Hugh Macfarlane, Author at align.me

How to fire a bad customer

Steps to consider when firing a bad customer Work super-hard to fix their issues first If it's them (they will never be happy), grit your teeth, then Reframe the issue as a misalignment, not a fault Keep it classy. Don't give or accept blame. Refund their last payment Why should you fire a bad customer, anyway? If you are genuinely in the business of delivering great service to your clients, anything that gets in the way of that must be fixed. Just as equally (maybe even more so), if you value your staff and want them READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

How to generate leads in B2B [video]

Ever wondered how to generate more leads for B2B? Of course you have. We all do. I'm not going to give you that one killer tactic that you've never heard of, because you've heard of them all. What I will give you is the best way to build ALL the leads you'll ever need. And how do I know? We've got 2000 go-to-market plans in our database, 500 of which we hand built with our clients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxpDN5D6-g 5 Steps to generate leads in B2B Load up your Funnel Plan with tactics to move buyers from 'gap READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

What’s the cost of content marketing? [video]

What's the cost of content marketing? I'll assume that you've bought into the need for content marketing, and you just want to know what it should cost. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZF7CQk-FjBs Conclusions Content marketing is just a part of your total marketing, and your marketing spend should be somewhere between 2 -5% of your gross revenue. You should allow for the following: Planning ($25,000): $5,000 for an external audit. $20,000 to build your strategy. Execution: Insource for $80,000 per person, on average. You're going to have some younger team members, and some more senior, and therefore wages will change; READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

B2B buying behaviour – 4 changes, 4 needs and 4 new strategies [video]

B2B buying behaviour is changing. How is it changing? What do buyers need? What should our strategies be to take advantage of that? There are four big changes that need to be made. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dAW5vJNLfyc The four big changes are: The commoditisation of industries; The rise of procurement; The changing nature of the act of selling; The rising role of risk. There’s a link between point three and point four. Buyers want less content, more one on one, more insight, and they want collaboration and co-creation. Therefore, we should segment according to the customer behaviour; make customer READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

B2B marketing tactics [video]

What are the best B2B marketing tactics? To answer that question, I've looked at 5 really excellent articles and the data from over 1,000 B2B marketing plans. The essence of this is not particularly surprising, but what we don't want to prioritize might surprise you. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kpSYxUiEeU Four things you really need to have in place are: Basic inbound. Accelerated inbound. Targeted outbound. Tools for your sales people. Let me unpack this a little bit and give you the 14 tactics that really make sense for you to focus on, and those that you might want to READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

B2B CRM Strategies

Looking to build B2B CRM strategies? A lot of the fundamentals are really important. The devil is in the details but neither the fundamentals, nor the details are hard to get right. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NDkvtsvXU8 I asked Dr. Google what advice he'd give someone looking for B2B CRM strategies and the essence was five points. Work out what you want your customers to do, and build your CRM to manage that progression. Segment your database according to where they are in their customer journey. With acquisition, B2C is mostly about data and segmentation and B2B needs these, plus READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

5 Reasons Why Events are a Must-Do B2B Marketing Tactic

At align.me, we run a lot of B2B marketing events – for ourselves and for our Marketing Services clients These range from small, boardroom discussions with just a handful of prospects in a room; to larger, forum-style events with various decision makers and companies in attendance. Regardless of the size or format, the objective is always the same: to get a bunch of targeted individuals together, and have them acknowledge the problems they face in their business – problems that we, surprise surprise, happen to be well-equipped to solve. Although events require a lot of preparation READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

4x engagement from good customer onboarding for SaaS

Woo hoo! A hundred new trial users signed up to your application. Do you celebrate? Not yet. I want to explain the benefits of customer onboarding for SaaS (software as a service). Signing up for a trial is obviously a long way short of the finish line. Converting these trial users to paid subscribers is a clear next focus. But even paid users aren't over the line yet, either. The moment of purchase or trial is just the start of a mini journey. We need to get the user to the next incremental value as READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

Double down on competition for 2 times growth [video]

Double down on competition to double your growth. I've always been a fan of ignoring the competition, but you can double your growth by having a smart focus on competition. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xlRU4rGYGU4 The hard data We have around 1700 active plans in our two databases (860 + 851). I analyse those plans almost every day and find so much gold! And every week, I share the best nugget I've found in that week. Here's something you're going to want to know about: You can include or exclude competition analysis in your Funnel Plan - it's an READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

5 x growth from a 5 day update [video]

Want to 5 x your growth in 5 days? I just analysed 1700 sales and marketing plans in our Funnel Plan database, and found a gem I think you're going to want to know about. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y_-d7AV1wDA Grow 5 times more with this simple action We've got around 1700 active sales and marketing plans in our 2 databases. I analyse these plans almost every day and find so much gold! And every week, I share the best nugget that I've found in that week. Here’s something you’re going to want to know about: In a simple split READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

About Hugh Macfarlane