Category Archives: Leadership and Management

Unlocking Innovation: What does our Customer Success Tomorrow look like?

It’s hard to explain to everyone in an organization – that their role includes “marketing”. And focussing on constant innovation. Hence the term “Customer Success.”

[Note: Thanks to the interest of our dear readers this post from September 18, 2018 is updated April 7, 2021. During COVID everyone was forced to become more tech friendly. We hope that this revised post will help our dear readers prepare better for a post COVID world}

The Customer Success term is particularly popular in the SaaS (Software as a Service ) industry. SaaS companies need customer renewals. To do so, SaaS companies try to align the organization including programmers, sales , finance to working towards customer success. SaaS companies also have a separate Customer Success function that faces the customer and helps in getting the most out of the SaaS product.

Trump Effect: Five reasons why CEO’s will become more involved in Marketing and Supply Chain

The Trump (@realDonaldTrump) effect in Marketing and Supply Chain is that CEO’s worldwide will take more interest in the operational decisions in marketing and supply chain. While Chief Marketing Officers (CMO’s) being rainmakers have more visibility in organizations, the supply chain folks tend to be sidelined. The CSO (Chief Supply Officer/Head of Procurement/Purchasing) typically reportsContinue reading “Trump Effect: Five reasons why CEO’s will become more involved in Marketing and Supply Chain”

Trump Victory: Life is local- Business is global

The surprise victory of Donald Trump has brought into sharp focus a  big idea for the 21st century. Life is local-Business is global Here are some things to think about from observing “local life” in  America: Local Newspapers are alive: In the US only small town newspapers are still around. The regional and national newspapersContinue reading “Trump Victory: Life is local- Business is global”

Brand positioning for authenticity: Focus on mission or competition?

Positioning is a market facing concept while authenticity is about looking inward at the organization.Originally introduced by Jack Trout and Al Reis in 1973, positioning suggests that you must be clear about what your brand is to the customer compared to the competition.

Why forward looking performance “previews” for business are better

Over the last week there were two speakers who influenced this post. The first was the famous goal setting expert  Gary P Latham who spoke at Yale University. And the second was Bob Bowman, (Michael Phelp’s coach) who was interviewed on NBC for his new book  “The Golden Rules.” It also turns out that ourContinue reading “Why forward looking performance “previews” for business are better”

“What is your brand mission? ” ask experts at the Yale Customer Insights Conference

As usual, the The Yale Customer Insights Conference 2016 was great. Leading practitioners and academics came together to tackle some of the most challenging customer insights problems of our time. This as technology moves at warp speed and entire business models get wiped out in a couple of years. And customer behavior changes more rapidlyContinue reading ““What is your brand mission? ” ask experts at the Yale Customer Insights Conference”

Marketing vs. Sales- What’s the difference?

The Marketing vs. Sales difference is a crucial one for all businesses to understand. To simplify: Sales is trying to sell what you have. Sales followed from the production era where in the early part of the 20th century, entrepreneurs like Henry Ford famously produced only one color of car (black) and could bring downContinue reading “Marketing vs. Sales- What’s the difference?”

Why are people suspicious of innovation in organizations?

CEO’s know that their organizations must innovate to stay relevant and succeed. Other functional heads (CxO’s) also understand the innovation imperative. And this applies to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ,Chief Supply Officer (CSO) or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) etc. These organizational leaders cannot understand why getting a new thing started is so difficult. And why they do not see the benefits flowing in- simply because of employee reluctance in implementation and “buy-in.

Dealing with the power and politics of B2B buying centers

We get frequent questions from innovative solution sellers about how to deal with the power and politics of B2B Buying Centers. This is after you have started talking with people at a prospective customer organization. And yet a deal doesn’t seem to be coming through.Here is our take and we hope this makes our dear readers feel better:

Why sales force compensation is over three times advertising spending in the US

You may not realize that US sales force compensation spending is over three times advertising spending. In 2006 sales force compensation was $800 billion,  Meanwhile US advertising spend is estimated at only  $187 Billion, in 2015. Sales is the world’s second oldest profession and its compensation is an evergreen question in sales  for thousands ofContinue reading “Why sales force compensation is over three times advertising spending in the US”