Harvard Business Review

MAY 10, 2018

From targeted online advertising to more precise recommendation engines, consumer markets are bursting with innovation around machine learning and advanced analytics. A growing number of B2B companies are using data and analytics to add services that bring new elements of value to customers, and in some cases new sources of revenue.

B2B 8

B2B Chemicals Venture Funding Engineering 8

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. They might even refuse outright, as happened recently to an enterprise-software company that I work with. But word of mouth is an important ally in your marketing efforts.

B2B 8

B2B Incentives Reference Reputation 8

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

MARCH 22, 2017

What makes marketing creative? Is a creative marketer more artist or entrepreneur? Historically, the term “marketing creative” has been associated with the words and pictures that go into ad campaigns. But marketing, like other corporate functions, has become more complex and rigorous.

Creativity 14

Creativity Marketing Agility Budgeting 14

Strategy Driven

JUNE 9, 2014

The internet and its immediate access to any information – including one’s reputation – the economy, Google and online searchability in general, social media, smart phones, one-click buying, Amazon feedback and other ratings sites, and smarter customers and consumers both B2B and B2C. Not just your company and your products – you personally.

Customer Loyalty 63

Customer Loyalty B2C Reputation CRM 63

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2014

If you’ve ever tried to learn an intricate physical skill as an adult, you know what it’s like to be a marketer today. Over the past decades, marketers have gotten pretty good at collecting and crunching customer data and using it to figure out what various customer segments want. B2B companies have been doing it for years.

Marketing 8

Marketing B2B Outsourcing Trends 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Nowhere else in the executive suite of a typical corporation are two functions as closely intertwined as sales and marketing. 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.

Marketing 11

Marketing Guidelines B2C Analysis 11

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

JULY 30, 2013

In every start-up, finding initial product-market fit is a magical moment. But once you achieve initial product-market fit and are down the Sales Learning Curve (PDF), suddenly you are faced with a new challenge: how do I scale up the sales efforts? 80-90% software products vs. 40-50% advertising products) and company maturity (e.g.,

Marketing 8

Marketing Productivity Products Learning Curve 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

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Jeffrey, I am a marketing and sales rep for a company that sells emergency cleanup services. Jeffrey, My company helps small B2B businesses plan a video strategy and develop web series and webinars to tighten their bond with their customers. What’s your proactive marketing approach to loyalty? What is the value?

Video 50

Video Objective Loyalty B2B 50

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. Around 2005, marketing became a bigger force driving growth. That’s no longer true.

B2C 14

B2C Energy Marketing Efficiency 14

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. Syngenta offers rice farmers planted fields.

B2B 14

B2B Business Objectives Focus Group Marketing 14

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

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

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. Much of the conversation about customer-centricity focuses on business-to-consumer (B2C) firms.

B2B 15

B2B Airlines Travel Stage-Gate 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Practically every organization today has a set of core values that ideally function as the “operating instructions” of the company. The goal of articulating the essential and enduring principles of your organization is to inform, inspire, and instruct the day-to-day behaviors of everyone who works at your company.

B2C 14

B2C Ethics Teamwork B2B 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 25, 2014

It’s a great ethnographic study of B2B selling for capital goods. But the disconnect between sales and strategy (in this case, a lack of strategy to deal with a technology that is redefining the market and customer behavior) is the hidden subtext of the book. Thomas is doing his best to maintain Xerox’s share in copiers.

Strategy 12

Strategy P&L TQM Strategic Planning 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2017

See More Videos > See More Videos > We have worked with several companies in B2B industries to use Microsoft Workplace Analytics as part of a broader effort to improve sales effectiveness. Consider the case of a company selling basic supplies to businesses. Refining Sales Team Structure and Roles.

Software 10

Software Metrics CRM B2B 10

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 25, 2012

One cliffhanger of last night's earnings announcement from Apple is whether the company can keep making intuitively brilliant product tweaks without Steve Jobs. But unlike Apple, most companies don't rely on the CEO to do the tweaking. The result was a 15% increase in new revenue, and a leadership position in a new market segment.

Productivity 13

Productivity Products Market Segmentation Sample 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2013

The company already had a demo center outside London and a slick tradeshow setup to showcase how these work together in an effective system. The beauty of these vans, and the reason I believe they’ve been dreamt up by managers in very different businesses, is that they perform a wide variety of marketing functions.

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 8

Eric Jacobson

JULY 19, 2016

Debbie Laskey is one of my go-to experts when I seek advice about a number of business topics, including marketing, social media, and nonprofit marketing and leadership. If they do, they need to enter the 21st century and understand that the communications specialty is just one aspect of an overall marketing plan.

Marketing 50

Marketing CPA Leadership Budgeting 50

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. To avoid those pitfalls, managers need to spend time and money providing training, direction, encouragement, and feedback in a field that is changing constantly.

Media 8

Media B2B Seminar Metrics 8

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. There’s a reason you chose those target markets or customer types.

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 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 17, 2016

It takes a special kind of company, from the CEO on down, to make a low-price position sustainable and profitable. The skills and traits to pull that off — such as cost-consciousness, relentless efficiency, and customer-driven design — must be anchored in the company and its culture from the very beginning.

Price 8

Price Airlines Govindarajan Advertising 8

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. Let’s look at how to do this by analyzing the resume and LinkedIn profile of a startup marketing executive. ” Résumé Story.

Brand 8

Brand Press Release Marketing B2B 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. Whereas Web 1.0 Here are three best practices of successful salespeople in the social era: 1.

B2C 8

B2C B2B Human Capital Media 8

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

DECEMBER 13, 2017

As an aspiring PM, there are three primary considerations when evaluating the role: Core Competencies , Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Company Fit. The best PMs I have worked with have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for them. Performing market assessments. Company Fit.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Core Competence Management 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 3, 2013

The main distinction is that a prosumer has either some professional training or career/economic interest in the category. They also are finicky about marketing ("how you market it").sometimes sometimes the badge value comes from the product not being mass marketed, but rather endorsed by those in the know.

Price 8

Price Mass Marketing B2B Quality 8

HR Digest

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Expert: You have a fairly impressive experience and training with the skill. B2B Marketing. It is good to know that each resume that you send to a specific company usually goes through the automatic software that selects the special keywords that are relevant to the position you apply for. List of Skills for a Resume .

Skills 111

Skills Six Sigma Software CRM 111