The leaders of B2B companies often face a conundrum in sales and marketing. Their products, services, and talented people solve customer problems daily. Their approaches to awareness, conversion, and retention make sense. They’ve tried to improve training, coaching, automation, incentives, and more. Often more than once! And despite many attempts, growth and profitability are unsatisfactory....

This post Facts and Values; The Keys to Operational Excellence in Sales and Marketing appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

I was in Denver recently and started chatting with people at the bar (as I am apt to do, from time to time).  Regardless of what it might sound like, I meet some rather interesting folks (who are fellow road-warriors like me) and I strike-up some even more interesting conversations. On this particular occasion, I...

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Summary.   At some point in your career, even if you’re not in sales, you’re going to have to sell something — whether it’s your idea, your team, or yourself. Here are some strategies for improving your sales skills. Do your homework. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Ask: What business problem does he need solved? Plan and...

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Like many consultants, I travel quite a bit and spend a fair bit of time at airports as a result.  And since I live in Germany and my clients are (mostly) in Europe and in the States, my most popular route (once a month on average) is flying United Airlines between Frankfurt (FRA) and Newark...

This post Don’t Be Arrogant; You Need Your Customers More Than They Need You. appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

There is nothing more effective for getting people to follow (and buy from) a leader than the existence of a common enemy. While this doesn’t mean you should go around calling on people to commit acts of violence or cruelty, those who aspire to lead—and to sell— need to publicly take a bold stand about...

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Hello and welcome to another episode of “State of Readiness”. My guest today is Michael F. Schein; the Head Hype Man at MicroFame Media, a company that specializes in making consultants and coaches famous in their fields, and author of the book entitled “The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists,...

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Summary.   Brands spend billions of dollars a year on lavish efforts to establish and maintain a social media presence. But do those campaigns actually increase revenue? New research provides an answer to this question, which has vexed marketers ever since social media burst upon the scene. In a series of experiments, the researchers tested four increasingly...

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My guest today is Dave Light, owner of Certainty Resources Limited and author of the book, “The Certainty Principle”. We start this episode by exploring David’s meandering journey and how each opportunity, with some tenacity and focus, led him to the next. But his personal transformational moment, the one that helped him to decide to...

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Consumer behavior is changing dramatically all of the time… … If you don’t plan for the future today, you may find tomorrow’s too late. While the immediate response to COVID-19 seems all-consuming, we still need to think of this pandemic in phases. There’s what we must do “now” to manage business continuity, what we must...

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I am not easily impressed by technology.  In fact, I am often a contrarian and don’t easily buy into the hype of the “next great thing”.  It’s probably a combination of factors. One being that I started my professional career during the 1980’s and 90’s – a period of time when there was a veritable...

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Have you ever “Nailed it!” when interviewing for a sales position? All the stars aligned. Your answers were spot on, and the rapport was effortless. Isn’t that the best feeling?! How do you usually feel when interviewing for a sales position? Excited? Nervous? Confident? Uncertain? Driven? All of the above? Regardless, there are concrete ways...

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On the premise that digitization is causing a radical reordering of traditional industry boundaries, McKinsey & Co. poses the question: What will it take to play offense and defense in tomorrow’s ecosystems? In an attempt to answer the question, this article delves into Japan’s single largest online retail marketplace: Rakuten Ichiba… Read more here

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So, how is your company’s sales process working? Responses to that question often paint an ugly picture: “We just don’t have the discipline to make a sales process work.” “We put it in place but the people just don’t follow it. They like to do their own thing.” “We have trouble because our sales managers...

This post Five Steps Guaranteed to Increase B2B Sales Revenue and Margins appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

Non-arguably, supply chain has undergone a tremendous change over the last 3 decades or so. Its focus has shifted from a purely operational logistics function to a wholly independent supply-chain management function. Moreover, digitization creates a disruption nowadays and requires companies to rethink the way they design their supply chain. To cope with changed requirements, and enable...

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How will your company reach its revenue and profitability goals in the short term? If you are growing now, how will you sustain that growth in the future? If answering these questions is a struggle, you are not alone. In many B2B companies sales productivity has been declining in recent years. A study by CSO Insights said only...

