As the resident left-brainer, Jason uses his corporate and financial background to keep operations running smoothly. With a keen sense of people, process and sports analogies that always relate to business, he serves Syrup by managing the team, the numbers and sales. When we are lucky, Jason provides the team with a quick kung-fu lesson.
“Taking your unique message to your unique audience” If you’ve ever been in a sales meeting with Syrup, you’re likely to have heard that phrase at some point. It’s how we define Connect, the first stage of our marketing funnel. You have to do a host of things right in this step in order to...
In the same way that developing habits is key to personal development, a business develops habits as well. The question is whether that happens by default or by design. Designing Healthy Business Habits For those who design healthy habits, this is usually achieved by some form of continual BPI (Business Process Improvement). We are currently...
What is the right way to think about marketing from a financial perspective? We budget for it like it’s an expense, and it shows up as an expense on our P&L’s. But we measure it like it’s capital. If you haven’t done some level of ROI assessment on your marketing efforts…come on, you have. In...
The sport of business is hard. Sometimes it’s really hard. It’s not always fun, profitable or rewarding. Not everyone makes it. So what if you could make the game even harder on yourself? Is that something you might be interested in? I give you what I have coined The Triangle of Awesome. It’s not really...
How do you stay organized and productive in a world full of tasks fighting for your attention? I recently stumbled upon this article in Inc Magazine. It outlines the Japanese concept of kanban, which underpinned Toyota’s manufacturing process and has found its way into other applications, such as software development and personal time management. In short,...
As I see it, there are three basic categories where sales opportunities originate: Existing customers Inbound (I’m using this term in a broad sense to include web leads, referrals, and opportunities you happen to come across being in the market.) Target markets If that is even loosely true, then a productive question is how are...
Selling is serving. This is something that I’ve believed deep in my heart for quite a long time, but I understand it’s probably not the prevailing view. In an attempt to persuade my team here at Syrup of this truth, I have an exercise that we go through. I start by asking team members to...
Let me ask you a question. I want you to be honest with yourself. Which has a greater impact on you: a win or a loss? After a big game, are you happier when your team wins or are you more dejected when they lose? Which outcome has the greater impact on you personally? What...
There aren’t many things better than being on a winning streak. Whether it’s your favorite team or something in your life, winning influences your perception. The coffee tastes better and the world looks sunnier when you’re winning. Those of you whose profession requires anything to do with sales, you know exactly what I’m talking...
A recent conversation I overheard (ok, really I read it on Twitter) pointed out that in sports, the ball serves as the focal point of the action. Spectator eyes are on either the person with the ball or the area immediately around it. In team sports, of course, all other players have crucial jobs to...
