Archive for the ‘Customer Relationship Management’ Category
May 6, 2013
Marketing has become more specialized and strategic than ever. Customers are more vocal and increasingly deal with companies on their terms; New companies can serve clients in new markets and compete with established ones more easily, and companies have an increasing range of ways to create and deliver targeted value to their clients, while precisely measuring the effects.
To thrive in this ever changing, high-stakes world, business leaders must invest in professional marketing capabilities to better serve clients and compete.
So what what does this mean for today’s technology firms? (more…)
Tags:Marketing investment, Marketing strategy, Strategy, Technology companies
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Customer Value, Expertise, Growing businesses, Growth, Innovation, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Start-Ups, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
April 11, 2013
Today’s technology companies use different commercial approaches to attract clients, with some more effective than others.
Examining most commercial pitches reveals consumer and business propositions that are constructed in one of the following ways:
- Direct sales propositions focus on the features and characteristics offered to clients by a product or service. (e.g. a PC with 2GHz processing speed)
- More on-point client proposals focus on the practical benefits that clients can receive from buying a given product or service. (e.g. a quicker and higher performing PC)
- Even more relevant propositions highlight the favourable points provided by an offer relative to the next best alternative. (e.g. a quick and high performance PC offering more choice of software than a Mac)
However, the most client-driven proposition is one that resonates with a customer’s particular needs and demands, offering them what they really value. (e.g a PC that provides “the right mix of performance, design and value-added services to meet your everyday demands.”)
Designing and selling a custom client value propositions is especially applicable for complex offers, where clients have a lot to consider, and for uncertain times, where they may need to be fully convinced before buying.
So how can companies get more clients from “maybe” to “yes”? (more…)
Tags:B2B Sales, Product marketing, Sales techniques, Value selling
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Value, Marketing strategy, Sales Strategy, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2013
Focus on satisfying client demands
Today’s technology sector is a very innovative, fast-changing and competitive area, where dozens of new multi-device services come online daily.
In this setting there are many early-stage companies – particularly in Web, Software and devices – that have become quite good at designing elegant and useful products to serve their initial clients.
However, to thrive early-stage companies need to operate less like product development houses and more like businesses. (more…)
Tags:Marketing strategy, small business, start-up, Strategy
Posted in Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales Support, Strategy | 2 Comments »
March 5, 2013
Marketing is now a 2-way street
Marketing is experiencing drastic changes as interactive and digital technologies begin to replace mass media as its foundation. Both consumers and business clients are no longer a passive audience waiting to be showered by company ads and billboards.
Today’s digital, interactive and social media capabilities empowers any customer to speak up on their experiences and opinions, whether good and bad.
This has created a fundamental shift in customer-supplier relationships, that not even small or specialized technology firms operating off of the business main-street can escape. (more…)
Tags:B2B social networking, Digital marketing, Interactive marketing, Social media
Posted in Collaboration & Participation, Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service, Marketing strategy, Media & Advertising, Product Management, Product Marketing, Social Web, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2013
Quench the thirst for rich content
Within today’s growing digital world relevant online content is becoming the core material for all B2B and B2C marketing initiatives.
Relevant content allows prospective clients to conduct meaningful research, discover the practical benefits of new offers, learn about others’ experiences and build a case to justify any new purchase – all important steps in generating company growth.
But what if a technology company has trouble satisfying its clients’ growing thirst? (more…)
Tags:Content marketing, Customer relationship management, Go-to-market, Marketing channel, Marketing strategy, Storytelling
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Marketing strategy, Media & Advertising, Methods, Product Marketing, Sales Support, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
January 30, 2013
How marketing lights the CEO’s path
The economic backdrop of the past decade has been filled with volatility and uncertainty. To get through it, companies from all sectors, including technology, have had to become more resilience by quickly adjusting to today’s shocks, while taking pre-emptive measures for the future.
In its 16th Annual Global CEO Survey, PWC, the world’s largest professional services firm, asked over 1300 CEOs worldwide what they saw as today’s critical business challenges and opportunities.
Within this volatile environment, more than ever, a marketing approach is helping to light the path forward for CEOs by providing key insights on markets and customers, and by helping to direct strategy to better satisfy client needs, while fighting off competitive threats.
(more…)
Tags:Customer Relationship, Growth Strategy, Innovation, PWC CEO Survey
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Innovation, Marketing strategy, Product Development, Strategy | 1 Comment »
December 5, 2012
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As head of a specialized marketing firm that helps technology companies develop and grow, I am regularly exposed to many of the latest developments in IT, mobile, Web and other areas.
For this reason we are often tempted to try the latest technologies to see how they can help us in our business (we usually try most things once) (more…)
Tags:Customer focus, Essentials, Marketing
Posted in Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing strategy, Product Marketing, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
September 28, 2012
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Based on the growing number of companies and the ways that they use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, there is no doubt that social media has become a must-have for B2C companies, enhancing their overall digital customer touchpoint experience.
For many B2B companies however, the use of social media is still in its infancy due to a misunderstanding of the uses and the value it can provide in the B2B context. (more…)
Tags:B2B social networking, Digital marketing, Social media
Posted in Collaboration & Participation, Customer Experience, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Media & Advertising, Product Development, Product Marketing, Social Web | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2012
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In today’s increasingly dynamic market, companies launch new products and service on a daily basis daily. However, given the falling switching costs, what really matters over the mid-to-long-term are not just the benefits offered, but also the satisfaction and loyalty that customers get when dealing with those companies.
Many technology professional that I know use customer satisfaction and loyalty similarly, yet they are in fact quite different: (more…)
Tags:Customer loyalty, Customer satisfaction
Posted in Customer Experience, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service | Leave a Comment »
Marketing has become more specialized and strategic than ever. Customers are more vocal and increasingly deal with companies on their terms; New companies can serve clients in new markets and compete with established ones more easily, and companies have an increasing range of ways to create and deliver targeted value to their clients, while precisely measuring the effects.
