Client Testimonials
Phillip Kouffman
I would like to thank all the top notch professionals at Smart Advantage for going the extra miles in working with my custom home building company. Jaynie, Brian & Craig brought to the table an uncanny ability to quickly decipher through all the extraneous information we sent them. They were able to get right down to the practical issues and applications that are most valuable and useful to my company.
We are immediately putting to use their knowledge and expertise bringing us to the next level – just where my company needs to be. In a nutshell, Smart Advantage far exceeded our expectations. I am most appreciative for their genuine interest in helping my business not only grow but thrive for many years to come.
Gary Franklin
I engaged Smart Advantage, Inc. in December 2023 to lead a competitive advantage workshop at Snyder Paper Corporation in Hickory NC. Brian Neff and Craig Mowery arrived with a full day’s agenda to help us uncover our relevant competitive advantages. Over the next several months, the Snyder team
worked with Brian and Craig to gather information and discern what really matters to our customers. These items were validated and Brian and Craig crafted our statements in a compelling format that we can use in our marketing and sales messaging. The best part of the experience is that we now
understand what information to measure and focus on going forward so we can continually update our statements.
Brant Smith
Jaynie was fantastic! Much more than I expected!! Would gladly recommend her to anyone!
Our organization needed help understanding competitive advantage and how we could apply it. Jaynie got the wheels turned to put us on a path of not only understanding our competitive advantages, but also to identify them and shout them from the rooftops!
Peter Knight
Straight 5’s across the board. Jaynie confronted our members to properly think about their competitive advantage – her direct approach is exactly what many business owners need as this is such an important aspect to get right.”
Robert Sabelli
Leaning on this training was exactly what our sales roster needed to take us from being good…to being GREAT. Jaynie’s presentation at the NAHAD (National Association for Hose and Accessories Distribution) convention was timely, action-focused, and well received by all of the attendees. I recommend her program and two books to any association seeking to provide value and business benefits to their members.
David Anderson, Jr.
Smart Advantage led us through an important internal discovery process to better understand and measure the activities that our company does well and does regularly. That processes, coupled with their extensive industry survey, provided us valuable insight into what drives the decision making process at our customers and prospects when selecting a chemical manufacturing supplier. We found that many of the key deciding factors we were already doing as a company, we just were not telling anyone about them! By the end of our engagement with Smart Advantage, we had a comprehensive dashboard of meaningful metrics to talk to customers about, train our sales & marketing team, and drive our monthly management meetings.
Graham Brodock
I was not fully aware at the outset just how important hard data was going to be to really drive home our competitive advantage statements. The prospect of analyzing and synthesizing all our data by ourselves would have been daunting, however, the Smart Advantage team did ALL the analytics work for us. They took a B+ statement, and by reading through and analyzing all our relevant data for us, they tuned them up to A+ status. This value was hard to see at the beginning of the process but turned out to be a game-changer when working with them. Their use of data to drive home competitive advantage statements was a big differentiator and created a lot of value.
BookJive.com
Smith’s elegant little book should be mandatory reading for all entrepreneurs.
Richard Pachter
Compelling! The clarity in which Jaynie presents her message is particularly valuable. Finding and using your competitive advantage is the key to not only survival but more importantly, profitable survival.
Chuck Lillis
So many companies think that differentiation is the key to success. It isn’t. The key is knowing how to articulate what’s different or better about your product. Creating Competitive Advantage is a must-have for any CEO’s library.
David Neeleman
I found Jaynie Smith’s book to be very informative and practical. It inspired me to DO something, rather than just contemplate theory. That is why I called her to engage an activity for our company. We so often talk about what we do right – why we are special – but it is generally from our own internal perspective. This activity forced us to realize that what our customers think is truly our ‘reality’ – and we need to meet their expectations regardless of whether we agree with them or not. I have found this exercise to be incredibly helpful in explaining a ‘marketing’ concept to the rest of my company. I am very pleased with the tremendous support and effort I have seen from all departments and leadership toward making changes based on the results of Jaynie’s work.
Mary Ann Tournoux
In a world where most and I mean MOST selling is irrelevant selling, Jaynie Smith’s Relevant Selling can mean the difference to you between profit and loss. My head is spinning with the wisdom in her book.
Jay Conrad Levinson
In this highly readable book, Jaynie Smith makes a compelling case for why you’re almost certainly mistaken if you think that your company’s sales and marketing pitches are relevant to customers.
Jim McElgunn
Relevant Selling is cleverly practical and extraordinarily insightful. The straightforward style of Ms. Smith makes this invaluable book a must read for every business person.
Seraina Maag
Jaynie Smith’s Relevant Selling is the perfect complement to her first book, Creating Competitive Advantage. She challenges you to think like your customer.
Matthew R. Dionne
Relevant Selling very effectively reveals that a company’s self-image can blind it to the realities of the marketplace, and that customers are attracted to (or repelled by) features that the company may not consider to be important. You need to look outside of yourself and make a proactive effort to learn what your marketplace demands, and respond to it. To me, a business book really resonates when its message goes beyond the narrow intention of the book. This one does.
Thomas Hauck
Relevant Selling is a solid business book that every company can benefit from. From the first chapter you will nod your head and say “yes” that is what we need to do in order to resonate with our customers! Jaynie’s writing style is a terrific combination of practical ideas and examples which are plentiful and meaningful. You will definitely use Relevant Selling as a reference book for decades to come as it forces every business to evaluate their point of differential which can only be a benefit in the current and future economic environment.
Merrill Dubrow
In Relevant Selling, the author clearly shows why it is very likely that there is much we do not know about our customers, and why what we do not know can quickly make our organizations irrelevant. Fortunately, she also provides many examples and strategies for how an organization can learn what truly is relevant to our customers and prospects, and how to retain that way. The leaders of any organization who want to do a better job selling their products or services can benefit from Smith’s (no relation) relevant insights.
R. Bob Smith III
Jaynie’s presentation was one of the top-rated presentations at our meeting, both in terms on content value and presentation effectiveness
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
We thought Jaynie’s presentation was very dynamic. She is one of the best speakers we have ever had!
American Foundry Society
“Having spent the morning at the Vistage presentation today at Newcastle, I’m so pleased I have at least 10 hours to calm down otherwise I would not sleep.
I have never, ever received a presentation that has pricked so much inspiration. You mention the AHA moments, well, I found lots during your presentation. I cannot wait to purchase your books as I feel I can learn so much more. 25 years thinking I was good at my job only means after I read you books and indeed implement what you say will make better. I often read, “Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with”, my answer now is Jaynie Smith, I could listen to you forever.”
Nick Megson, Commercial Director
“Yes … you have schooled us/me well. We now state our competitive advantages only in supportable and empirical statements.”
Jerry Kertesz VP Sales, National Accounts
“I can wholeheartedly and unconditionally recommend the Smart Advantage team. They have a very good proposition that actually works and delivers bottom line results, unlike a lot of consultants I have come across. In some respects their proposition is deceptively simple; ask your customers what they want, make sure that you give them it, and demonstrate it with some data driven concise selling messages. However, underlying this basic precept, is a wealth of experience in making this work across many clients, industries and sectors, and a very strong data driven and structured process to craft and validate competitive advantage statements. A key tenet of their work, that it’s so simple that most of us don’t think to do it.”
Martin Wardhaugh, Mila Hardware
“Clear, well-articulated & simple process. Flawlessly executed! (Execution is everything!)”
David Hernandez, Liberty Power
“Great work. Love the diligence in how Smart Advantage followed through on the process. Great job holding us accountable.”
For more information on how we can help improve your performance in your industry,
call us at (954) 763-5757.