Strategy Driven

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

As technology gets better, it becomes easier to use the software to our advantage. There will be minimal confusion on what you need to conduct B2B and B2C interactions as well as in-house operations, and the lack of complexity will free up the IT department from working on the small stuff and allow them to focus on what really matters.

Budgeting 68

Budgeting B2C B2B Software 68

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. First, three out of four B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions.

B2B 14

B2B Forrester Media Content 14

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

By Jess Chipkin , Geneca, Manager of Public and Community Relations. I wanted to learn more so I connected with Lisa Kimmel, General Manager of the Toronto office. The team was excited by a thumbs up from our CEO, Joel Basgall -- although he did offer some ideas on making the program more manageable. I was off and running.

Ryan 130

Ryan PR Project B2B 130

Strategy Driven

AUGUST 30, 2019

What kinds of methods do businesses use to perform these calculations, and what goals do they typically want to accomplish? Businesses use all kinds of tools and technologies to implement these methods, from relatively simple research surveys to complex data modeling tools. Basics of Demand Forecasting.

Efficiency 60

Efficiency Disaggregation B2B Uncertainty 60

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

While the technology supporting sales process have clearly evolved, the traditional sales strategies proffered by sales gurus 20 or 30 years ago have not kept pace with market needs. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to talk to someone who wants to manage my account, develop my business, or engineer my sale.

Blog 409

Blog Ryan B2C Brand 409

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 17, 2015

“Death of a B2B Salesman,” a new report from Forrester Research , lends urgency to the need for companies to rethink and radically transform their sales models by incorporating digital media into their processes. Here’s how B2B sellers should do that. Rather, his or her role needs to be redefined.

B2B 8

B2B Forrester Telemarketing Media 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 16, 2016

Collaborative innovation is a hot topic in the B2C space, where it overlaps with crowdsourcing, but we see B2B players taking an interest as well. Nonetheless, innovating with customers should work well in B2B, as it should give companies a deeper knowledge of their customers and promote a trusting relationship.

B2B 8

B2B Innovation Company Workshop 8

Miles Anthony Smith

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

The answer to that depends on your goals, budget, etc., They somehow manage to engage with their audience consistently by constantly putting out articles, infographics, or anything of value, not just in content marketing but also in sales. A deep understanding of ABM in B2B is its super-power.

Marketing 105

Marketing Content Audience Brand 105

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2015

The AIDA model and its variants are the basis for sales funnels at many B2B firms. The typical funnel starts with a marketing-generated lead for a “suspect” that, after qualification, becomes a “prospect,” and then a customer through steps that are measured and managed. Don’t believe the hype.

B2B 8

B2B AIDA AIDAS Disintermediation 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

And they can be very expensive — in addition to overseas business travel, local distribution partner relationships require significant up-front investment to get started and to manage effectively. A New Type of Local Partner. The rise of social media has created a new type of local partner: local digital influencers.

Influence 8

Influence B2B Globalization Webinar 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

This sort of collaboration has been well-documented in the B2C context (where it’s often called “crowdsourcing” or “co-creation”), but we see it in B2B companies as well. They further narrowed the scope by explicitly ruling out development of a number of technologies including gas/fuel cell hybrid engines.

B2B 8

B2B Workshop Chemicals B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

Our recent benchmarking of nearly 900 B2B companies underscores the importance of these tools. Those behaviors can serve as the basis of training, reinforced daily by front-line managers. A B2B technology supplier used Microsoft Workplace Analytics and other digital tools to track the behaviors of its sales reps.

Team 8

Team Price B2B Tools 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2018

These companies are facing wholesale change—from defining how technology reinvents entire functions to how the organization manages new workforce models to how to unlock value with cross-industry ecosystems. Read more from Accenture Strategy: How Technology Is Changing M&A in the U.S.

Strategy 8

Strategy Content Business Model Retail 8

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

MAY 25, 2018

Yet the regulation impacts all companies globally, including those in the United States, that collect and manage data on citizens in the EU. Regardless of whether you are collecting and managing data on EU citizens now or plan to in the future, here are some tips for surviving this new Era of Consent.

