Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

Applying the knowledge you get through training or participation at seminars and conferences in your organization contributes to its development. Companies need to value their employees and support them in their goal of developing professionally. Businesses and leaders that choose to invest in their employees can only benefit from it.

Development 66

Development Goal Efficiency B2B 66

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 13, 2015

In an ideal B2B world, your happy customers would spread the news about your great products, generating all the well-known benefits of word of mouth. That’s why you might get strange looks if you ask the customer’s managers for referrals. Many B2B products become more useful when most players in the industry adopt them.

B2B 8

B2B Incentives Reference Reputation 8

Eric Jacobson

JANUARY 15, 2012

I met Debbie a few years ago while we worked together on a training committee for MicroMentor , a nonprofit that connects small business owners with business mentors. I say this because, while the two areas must work in tandem if both departments exist in a company, sales people have very different personalities than those in marketing.

Marketing 71

Marketing Real Estate B2C B2B 71

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 21, 2015

How well is your company managing its sales pipeline? Research conducted by Vantage Point Performance and the Sales Management Association revealed that 44% of executives think their organization is ineffective at managing theirs. companies with effective pipeline management had an average growth rate of 5.3,

Process 8

Process Company CRM B2B 8

Strategy Driven

JUNE 9, 2014

Don’t forget their managers who force them to use an uncomfortable ‘system,’ a non-sales helpful CRM, and hold their salespeople accountable for their actions and numbers. Here’s what to train and teach your salespeople : Teach why people buy rather than how to sell. Not just your company and your products – you personally.

Customer Loyalty 63

Customer Loyalty B2C Reputation CRM 63

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

Recessions catch many companies by surprise, with predictable results. But these periods also present opportunities for well-prepared companies to take advantage of the turmoil and gain share. But these periods also present opportunities for well-prepared companies to take advantage of the turmoil and gain share.

Team 11

Team Price B2B Tools 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 1, 2018

A Fortune 250 B2B company spent a quarter of a million dollars trying to solve the wrong problem. A new product line had failed, and the company believed the problem was either poor product delivery times or lack of effort by the sales force. This company isn’t alone. Kimberly Whitaker/Getty Images.

Marketing 8

Marketing B2B Price Goal 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 2, 2012

Our article in the current issue of HBR, " The End of Solution Sales ," has created quite a stir among B2B sales professionals and pundits alike. So, companies train their reps to ask customers endless questions about their business and their priorities. The problem isn't the methodology.

B2B 15

B2B B2C Learning-by-Doing Class 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2011

And while these companies were the first to acknowledge the business benefits of delivering a great customer experience, business-to-business (B2B) organizations are increasingly getting in on the game. These customer experience management initiatives can be complex.

B2B 15

B2B Airlines Travel Stage-Gate 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 29, 2013

We spoke with Mike Moorman, a senior leader in ZS Associates'' B2B sales and marketing practice and a leading authority on sales management, about how inside sales (which refers to sales positions done remotely from headquarters, without face-to-face meetings with clients) is transforming the way that B2B companies interact with their customers.

B2B 8

B2B Power Market Segmentation Customer Intimacy 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 3, 2017

To motivate, manage, and reward B2B salespeople, many companies use sales incentive plans that link large commissions or bonuses to individual results metrics, such as territory quota achievement. The company wins through a better-motivated sales team that produces short-term results and is more likely to achieve company goals.

Incentives 11

Incentives Short-term Metrics B2B 11

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2012

Companies in all varieties of B2B markets have moved beyond selling products and services to offering complete "solutions" to their customers. Alstom keeps trains ready to run each morning for railroad operators rather than just selling the rolling stock to them. Hilti provides and maintains power tools for builders.

B2B 14

B2B Business Objectives Focus Group Marketing 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Because I teach a course on Product Management at Harvard Business School, I am routinely asked “what is the role of a Product Manager?” ” The role of a Product Manager (PM) is often referred to as the “CEO of the Product.” Self-management: Being a PM can be incredibly stressful. Company Fit.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Core Competence Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 31, 2012

While B2C companies have become adept at mining the petabytes of transactional and other purchasing data that consumers generate as they interact online, B2B sales organizations have only recently begun to use big data to inform overall strategy and tailor sales pitches for specific customers in real time. Yet the payoff is huge.

B2B 13

B2B Chemicals Analysis B2C 13

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Jeffrey, I am a marketing and sales rep for a company that sells emergency cleanup services. I visit prospective customers almost daily, mostly insurance agents and property managers, and provide value. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life and, most important, your sales thought process right no. Best Regards, Jeffrey.

Video 50

Video Objective Loyalty B2B 50

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The customer's voice has a new champion sitting at the highest levels of power in companies. The role exists in B2B and B2C firms as diverse as Allstate, Dunkin' Brands, USAA, Philips Electronics, FedEx, the Cleveland Clinic, and SAP. Who are these new customer experience executives — and why do companies appoint them?

B2C 14

B2C B2B Forrester Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2014

Many companies have even managed to break down silos to the extent that customer data is now under the purview of the marketing department, which I prefer to call—and which should be called—the customer department. B2B companies have been doing it for years. The best B2B firms are very responsive to customers.

Marketing 8

Marketing B2B Outsourcing Trends 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

For one thing, in an era when trust in traditional sources has eroded — in government, media, and in companies and the marketing they employ — word-of-mouth from trusted peers wields greater clout than ever. First, I just said, “hey, we’re going to be a ‘delight’ company!”

B2C 14

B2C Energy Marketing Efficiency 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2017

Using new software to analyze the digital exhaust of calendar and email metadata provides a practical way to build an accurate profile of how frontline sales representatives and managers spend their time, who they interact with externally and internally, and what effect this has on sales performance. Related Video. The 8 Types of Salespeople.

