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

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

” The intention was right, but there was no operational impact. If your business is B2C, the train is about to leave the station. If you’re B2B, the train is parked in the station, but it’s leaving soon. You hired and trained “I-shaped” employees who could dive deep into a specific domain.

B2C 14

B2C Energy Marketing Efficiency 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2013

A food company, for example, outfits vehicles with entire kitchens to demonstrate the most effective and creative ways to use its specialty food ingredients in food service operations. The vans are also used to provide education and training. The expectation is not that the visit will end with the ka-ching of a cash register.

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 8

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. The telesales team can also be a nice training ground for enterprise sales reps - a path that can be cheaper and less risky than hiring someone externally.

Marketing 8

Marketing Productivity Products Learning Curve 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

Compared to professions like engineering or business disciplines like Finance or Operations, the concept of a dedicated salesperson is relatively recent. ” 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.

Education 8

Education Levitt Retail Training 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The executives' role is to define the attributes of the customer experience in partnership with their operational colleagues, organize the customer-satisfaction-measurement process against those attributes, and encourage remedial action wherever warranted. Many companies now have senior officers in charge of customer experience.

B2B 13

B2B Consensus Productivity Products 13

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. Railway operators and wind farm owners were among the first to deploy the concept.

Industry 8

Industry System Business Model B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2014

In many countries, business policies vary a great deal among individual cities, which is where companies actually operate. First, they wanted access to a talented workforce, especially technically trained employees like engineers and software developers. Unfortunately, this makes them incomplete. A new report from the U.S.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Bureaucracy Real Estate B2B 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2014

In many countries, business policies vary a great deal among individual cities, which is where companies actually operate. First, they wanted access to a talented workforce, especially technically trained employees like engineers and software developers. Unfortunately, this makes them incomplete. A new report from the U.S.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Bureaucracy Real Estate B2B 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. Today, creative marketers need to operate more like entrepreneurs, continuously adjusting to sustain “ product/market fit.” The results? Invest in the end-to-end experience.

Creativity 14

Creativity Marketing Agility Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 4, 2016

I transformed Axion’s all-things-for-all-customers mentality, establishing a profitable B2B focus that grew our revenue from less than $.75M Built 20 new schools with well-trained staff teaching local-language curricula focused on practical skills. 75M to more than $14.5M in four years. 5M to $10M. BREWERY START-UP.

Brand 8

Brand Press Release Marketing B2B 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. From the sales side, teams need to be trained to take the insights generated by marketing and act on them.

Marketing 11

Marketing Guidelines B2C Analysis 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 6, 2013

In addition, most of the very large firms in China are content to compete as B2B players where the value of branding is not obvious. The change in the competitive context will occur but very slowly. Third, Chinese firms lack not only talent to develop and implement brand strategy but also the will to do so at the top.

Brand 8

Brand Globalization Brand Management Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2016

Don’t engage in over-the-top discounting that trains customers, both in B2C and B2B markets, to buy cleverly on price and price alone. They operate with extreme cost and process efficiency, which enables them to enjoy good margins and profits even while charging low prices. Don’t start price wars.

Price 8

Price Airlines Govindarajan Advertising 8

N2Growth Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

The problem with many sales organizations is that they still operate with the same principles and techniques they were using in the 60′s, 70’s and 80’s. Today’s consumer (B2B or B2C) does their homework, is well informed, and buys…they are not sold. It’s about meeting customer needs and adding value.

Blog 373

Blog Ryan B2C Brand 373

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2017

PMs have to have a deep understanding of how the organization operates and must build social capital to influence the success of their product – from obtaining budget and staffing to securing a top engineer to work on their product. Read more about what Paul Jackson has to say about EQ and PMs here. Company Fit.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Core Competence Management 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2017

It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses — and it’s hard to fault them. Splunk , a San Francisco-based B2B software firm, is a case in point.

Long-term 8

Long-term Short-term Team Succession 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2017

It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses — and it’s hard to fault them. Splunk , a San Francisco-based B2B software firm, is a case in point.

Long-term 8

Long-term Short-term Team Succession 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2014

Digital channels have upended the well-trod ruts of sales and marketing organizations — already, nearly a third of all B2B purchases are done digitally. Our analysis of 73 B2B technology companies shows that across sectors, the top 25% of companies achieve more than twice as much return on sales investment compared to the bottom 25%.

Marketing 11

Marketing ROI B2B Team 11

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 20, 2017

In doing research on multinational operations in the Middle East and Africa, we’ve learned that companies are well aware of how President Trump’s foreign and trade policies could affect their businesses there. more competitive prices, more localized products) and improve their risk management and operational efficiency.

Depreciation 9

Depreciation Contingency Plans Policies Marketing 9