B2B 8

B2B How To B2C Compliance 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 31, 2015

Yet, after sales force costs, events are the biggest line item in many marketing budgets, especially for B2B firms. Technology to do this exists, and it has implications for what managers can do before, during, and after the events they sponsor or attend. No technology can help managers who are unable or unwilling to set goals.

CRM 8

CRM ROI Budgeting Public Relations 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 12, 2016

But a new analysis from the German Savings Banks Association shows that, in the last fiscal year, its midsize company clients managed, on average, profit margins of 7.3%. The German Mittelstand is at the forefront of a modern management model that builds flatter, more-innovative, and more-networked enterprises. This success is no blip.

Industry 8

Industry Long-term Short-term Class 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

The technological challenge is hard enough. Think of bankers deciding on business loans, product developers determining tradeoffs between features and cost, or B2B sales reps figuring out which prospects to target. Information & technology Data Managing organizations Decision making' But it’s a rocky one.

Tools 8

Tools Learning Curve Insurance B2B 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 4, 2016

While the middle class has been eroded by currency depreciation and recession, the Russian consumer remains technologically savvy, interested in quality Western brands, and able to spend. Their goal is to lower product prices to gain market share away from competitors who import into the country.

Depreciation 8

Depreciation B2B Price Crisis 8

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

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Sales teams must meet the immediate needs of their customers, respond issue by issue and account by account, and meet quarterly goals. As one sales manager noted, “In this job, if you don’t survive the short term, you don’t need to worry about the long term.” There are ways to avoid these blind spots, however.

Long-term 8

Long-term Short-term Team Succession 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Sales teams must meet the immediate needs of their customers, respond issue by issue and account by account, and meet quarterly goals. As one sales manager noted, “In this job, if you don’t survive the short term, you don’t need to worry about the long term.” There are ways to avoid these blind spots, however.

Long-term 8

Long-term Short-term Team Succession 8

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. Its goal for the vans is to replicate the same kind of experience for the customers who can’t come to them.

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

And a quarter of companies, according to the same survey, confess that not one of their new offerings met its profitability goals. The 2014 survey polled approximately 1,600 executives and managers from over 40 countries and across a range of industries. About two-thirds were in B2B businesses.).

Price 8

Price Productivity Products Simon 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. 500 technology distribution company I’m working with has expanded its offerings to include services like installation and hardware management. McKinsey & Co.

Strategy 8

Strategy Execution How To CRM 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. Marketing then partnered with sales to reset customer acquisition goals at each micromarket, basing them on each market’s potential.

Marketing 8

Marketing Guidelines B2C Analysis 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 22, 2017

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. In a fragmented media and social landscape, marketers can no longer reach their goals for awareness and reputation just through paid media and PR. The results? Turn everyone into an advocate.

Creativity 10

Creativity Marketing Agility Budgeting 10

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 9, 2014

Companies have long developed and managed their sales people differently from other employees, placing great emphasis on individual performance. On the most effective sales teams, particularly B2B, the individual no longer reigns supreme. The goal was to help sales reps exchange information about complex accounts.

Team 8

Team Metrics Compliance Attrition 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 3, 2016

Consider the core mission of the modern IT department: Taking in all the technology “mess” (often from several different divisions), developing the necessary competencies, and delivering savings and efficiency to the company. The unit has fewer than 100 people divided among data science/analytics, technology, and social media.

Operations 8

Operations Agility Chemicals Supply Chain 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. Even Dorsey, as great an observer as he is, misses it.

Strategy 9

Strategy P&L TQM Strategic Planning 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2016

If you approach a new position or responsibility with the goal of “killing it right off the bat, you’re setting yourself up for failure,” says Cuddy. “Goals are a moving target,” she says, requiring constant setting and resetting. Case Study #1: Focus on the opportunity and set small, achievable goals.

How To 8

How To Case Study Tactics Goal 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2014

While the strategies are different, the goal is the same — to generate awareness and engagement. Loyalty and reward programs provide this type of context for B2C companies, while strategic account and relationship management programs do the same for B2B companies. Owned media can be used in B2B as well.

Media 8

Media B2B Disintermediation Content 8