Author: Maria Novak Dugan

Not all clients are created equal. Nor should you be compelled to treat them equally. There’s no law stating you must sell to everyone or keep servicing clients that are the wrong fit for your business. It’s as fair to say that your business has outgrown certain types of customers as it is to say that you have some customers you should have never brought…

Even when people know their value, many find it difficult to describe. When someone asks the simple question, “What do you do,” you know the simple answer but you need to convey your value, and when communicating your value proposition, you don’t want to deliver the same canned speech for every audience. What you need to do is first craft, then learn to deliver, specific…

It seems as if everyone is calling themselves a professional, whether they’re competent in their job or not. There are the titles of “Professional Marketing Ninja,” “Professional Social Media Rockstar,” and the (perhaps more common) titles of “Professional Sales Executive” and “Professional Entrepreneur.” But are these considered ‘real’ professionals? For that matter, what does a real professional look like? I believe professionalism is more than…

I’m often asked, “Why did my salespeople fail?” or “Why do I fail at selling?” (or other words I choose not to print.) And the answer is usually: It’s not necessarily sales failure, but failure to do your best or be your best, or failure to take the best actions to help succeed. There are signs that allow a sales leader to recognize failure is…

Anyone who goes online knows there is a lot of advice telling entrepreneurs to use in-person networking to build their businesses. But, in many cases, owners don’t see the necessity or they think they can just use social media, or they do not want to pay to join a networking organization. The truth is we are a society of doing business with those we know…

You’ve spent thousands of hours bringing a new product to fruition. You’ve invested energy and significant financial resources in multiple development cycles, and you’ve worked through prototypes that almost worked, could have worked, and were almost good enough. Finally, you are ready to go with a product that you are proud of and it is time to press the button on the product launch. But…

In business meetings and networking events, sales meetings and company interactions, as in any conversation, there is a current or flow. If you can’t recognize the current in the conversation, it is difficult to follow its flow. Because not every conversation is planned or prepared, sometimes the current of the conversation will take you places that you never thought you would go. Sometimes it is…

In a world where content marketing is constantly changing, it is easy to get swept away with common myths and misconceptions regarding best practices. You need to stay on top of the truths to excel in your SEO, so it is essential to sift out the false strategies that only lead to stagnant rankings. You need to plan effectively, which means you need to be…

Social media sites can be incredibly useful. Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest have created new means of communication and enabled companies to connect organically with users whose interests are already vetted. That said, they can also be destructive. The difference lies in the way you use them: If you publish an article on your own website, tweet about it, and post a…

For many businesses, the process of choosing and administering a health insurance benefits program is daunting. They often turn to benefits brokers to help them select and implement plans. Traditional benefits brokers offer assistance in choosing plans, but typically lack the technological systems and solutions that help companies operate more efficiently and save money. Ultimately, a benefits broker should make the job of the business…