This post Why You Should Bring Operational Excellence to Sales (And Why Your Salespeople Will Love You For It) appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

So far, for UPS and FedEx, Amazon’s been great for business.  But lately, it seems all the more that it’s taking business away from them. With Amazon having spent $11.5 billion on shipping last year—nearly twice what it did two years ago, things are starting look bleak for prominent delivery service companies. When asked about Amazon’s...

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Reuters reports that suppliers of everything from groceries to sports equipment are being squeezed for price cuts and cost sharing by Wal-Mart Stores. Moreover, they are bracing for the pressure to ratchet up even more after a shock earnings warning from the retailer last week. The discount store has always had a reputation for demanding...

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The Economist means that the onset of the internet revolution was supposed to do away with all sorts of middlemen. Yet, house sales are still mostly conducted by estate agents, and car sales are still finalised in cavernous showrooms that smell of tyres. The truth is that no one much likes car dealers – especially...

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The auto company that has the best profit margin in the industry, Subaru, is now running into problems concerning their ability to keep up with demand. The company can barely make enough cars to meet demand and quite frankly, couldn’t be less suited to handle a sales surge. The real problem lies in the juxtaposition, that expanding...

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Why Sales and Marketing Needs Operational Excellence Every year CSO Insights (a research company for chief sales officers) conducts a study on sales management. In 2014, the average win rate of forecasted deals across all companies was 45.9 percent, virtually the same as the 45.7 percent achieved in 2013. In other words, the average CEO...

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In Germany, the Erich Utsch AG plant is building a staple of American prisons: the equipment convicts use to crank out vehicle license plates. Utsch, with its niche product and exporting zeal, is one of the 3.7 million small and medium-sized companies driving Europe’s biggest economy. The son of the company’s founder, recently revealed their international...

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Reuters reports that after record orders, Airbus is reshaping for higher output, while its procurement chief deepens the use of auto methods in their supply chain. The transformation underpins one of the toughest challenges faced by Airbus in its 44-year history: switching to a new model of best-selling A320 at the same time as embarking on...

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Social science researcher, Michael Norton studies how we feel about what we buy and spend. At TEDxCambridge, he shares fascinating research on how money can, indeed buy happiness — when you don’t spend it on yourself. Listen for surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course) other people. Who said...

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Reuters investigates what is now known as Caterpillar’s dealer sales push. In recent years, the company has called the 178 independently owned businesses that distribute its earth-moving products worldwide everything from “a critical competitive differentiator” to “the foundation” of its success. Now the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment is adopting a cooler...

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As the debate rages on about whether an increase in the U.S. minimum wage will boost or hinder hiring, one aspect is more unambiguous: It would almost surely lift consumer spending. According to Bloomberg, while the effect will probably be positive, the magnitude of the improvement remains up in the air. Walmart, for instance, is...

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Introduction: The authors were faced with a mounting problem:  Sales forecasts were continuing to deteriorate and Corporate was mandating a traditional application of Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP).   This application relied on forecasts and static data.  Static data is sufficient where forecasts and run-rates are consistent, though that is simply not the case in the...

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Reuters reports that Portuguese export firms are buzzing with activity despite three years of economic crisis at home. In the words of one footwear designer, Luis Onofre, “It’s a one-way trip. If we stop growing exports, we dig our own grave.” During the depths of Portugal’s crisis in 2012, his firm raised its foreign sales by...

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Not long ago, before the financial crisis and the global recession it triggered, economists referred to America itself as fulfilling the role of consumer of last resort. American consumers were fueling demand for the goods China and other nations produced, and so, they kept the world economy humming. However, as Bloomberg reports, it may not quite...

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Reuters reports that soaring diabetes rates, driven by increasing obesity, have fuelled profits at the Danish company, Novo Nordisk’s Kalundborg factory for nearly two decades. Now, the company wants to tackle obesity head on by launching a specific treatment. At first thought, it seems to be a no-brainer. However, in a global economic downturn, modestly effective weight-loss...

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The chairman of C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc – the biggest company no one has ever heard of – is one mysterious man with good reasons for staying out of the limelight. The 61-year-old ‘hidden billionaire Cohen’, has transformed C&S into the world’s largest grocery wholesaler since taking the helm of the business in 1989, making him one...

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