Steve Cummins

Does the Visitor Center Truly Represent the Brand?

Customer Experience. One obvious expression is the way a brand designs their “visitor center” and on a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, I sampled two very different styles. On my first trip to Seattle in more than 10 years, I knew I was going to visit the Starbucks Roastery. Despite my preference for independentContinue reading “Does the Visitor Center Truly Represent the Brand?”

Top Five Sales & Marketing Books to Drive Your Strategy

Were you at the beach this summer? Did you take a good book with you? While most people grab the latest John Grisham, or maybe a good historical novel, you’ll find me with my nose in a business book (I know….how sad!). So now that we’re headed into cooler days, I thought I’d share aContinue reading “Top Five Sales & Marketing Books to Drive Your Strategy”

“Start with Why” to Build an Inspired Team

Simon Sinek has a theory on what makes companies great – “Start with Why.” And 26 million views of his TEDTalk video, titled How Great Leaders Inspire Action, suggests that he has something interesting to say. In a nutshell, Sinek’s theory is “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” For example, Apple is known for their design ethicContinue reading ““Start with Why” to Build an Inspired Team”

How Hubspot Evolved Their Sales Incentives

Sales compensation plans are at the heart of your sales strategy. The way your sales team sells will be driven by the way their pay is structured. And the same goes for those around them. At one company I worked at, sales management was paid on revenue, and marketing management was paid on profit margin.Continue reading “How Hubspot Evolved Their Sales Incentives”

Getting Ready for Marketing Automation

If you’re thinking about diving into a Marketing Automation project, there are some steps you should work through before you take the leap. When we decided at Dittman that we were ready to take our inbound program to the next level, we started to prep for the journey to automation. In this post, I’ll outline the stepsContinue reading “Getting Ready for Marketing Automation”