my opinion sales qualification is one...
Comparing the Performance of Linked In and Twitter Ads
I want to say from the start that I'm no SEO specialist or Social Media Guru. I'm a business consultant specialising in supporting High Growth Businesses. I am a bit of a pioneer, joined Twitter in Dec 2008 and Linked In even earlier I...
Does Spending More On Marketing Equal More Success ?
This was a question that was raised at a recent meeting. It provoked a surprising amount of discussion as on the face of it, the answer should be yes. However and not surprisingly life is a bit more complicated than that. There is no doubt...
What Do High Growth Businesses Do Differently?
That’s a question that most of us find intriguing because we all want to know the secret of success. Many business owners I know, whom others might consider successful, are themselves a little nervous as they don’t really understand why they got to where...
Time To Review Your Value Proposition.
We can at last say with some confidence that we are seeing some "green shoots of recovery". Recent figures have indicated an acceleration in growth and this points towards a more buoyant economy. Let's not get carried away as we are still operating at...
The High Growth Challenge
Growing a business is a challenge in its own right, growing a business in an environment of high growth is doubly difficult. To get an idea of just how difficult that is you only have to look at how few businesses manage...
Death by Social Media?
Help I'm going round in circles! I cant stand it. Every week there is a new must have social media platform which claims to: increase my lead generation or destroy the opposition or dominate my niche or explode my sales. (I like this...
Does Your Website Pass the “I” “We” “You” Test?
Two-Point Perspective. Write from the readers perspective on your website. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) As the use of websites to promote our brand and generate leads intensifies too many of us fail a basic but critical test which dramatically impact the performance of our sites. You…
Exploiting Your IP For Commercial Advantage
There were a couple times over the last week when I have bumped into Intellectual Property (IP), the first was that there are tax breaks if you exploit it and second IP is still hugely valuable even if you cant patent it. Both occasions incidentally...
Social Media Stop Fighting it and Start Using it
English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Social Media is going to become increasingly important in everyone's lives whether we like it or not. As a business person that means you have to...
Cold Calling or Lead Generation, Are We Missing The Key Point?
Over the last few weeks it seems that the intensity of the debate about ditching cold calling and moving to digital lead generation has increased to a level of intensity where it is getting a bit absurd. It seems to me that proponents of...
Get Profit from your Sales
English: Cost-Volume-Profit diagram, showing break down of Sales into Contribution and Variable Costs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A recent blog post on pricing reminded me that we tend to forget how important it is to make a profit and often how little room for manoeuvre there...
Social Networking How To Stop it Becoming a Time Sink
Over the past 5 years, yes it's really that long, social media or social networking has moved from the fringes of marketing to centre stage. At the same time industry pundits are recommending that we engage with people across more and more platforms. Yesterday...
Pricing objections – what they really mean
Pricing is perhaps one of the most misunderstood issues in business, if used properly it's one of the simplest ways to help you maximise your profits. Easy then, so what's the problem? The problem with owner managed business is that they assume that they...
The Stresses and Challenges of Managing a High Growth Business
Choosing to follow a path of high growth is not always a conscious decision. I have met many businesses who find themselves in a phase of high growth and whose owners are looking around wondering how they got there. However in order to continue to…
Do You Get Business From Social Networking?
Back in January of 2011 I released the figures from a poll which asked users a simple question; Do you get business from social networking? The figures were interesting. The biggest category was those who would like to get business from social networking...
Healthy Culture Delivers Better Business Performance
Business performance and culture have always been linked, although its tended to be anecdotal evidence rather than hard statistics. I myself as part of our High Growth Programme spend some time on the importance of understanding your culture and analysing if it is suitable...
Culture – Finding Out What You have
Recently I wrote about the importance of culture in supporting high growth persistent businesses. I've had a couple of requests from business owners if there was somewhere they could get a sample list of questions which they could use as a starting point for...
Culture – Getting the One You Want
This short article will give you practical steps to identify the culture you have now and the culture you would like to have to support you as a high growth business. We have talked earlier about the importance of a strong company culture...
Managing High Growth: Using Your Culture for Competitive Advantage
In my earlier piece about the importance of culture in high growth businesses I talked about how culture is considered a soft skill and that most business people tend to ignore it, mostly because there is no imm Aleutian Cultures (Photo credit: Travis S.) ediate…