2423 Posts Found

There are three fundamental dimensions to differentiation: product or technology differentiation, customer proximity and operational efficiency. If you feel that you’re in this commoditization-is-upon-you timeframe, now is the time to decide which is your main differentiator and which is your secondary. Because once you decide that, you can deal with this other question of how to incent the sales force. If the sales force is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

Branding is a very complicated concept. There’s brand recognition, and then there’s brand experience. And the real key is brand experience. When we’re talking about whether we’re cross-selling or outsourcing, the important element is that brand experience, and that brand experience has to be consistent.

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Brand

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Just getting started with online testing? Getting ready to take Google Website Optimizer out for a spin? Here are 64 tips on elements you can test and some helpful info to get you going.

Content: Article | Author: Anthony Garcia aka “Shaq” | Source: GrokDotCom | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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When marketing abdicates strategic responsibilities it naturally becomes the simultaneous serf of sales and finance departments, pulled one way to increase sales and another to build profits. There is little more dangerous to the future of a company than marketing enmeshed completely in day-to-day challenges. Marketing needs to build creative and strategic tension into the usual tug-of-war between sales and finance departments. Where there is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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How does a company constantly win more business than its rivals? A key factor is the ability to create proposals that outshine those from even the strongest competitors. Powerful Proposals helps businesses maximize the selling power of their proposals, with proven strategies for going beyond “this is what we do” documents in favor of customer-centered offers that highlight the tangible benefits your company offers. This … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: David G. Pugh, Terry R. Bacon | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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800-CEO-READ offers this free e-book which reviews the work of nine marketing books, including:
1. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling by Annette Simmons
2. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Customer by Michael J. Silverstein
3. Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
4. The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Andrea Learned | Source: 800-CEO-READ (8CR) | Subject: Marketing / Sales

“When everybody zigs, zag,” says author Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear “whiteboard overview” style of Neumeier’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough-today companies need “radical differentiation” to create … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Marty Neumeier | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Marketing practitioners regard forecasting as an important part of their jobs. This paper discuss methods to forecast demand.

Content: Article | Authors: J. Scott Armstrong, Kesten C. Green | Subjects: Management, Market Research

CEOs don’t care about product features. (Save it for the engineering VP.) CEOs don’t care about ROI. (Save it for the CFO.) What CEOs care about is: “will this increase the value of my company?” and “will this make my company easier to manage?” If you’re not selling something that’s going to impact one of those two elements, don’t bother trying to sell it to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: BNET | Subject: Marketing / Sales

As we live our personal lives with a better understanding of how interconnected everything is, our work as marketers should also be considering how consumers take in our messages.

Today, storytelling – in its many forms – is one of the most powerful tools for presenting the truths of your product, service, or brand.

Content: Article | Author: Andrea Learned | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Accepting that 20% of your salespeople bring in 80% of your revenue is like accepting that 80% of your manufacturing machines are, on the average, producing one-fourth of your most productive machines. That output level would never be acceptable; it would be absurd.

Building a uniform selling system is required to define the quantity and quality of activities for individuals to produce at top performing levels. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Marketing / Sales

The more complex the situation becomes, the more customers and salespeople alike try to simplify things. To the customer, the simplest differentiator is price, and in the absence of a quality decision process to help them understand the value of your products and services, they will tend to focus on it and use it as the criterion when making their decision. Your customers should be … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Marketing / Sales

According to researchers at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, providing solutions and meeting customer needs may not always be congruous. In their new paper entitled, Rethinking Customer Solutions: From Product Bundles to Relational Processes, marketers Sundar Bharadwaj, Ajay Kohli, and Goizueta doctoral graduate Kapil Tuli, examine the disconnect between how suppliers and customers view a solution. This difference can impact how suppliers sell, develop, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Emory | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Pricing strategies fail when nobody in the organization can report on how they are being implemented, and when there is no way to sense how customers are responding to them. Without analytic processes to interpret the outcomes of pricing decisions-changes in profitability and customer satisfaction, for example-companies are more or less flying blind.

Content: Quotation | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Sometimes a valuable customer may be the person who never buys a thing. In a new research paper, Professor Sunil Gupta discusses how to assess the profitability of a customer in a networked setting-a “free” customer who nevertheless influences your bottom line.

Content: Article | Author: Sunil Gupta | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Messages should do four things: establish a Connection, promise a Reward, inspire Action, and stick in Memory. (CRAM)

Content: Quotation | Source: 800-CEO-READ (8CR) | Subjects: Communication, Marketing / Sales