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Free Yourself from Conventional Thinking

Harvard Business Review

You must move from B2C to B2B, or vice versa. Beside each operator was a large pile of partially assembled furniture. When Avon Products decided they wanted to create a world-class help desk for their agents, they compared themselves to a company known for its superior service: the Four Seasons Hotel.

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Put the “and” Back in “Sales and Marketing”

Harvard Business Review

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. And the challenge for the head of sales is to effectively articulate what insights are needed to make better decisions.

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The Secrets to TripAdvisor's Impressive Scale

Harvard Business Review

The company is now pervasive - with 65 million unique visitors each month scouring the site for reviews of hotels, restaurants and sites around the globe. Going B2C was daunting and not in our core DNA," Kaufer remarked. Every time a consumer clicked on a hotel to book a room, TripAdvisor would charge the hotel something.

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Putting Customers at the Heart of Your Brand to Create Passionate Fans: What Microsoft Learned About Customer Engagement in the Sports Industry - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM Microsoft

Harvard Business Review

The brand can also be licensed (B-2-B-2-C) to third parties for entertainment, apparel, or any number of other products; in addition, it can merchandise its own products and sell new services to its customers or fans (B2C). Ignite your fan engagement and apply those learnings across your business. ” Read More from Microsoft.

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