The goal in business is to outdistance the competition and make profitable sales by producing more customer-friendly products or services. To reach this goal, you need an advantage to improve your batting average-but it's getting more difficult and complicated to obtain this advantage, let alone keep it.

A CPA firm spends $11,200 on a Web site that attracts only a handful of visitors. An insurance agency invests $80,000 in an advertising campaign and no one sees the ads. An alternative health clinic sends out 8,000 direct mail fliers and gets 26 responses. A manufacturer spends $28,000 on an attractive brochure that no one uses.

Becoming accustomed to a growing economy is easy and dangerous. Although there are always pockets of problems, we forget that success is often more the result of a good economy than our business acumen. If everyone else is doing well, our major challenge becomes how to pull ahead of the pack. Unfortunately, many business people tend to get a bit lazy-and that's when we can get caught.
There are ways to become more successful, keep business booming, and give companies the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Here are 15 ways to develop an extra edge:

Despite fax, e-mail, and Web site marketing, direct mail remains one of the most effective methods for conveying your company’s message to prospective clients. John Graham provides tips for making your direct mail efforts as powerful as possible in this document.

A ONE-MINUTE MARKETING PLAN byPatricia Czech Whether you're planning a new Web site or your site is already up and running, here's some inside information you need t...

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AGENCY PERPETUATION by Dr. E.J. Leverett, Jr., CLU, CPCU Agents and brokers need a clear picture of their objectives in order to successfully attain them. The objectives of an insur...

AGENCY-COMPANY RELATIONS: COMPANY CONTRACTS by Carol Hammes How to get - and keep - the best company contracts. INTRODUCTION The relationship between insurance agents a...

ASSESSING YOUR FIRM'S RESOURCES by Bill Schoeffler and Catherine Oak Today, it is critical for insurance agents and brokers to plan their own destiny. One can never be quite c...

Those who own a business hold their peers in high regard. You might dislike someone personally, but give them a thumbs-up when it comes to running a company. Those who survived the recession deserve a special commendation. Only the native outsider thinks otherwise.