The Step Change Blog

What should you strive to work on in the first 12 months to successfully connect your team with your business strategy?

Here are the 10 widely read articles from the Step Change Blog.

Invisible Marketing is the messaging customers don’t see. And this is the key to a step change for the Financial Services industry.

At Step Change, we deliver it through a workshop on behavioural economics, and it’s one of our most intellectual perspectives on marketing. Our clients usually ask us, “How do I apply invisible marketing to our brand, products, and our marketing?” Well, if you have a product that isn’t tangible, or if you need to elevate your brand to number one, this is a critical thought process for you.

Your success in sales depends on how effective your qualification process is. Your ability to find a prospect that is a good fit for your business can make or break your business. It’s crucial to nail this because once the prospect becomes a delighted customer, it doesn’t just mean profit — it could also mean a possibility of a repeat sale, more referrals, or the chance to upsell or cross-sell.

In two minutes, I will walk you through an easy-to-remember framework to qualify the sale upfront.

This blog post features the 12th brand archetype in the series, which explores how brands use literary archetypes to stand out and be remembered.

Having a no-brainer business case doesn’t always happen, and getting one that’s 10 out of 10 in every area is like Nirvana — it’s a beautiful time for the client and for us.

In less than two minutes, I share the criteria for when it’s absolutely right to speed up the sale and what this means for your clients and for your business development team.

Slowing down the sale isn’t right for every product, every consumer, every category, or every business model, and it’s certainly not right for every situation. But time and time again, there’s value left on the table on both sides — the buyer and the seller.

In two minutes, I’ll answer the question, “When is the right time to slow down a sale?”

I came across this question from a budding entrepreneur in an online community of marketers: “I just launched my own consultancy, and I am curious: Do I focus on reaching out and getting clients? Or do I build my brand online with the aim of acquiring clients that way?”

It’s a great question. It’s just not the first one I’d be asking. Here’s why.

Calling all startup supporters, startup founders, future founders — Startup Muster has opened its annual survey.

If you’re doing online marketing, there’s no doubt that you are interested in maximising the rate of conversion when potential and returning customers visit your page.

This week’s Step Change News: Join us in congratulating Happy Chicken Eggs and Baptist Care Australia.

Offering a product or service with utility or merit is no longer enough. It’s now necessary to create a value proposition to get people to notice and convert them to loyal customers.

Recall the last time you had your strategic planning with your team. Did your plans turn out to be successful? Or were you frustrated that last year’s SWOT analysis proved to be lacking?

One of the most important things to understand about marketing is that at the heart of every business, there is a brand story waiting to be told to the world.

The retail giant is making its long-awaited move into Australia, bringing its new brand of instant retail distribution to Down Under. While previously only available with expensive shipping and sales in USD, the average Australian consumer will now have easy access to products from around the world in local currency and a higher level of convenience.

Does your arsenal contain great, effective tools to help you boost sales in your business?

This is the second part of the 2 Minutes On series called Amplifying the Sale, and here I’m giving away four of the seven tools and foundations as a checklist so you can work out where your next opportunity is.

What is the one thing you can do to really connect your strategy to your workforce, the ones who will help you execute it?

Oftentimes, leaders and executives of service-based businesses get fewer opportunities to engage with their clients. So how can you ensure that your team are really building high-value relationships with them?

In two minutes, Step Change Founding Partner, Jeff Cooper, shares this and more.

Leadership isn’t just about IQ or technical skill — in fact, these are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. When 58% of all success in jobs are accounted for by emotional intelligence, it’s a clear sign that it has a vital role in the workplace. Moreover, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make an average of $29,000 more per year than people with lower degrees of emotional intelligence.

Too many professional services and consultancies have become hyperspecialised to the point where too many missed the end business result they are driving. At Step Change, we’re here to inspire step changes in your business and your people, and that means looking at your business more holistically than a typical service line specialty would allow.

Many businesses succeed because they have leaders who are eloquent visionaries. They inspire their people with their brilliant strategy to reach their goal. And most importantly, they know that strategy alone is not enough to win. Execution — and how well their people understand this — is the key. So when it comes to people, which is more important — strategy or execution?

There are many ways to generate leads for your business. Advertising, referrals, cold calling, buying names — you’ve probably done some of these to sell your product or service. But there’s one tool marketers miss to use to its full potential to generate more leads.

Is being a leader in a highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world driving you to the edge? Tough situations require you to be on top of your game, to make sound decisions for your team. But just when you need the very best version of yourself to run the show, the undesirable version shows up and makes a mess out of you.

Is there a way to be a better leader in the VUCA world?

Are people in your organisation your most important asset? Or are they your biggest liability? Find out how people can be your most valuable asset in Jeff Cooper’s interview with the founder and managing director of Checkside, Chris Bates.

What’s new in IT? Learning more about the latest IT support trends can help you stay agile and ensure that your business is always using the best tools available. From increased reliance on AI and automation to more mobile devices in the workplace and even some growing security threats, here’s what to be ready for in 2017:

Step Change among the top 10 most valuable consultant companies, Sleeping Duck's Sandman, and a look at the Step Change culture — all in today's Step Change News.

How people experience a brand largely impacts their loyalty. No wonder a lot of businesses consider customer experience very important. The challenge is, in the age of digital revolution, customers’ expectations are set high up there. So how can businesses meet the demand for a remarkable customer experience?

We’ve been building bespoke customer journeys in B2B and consultative sales across all industries the government recognises. And this is what we found: it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, the same seven fundamental areas keep coming up time and time again as foundations for optimising your sale.

Though many companies can benefit from a restructuring, fewer than a quarter of organisational redesigns actually succeed. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Organisations can undergo successful restructuring as long as they understand the differences between organisational structures (flat, hierarchical, matrix, etc.) — namely, their benefits and their drawbacks.

Is it time to redesign your organisational structure? Here are the things you need to know.