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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Are you credible? What sort of question is that? Of course I am. I have to be. And even if I’m not, why is this so important? What do we mean by being credible? One dictionary definition is: “Having credibility means you are believable and reliable.”Here’s another one from a long time friend and past colleague, [...]
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, [...]
Over the past few years, I have realized the importance of process. If there is no process for doing something, then I invent one. For example, writing this article involves having a template. Once I have decided on the subject I’m going to write about I start to create the blog with a lead. Then I [...]
I've been seeing quite a few references to the term Trusted Advisors recently, and I've been talking to people about what they think it really means. The term seems to be applied more often than not to the field of consulting. However, I would suggest a Trusted Advisor is something we should all aspire to, [...]