CRM. Customer Relationship Management. It allows us to store customer and prospect contact information, accounts, leads, and sales opportunities in one central location. The technology has exploded and for an industry that really is less than 3 decades old, the market is worth approximately $36 billion. Overall, the top five CRM software vendors account for [...]
Much is talked and written about leadership and management being so different and how leadership can be the difference between successful companies and those that fail. I scan numerous articles every week about what makes great leadership, but I rarely see anything about poor leadership. However, sometimes it’s good to make sure we can recognize [...]
We all know that CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. But is that what CRM really does? Can it really manage our customer relationships? Of course not. Most peoples views about CRM seem to fall into two separate camps. They either love it, as it supplies plentiful supplies of data and metrics that they [...]
CRM systems can spit out data quicker then we can download the latest app. Our CRM enables us to look at the latest sales data in more ways than augmented reality or 3D technology. But like many of the thrillers or mystery movies that we get lost in, CRM data can easily take us [...]
Building strategic relationships take time and involve building trust and respect. Building trust and respect means being consistent and doing the obvious things well. I was talking with a consultant friend of mine recently and he reminded me that it often is not the smart analytics or process that we bring to the table [...]
One the best indicators is the state of your top clients. Ask yourself these five questions. 1. Are my top clients growing and am I keeping pace with their growth? If your clients are growing and you are not, then there’s a strong chance you are losing market share and therefore share of wallet. That means someone [...]
What is a strategic partnership? So many times we hear the term “strategic” and “partnership” used, abundantly and wrongly. But if you put them together, what does it mean? How do you form one and know if it exists? In this series of “How Do You Know You Have A Strategic Partnership”, my last three [...]
What is a strategic partnership? So many times we hear the term “strategic” and “partnership” used, abundantly and wrongly. But if you put them together, what does it mean? How do you form one and know if it exists? In this series of “How Do You Know You Have A Strategic Partnership”, my last two articles [...]
What is a strategic partnership? So many times we hear the term “strategic” and “partnership” used, abundantly and wrongly. But if you put them together, what does it mean? How do you form one, can you, and how do you know it exists? I count myself extremely fortunate to have not only worked for Coca-Cola for over 20 [...]
How do we make sure we don’t lose the customers we can’t afford to lose?The Top 10 to 20 accounts of any B2B organization typically represent 60-80% of revenue and profit. In some cases, they are as high as 95%. The consequences of losing one of these customers are dramatic, and in today's business environment, [...]