Software 10

Software Metrics CRM B2B 10

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

There's no better place to get a sense of the potential downside of social media for business than in B2B sales environments. Sales managers are under a lot of pressure to get their reps to exploit interactive online technologies to the max, but that's a lot easier said than done. Monitoring.

Media 8

Media B2B Seminar Metrics 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 25, 2014

Dorsey focuses on Fred Thomas and his sales team and the sometimes strange but effective motivational techniques of his district manager, Frank Pacetta. It’s a great ethnographic study of B2B selling for capital goods. You ultimately can’t substitute money for management. That’s a lot of wasted effort and money.

Strategy 12

Strategy P&L TQM Strategic Planning 12

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2013

The managers who express this idea in our simulated competitive games aren’t thinking of some simple shelving-units-on-wheels format – the kind of oversized salesman’s bag that’s been hauled out to prospects for decades. The vans are also used to provide education and training.

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

Many companies now have senior officers in charge of customer experience. To develop a new customer experience, companies need a real-time engagement process that encourages customers and employees to devise new interactions between them and facilitates the emergence of innovative customer experiences.

B2B 13

B2B Consensus Productivity Products 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2016

research on B2B purchases indicates that 25% of the buying decision depends on the interaction with the sales professional. That puts your strategy in the hands of inexperienced company strategists who are focused, often solely, on how to reach a quota. McKinsey & Co. Are you comfortable with that?

Strategy 8

Strategy Execution How To CRM 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

” As Walter Friedman documents in Birth of a Salesman , sales wasn’t seen as a function that required specialized training or education until well into the 20 th century. And companies performed the training, not schools. As the phrase implies, a sales representative represents her company to the customer.

Education 8

Education Levitt Retail Training 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 10, 2013

Although many companies started with social media monitoring and customer service, it''s exciting now to see a growing number go beyond the reactive and harness Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for sales and customer engagement and service. For example, people don''t want to hear from a mortgage broker until they are ready to buy a house.

B2C 8

B2C B2B Human Capital Media 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 22, 2017

Creativity in marketing requires working with customers right from the start to weave their experiences with your efforts to expand your company’s reach. Brocade’s Net Promoter Score went from 50 (already a best in class score) to 62 (one of the highest B2B scores on record) within 18 months. The results?

Creativity 14

Creativity Marketing Agility Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 11, 2011

Some are cutting-edge global high tech; others are classic B2B service providers. Without exception, these companies want to be seen as innovative and customer-centric in equal measure. Instead, three customers onstage talked about what it took to get their people up to speed on using the host company's latest software release.

Software 14

Software Critical Success Factor Early Adopters B2B 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 23, 2015

To some, ball bearings are boring, even though these small steel spheres are what keep everything from factory machines and wind turbines as well as cars, trucks, planes, and trains moving smoothly and safely. Such challenges, he says, require industrial companies to take a fresh approach to strategy. That lag poses dangers.

Industry 8

Industry System Business Model B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2012

Once the company is up and running, most founders obsess over perfecting the product or service, and perhaps devote energy to secondary tasks such as building a website. Too often, there's a task that's far down this list of priorities that deserves to be much higher: Making the company's first sale. Start Earlier. In the U.S.,

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Discount B2B Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2012

Once the company is up and running, most founders obsess over perfecting the product or service, and perhaps devote energy to secondary tasks such as building a website. Too often, there's a task that's far down this list of priorities that deserves to be much higher: Making the company's first sale. Start Earlier. In the U.S.,

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Discount B2B Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 4, 2016

And on the rare occasions when you do land an interview, you stumble over questions about what you’d bring to the hiring company and why you’re the perfect fit. Hiring managers will see what you have done — and can do for them. But for the most part, recruiters aren’t calling. Is It Time to Quit Your Job?

Brand 8

Brand Press Release Marketing B2B 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

In our analysis of over 700 unique B2B purchases, we identified seven distinct customer contact profiles. One company we work with shared a painful story of selling to a senior Talker. What's Wrong With Your Sales Training Program. How to Succeed at Key Account Management. A deal is all but certain. MORE ON SMARTER SALES.

Consensus 15

Consensus B2B Analysis Benchmarking 15

HR Digest

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

By skills, we mean basic skills, people skills, management skills, and technical skills you know you are good at. Management Skills: Motivating, leadership, problem-solving, etc. Expert: You have a fairly impressive experience and training with the skill. Conflict management . Time management . Stress management .

Skills 111

Skills Six Sigma Software CRM 111

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

In our analysis of over 700 unique B2B purchases, we identified seven distinct customer contact profiles. One company we work with shared a painful story of selling to a senior Talker. What's Wrong With Your Sales Training Program. How to Succeed at Key Account Management. A deal is all but certain. MORE ON SMARTER SALES.

Consensus 15

Consensus B2B Analysis Benchmarking 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 30, 2013

Across our portfolio and in my own entrepreneurial experience, I have seen three main sales models work successfully in scaling B2B sales: 1) Enterprise; 2) Telephone; 3) Developer-driven. 80-90% software products vs. 40-50% advertising products) and company maturity (e.g., I''ll discuss each one below. 1) Enterprise Sales.

Marketing 8

Marketing Productivity Products Learning Curve 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Yet for all the shared responsibility, the marketing and sales relationship has often been a contentious and lopsided one, with sales dominating in B2B sectors while marketing leads in B2C ones. The company shifted resources to its most lucrative markets, where two-thirds of the opportunity lay.

Marketing 11

Marketing Guidelines B2C Analysis 11