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

APRIL 2, 2015

B2B marketers, on the other hand, have shied away from the idea, instead approaching selling as a rational, numbers-driven process where the best value proposition wins. To find out what might motivate a customer to take on this mobilizer role, CEB surveyed over 4,000 individual customer stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase.

B2B 8

B2B Consensus B2C Customer Loyalty 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 3, 2016

A new set of relationships is being formed within companies around how people working in data, analytics, IT, and operations teams work together. Data and analytics represent a blurring of the traditional lines of demarcation between the scope of IT and the responsibilities of operating divisions. Data and analytics embedded in IT.

Operations 8

Operations Agility Chemicals Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

Our recent benchmarking of nearly 900 B2B companies underscores the importance of these tools. A B2B technology supplier used Microsoft Workplace Analytics and other digital tools to track the behaviors of its sales reps. Commercial operations groups tend to be early targets for cuts in a recession. Raise the game in pricing.

Team 11

Team Price B2B Tools 11

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2018

Changing consumer needs, combined with shifting workforce expectations, are altering the competitive landscape and dictating transformation of existing company operating models for consumer industries. Accenture, in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, has created a vision of the operating model of the future for consumer industries.

Strategy 8

Strategy Content Business Model Retail 8

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 15

B2C Ethics Teamwork B2B 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2015

“They advised us to retain that as a strong part of who we are,” said Paul Choquette, a fifth-generation Gilbane who runs the Mid-Atlantic operation. billion, operated in an average of 15 countries, and had an average of 12,000 employees. “There’s a feel to a family business that clients in our space like.

B2B 8

B2B Press Release Construction Brand 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The role exists in B2B and B2C firms as diverse as Allstate, Dunkin' Brands, USAA, Philips Electronics, FedEx, the Cleveland Clinic, and SAP. About one quarter of these CCOs formerly held operations positions. Who are these new customer experience executives — and why do companies appoint them?

B2C 14

B2C B2B Forrester Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 19, 2017

Companies that can zero-in on the impact they want to see and focus on curating the right datasets mapping to those goals have the best opportunity for generating really impactful results from AI. There are three main steps: Set goals that tie back to business objectives. of machine-printed mail without human assistance.

USP 8

USP Airlines Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 21, 2013

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

B2B 8

B2B B2C Education Travel 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 14

Creativity Marketing Agility Budgeting 14

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

by 70% for select B2B customers. This discount is directly targeted to tablet makers (to be more competitive against iPads) as well as notebook manufacturers (to take on rivals that use Google’s Chrome operating system). Just as impressive, Sony’s goal had been to sell 5M units by the end of March but in fact sold 5.3M

Discount 8

Discount Airlines Price Licensing 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 6, 2015

It’s not feasible to lower prices across the board to match the web (“Our prices are the same as Amazon”) since Internet retailers typically have lower operating costs. What does this mean for brick-and-mortar retailers? An increase in coupon redemptions isn’t optimal, but some margin is better than no sale at all.

Discount 8

Discount Retail Price B2C 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 9, 2014

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. But the impact of employees’ “network performance” — that is, how much people give to and take from their coworkers — increased from 22% to 49%.

Team 10

Team Metrics Compliance Attrition 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 12, 2016

The 300,000 companies in the association’s data set have more than doubled their profits from operations over the past 13 years, outpacing their corporate counterparts in the country. This level of dedication to their mostly B2B customers demands especially strong investment in innovations and R&D. They set ambitious goals.

Industry 8

Industry Long-term Short-term Class 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. About two-thirds were in B2B businesses.). When there are lots of companies whose goals are to go for high [sales] volume and high market share, that creates a price war.

Price 11

Price Productivity Products Simon 11

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 11

Marketing Guidelines B2C Analysis 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 16, 2014

When a team works well together, it’s because its members are operating from the same mindset and are clear about their goals and their norms,” says Schwarz. One of your goals is to develop your team’s capacity to give feedback and help people get used to articulating how they feel the team is doing.” Set expectations early.

Team 12

Team How To Case Study Open-book 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2016

OpenTable (a restaurant reservations service), Motivate (the operator of CitiBike, Bay Area Bikeshare, and others), and Luxe (a web-based valet parking service) are examples. Global urban innovators will do well to consider the different situations and approaches across the four segments and to match goals and financing appropriately.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Entrepreneur Finance Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Companies are beginning to utilize their employees’ behavioral data — generally known as people analytics — to better understand and improve their sales operations , with strong results. Microsoft, where we work, is no exception, and B2B sales is one of the areas where we are seeing the most value. What’s next.

Analysis 8

Analysis B2B Engineering Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

In most larger companies, you'll need to generate roughly 200+ responses per operating unit per period. Bain research shows that leading companies can achieve 60% or better response rates in B2B companies and 30% or more in most B2C situations. Your customer metrics must correlate with financial and strategic goals.

Incentives 10

Incentives Sample Customer Loyalty Metrics 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2013

You must move from B2C to B2B, or vice versa. The results were dramatic: the following year, the company reached its annual sales goals three months into its fiscal year. Beside each operator was a large pile of partially assembled furniture. You must slash the price of your product or service by 50%. Alter Your Point-of-View.

Disruptive Innovation 9

Disruptive Innovation Hotels B2C Price 9

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Relationship management is also vital in successful negotiation, resolving conflicts and working with others toward a shared goal which is especially challenging when a PM is tasked with balancing the needs of customers, resource-constrained engineering teams, and the company’s revenue goals.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Core Competence Management 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 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

Miles Anthony Smith

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

The answer to that depends on your goals, budget, etc., TopRank Marketing TopRank Marketing has been doing innovative and impactful work with interactive content and B2B influencers for huge brands like SAP, Dell, LinkedIn, 3M, and Oracle for over 18 years. A deep understanding of ABM in B2B is its super-power.

Marketing 105

Marketing Content Audience Brand 105