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The Evolution of B2B Selling: Focus on Helping Customers Buy
Many B2B companies are experiencing longer sales cycles, declining win rates, and increasingly unreliable forecasts—not because their sales teams are ineffective, but because their customers are struggling to buy.
| Executive Takeaways |
| B2B buyers face overwhelming complexity, not a lack of information. |
| Long sales cycles and no-decisions often reflect buyer indecision, not sales failure. |
| Winning sellers focus on boosting buyer confidence, not pitching products. |
| Helping customers buy is now the key to competitive differentiation. |
Cracking the Code of Organizational Change
Sun, Mar 10, 2013 — It was 1996 when John Kotter first published Leading Change and told us that 70% of all major change efforts by businesses fail. Nearly two decades later there is little evidence that any improvement has occurred, and this 70% failure rate has become axiomatic in business development and change management circles. Despite some individual successes, change remains difficult—and few companies manage change successfully. Organization change is a strategic imperative in today’s fast-paced business environment. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of change and trying to be the best, CEO’s and their executive team frequently chase after the latest and greatest idea. They lose focus and become mesmerized by all the advice available in print and online about why companies should change, what they should try to accomplish, and how they should do it. This proliferation of recommendations often leads to failure. Cracking the Code of Change
Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Sales
Sat, Mar 9, 2013 — Guest blogger Carlos Nouche from Visualize. Many companies today grapple with a misalignment between marketing, sales, and the executive staff. This can cause a case of the “mis”- missteps and miscommunication, which lead to lower productivity and, ultimately, lower profits. According to a 2010 report by Aberdeen Research, companies who are “best-in-class” at aligning marketing and sales had 20% average growth in annual revenue as opposed to a 4% decline in “laggard” organizations. It is important for CEOs to lead the charge in aligning marketing and sales (critical aspects in any business) to develop momentum that feeds upon itself and moves your organization forward. Marketing Challenge: Marketing teams struggle today to maximize marketing dollars spent on lead generation, product positioning, analyst relations, and sales materials. Often these marketing resources are not targeted to reaching the ultimate buyer nor do they use a common framework that allows for sales to take immediate action in the field.
5 Super Tips for a CEO Faced with a Media Interview
Wed, Mar 6, 2013 —
International growth: A balance of competencies
Sun, Mar 3, 2013 — Our blog today is by guest blogger Mark Buss.
Their Pain, Your Gain
Sat, Feb 23, 2013 — Some of your best customers would probably like you to do business with them in a different manner. Maybe it’s the day you deliver your goods to them? The minimums required? Maybe it’s the day of the month that you do your billing…or the amount of paperwork that you require of them? Instead of making doing business with you easier, do you sometimes make it a bit more challenging? Successful companies seek out their customers’ pain points and eliminate them. Constantly listening to the signals from the marketplace can help you see the storm clouds gathering, and to develop the strategies necessary to meet them. In order to do that, you really need to dig deep and find out what is bothering them, and how you can go about fixing those things. Define the Pain Point
D.A.R.E. to Grow
Wed, Feb 20, 2013 — Sometimes it is difficult for our organizations to take the steps necessary to grow – to change – to leave what is comfortable and strive for something more. We stop ourselves with questions like: How will my organization adapt to the changes? Can we handle the new challenges? Do we have the skills required to meet the new demands? Why should we upset what is already going well? It makes perfect sense for us to question. In fact, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs as leaders if we didn’t. At some point though, if we want to move forward, we must also move beyond the questions. We must take our own dare, if you will – and D.A.R.E. to grow. Here are some thoughts to get us started. D = Discover
Hold ‘em: Three M's of Success for CEOs
Sun, Feb 17, 2013 — If you are a start-up or a small business, you probably have more on your plate than a reasonable person can be expected to handle. Or at least handle in an effective way without going insane. So what should a small business leader focus on? How should you identify the really important ones from those that are merely, well, important?
The Four Basic Pillars of Digital Economics
Sat, Feb 16, 2013 — For many companies in both the B2C and B2B markets, selling online is a must. Whether selling digital goods like downloadable software, SaaS-model subscription offerings or actual physical goods, in my experience there are a few straight forward and basic economic pillars of selling online that are often overlooked. While your products, pricing and promotions are important, I’ve seen that a renewed focus on the intersection of these four pillars delivers significant increases in sales. These pillars are: • Traffic • Close rate • Average order value (AOV) • Retention
The Welcomer Edge: The Secrets to Repeat Business
Sun, Feb 10, 2013 — Today's Chief Outsider blog is by guest blogger Diana Kyser McNeff. I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Richard Shapiro, founder and president of The Center For Client Retention and author of his recently published book “The Welcomer Edge – Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business”. Since 1988, Richard has been running The Center For Client Retention (TCFCR) which provides research, training and consulting to Fortune 500 companies on how to improve the customer experience. Before founding TCFCR, Richard held leadership positions at ADP (Automatic Data Processing) in Client Services, Client Satisfaction and Client Retention. At ADP, he developed the idea that when there is a gap between service expectations and delivery, the client relationship is most vulnerable —a customer is most likely to move to a competitor. Richard also credits his experience working in his father’s haberdashery store as a boy as the place where he learned the true value of a customer.