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Hub You - The Importance of Focus for Generating Customer Value
Dressing appropriately for job interviews is one of those areas that puzzles some people.Should you dress conservatively or wear casual attire?What colors work best?What types of shoes should you wear?As a rule, you should dress conservatively for most job interviews. Remember, you only get one shot at making a good first impression.Here are some basic dress for success tips:Research how people in a particular field/organization dress and then dress accordingly. If you’re not sure what the dress code is, dress conservatively.Conservative formal dress consists of a suit (gray, navy, or black) with a nice dress shirt/blouse. Shoes should be dark and well-shined. Women can also wear a tailored dress with or without a jacket. Pumps with low to medium heels are best.Business casual is a more relaxed look for both men and women. Casual interview wear can consist of a sports coat or jacket with pants or a skirt in an attractive contrasting color. Think: Navy blazer with khaki pants, etc. Add a casual shirt or turtleneck to complete the look.Hair and nails should be clean and well-groomed.Skip the perfume and aftershave. You don’t want to turn an interviewer off by overpowering their sense of smell.Avoid wearing noisy, dangling earrings and bracelets – these can look inappropriate and be distracting. Hide or remove body piercings and tattoos.Learning how to dress smart for your interviews will create a great impression and also give your self-confidence a real boost.
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is be
"There's not anybody who really cares about using voice messaging the way I envisioned it." According to Gordon Matthews, the inventor of voice mail, he never anticipated that his automated message system would be used to confuse and frustrate business callers. He didn't foresee how many ways businesses could devise to misuse his system.When asked what aggravates them most about modern phone communication the majority of people will say that it is voice mail. Pressed for details, they explain that it is the automated answering process that companies use to screen and direct calls that bugs them, not the basic messaging-taking function.Companies are spending large sums of money to antagonize their customers and it only seems to get worse. When a person needs help with a problem and can't reach another human, the situation deteriorates rapidly. Using the numbers on your touch tone pad is fine when you want to verify your bank balance, pay a bill or have a dry newspaper delivered; but when your pipes are backing up, your new computer just crashed, or a tree just fell on your brand new SUV, call processing may not be the answer.There are advantages to an automated system. It saves money in salaries and benefits. It prevents old-fashioned phone tag by allowing people to leave detailed messages in their own voice with clear and correct information. Voice mail crosses all time zones so people can leave and retrieve messages at their convenience.The disadvantages are that people can hide behind voice mail, often the prompts are confusing, working through the menu can be more time-consuming than speaking to a "live" person, and some people just don't like talking to machines.If your company uses an automated system to process calls make sure it provides the best customer service by following these suggestions:1. Keep your greeting short and sweet. (No one cares that your menu options have changed. They only want to know what options they have now.)2. List your menu options according to popular usage.3. Tell callers how to reach another human early in the process.4. Think twice before using voice mail for customer service issues.5. Survey your customers from time to time to see how they feel about your voice mail system.6. Try calling your own system occasionally and find out first hand what your customers are experiencing.Voice mail
It is essential to carefully choose your Customer Value Proposition. Both value creation from the customer as well as the corporate viewpoint gain from consistent and deliberate focus on key market segments and core competences. This results in a mutual exchange of value, which will stabilize and strengthen your competitive position.
Introduction
The term customer value is typically used in one of two ways. Either customer value is used to describe the benefit a customer gets from using a product, or, customer value is the profit a customer generates for the company. In this paper we embrace both the "soft" (satisfaction) and "hard" (profitability) approach to value creation.
It is somewhat of a paradox to consider the value for the customer as if this were in some way opposed to the value for the company. There really should not appear to be a conflict of interest between value for versus from the customer, since this is not a zero sum game. For example, a customer that is getting excellent service is therefore less likely to shop around, compare prices, and maybe churn. Great service and satisfied customers are necessary to avoid your product being perceived as "merely" a commodity. How else can you command a premium price?
There is no reason to suggest that value created for the customer is in any way antipodal to value generated from the customer. The trick lies in matching the offer to the customer needs, or, finding the "right" customer given a company's offering[1]. To achieve this goal, it is essential that a purposely chosen Customer Value Proposition (CVP) be pursued.
Measuring Customer Value
There are many possible criteria to measure corporate performance like market share, turnover, profit, number of products sold, etcetera. Aggregate turnover, sales volume or market share do not necessarily provide a reliable picture of the (financial) performance of a company. For example, a large market share could have been acquired at too high cost, and as a result the profit per customer may be dangerously low.
Rather than only rely on aggregate performance figures, it is better to also capture characteristics at the individual customer level. The question then is: what are the most useful performance criteria to determine how a company is doing? Such performance criteria should ideally also provide guidance on how to change course "in mid-air", to offer help with tactical decision making. In general, aggregate numbers are not very useful to help everyday decision making at the operational level.
Not all customers are created equal, some are more profitable than others. For this reason, you want some kind of measure for profitability. Often, the hardest part in determining individual customer profitability is dealing with the fixed costs. You need to set up an allocation scheme that takes into account how fixed costs should be allocated across customers. This is not easy, but necessary to establish an individual profitability calculation. As an example, suppose hardware is needed to host a new VR system. If only 10% of customers have started using this system in the first year, it seems hardly reasonable to "charge" these customers with the full hardware costs. Then users of essentially a more efficient system would all "become" terribly unprofitable!
Measuring customer profitability is vitally important to target the right prospects. Companies want to spend their marketing resources where this will generate the highest payoff. This requires insight in cross- and up-sell potential. It is not just current profitability, but also the development of customer profitability over time that is important. Insight in both is necessary to evaluate the ROI of marketing spend.
A New Paradigm: From Aggregate to Individual Customer Data
Businesses are increasingly run "by the numbers". CRM, the new marketing paradigm, has helped to shift the focus from aggregate company sales to the individual customer. It is not enough anymore to know that your market share went up. The underlying "quality of growth" needs to be monitored as well. Numbers like the percentage of new customers and attrition of the existing base can have a huge impact on bottom line figures, and further potential for growth[2],[3]. According to many[4],[5], CRM has failed in many respects. Even if this were true, it has nonetheless brought about a lasting change in focus on the kinds of numbers that are used to steer businesses.
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is bet
If you ask me how much Bobby will sell this month, there is only one way to tell. It isn’t by what Bobby wrote on his forecast sheet. However, with the right information, this is an equation I can get into. If we run the sales activity numbers, we can pretty accurately determine where Bobby will end up this month, quarter and year. As the numbers and ratios change so will the final results. This can be exciting, when we are interested in managing sales and our business through sales activities.Sales activity numbers are an important indicator of success and failure. The problem associated with calculating sales activity is that many salespeople and sales managers don’t keep track of the vital numbers to make the analysis. The numbers aren’t that difficult to track but many people are afraid of what the numbers will reveal. There is a dark side to numbers when used to point out only the negatives.Let’s go back to old early algebra scenarios. We ask Bobby how many sales contacts it will take him to reach 50,000 dollars in sales this month. We could calculate this out, if we knew how many contacts it takes Bobby to get an appointment. This will lead us to his average sale. If we know what these numbers are and apply them to the sales formula, we have our answer.Improving Success Through RatiosThe great thing about numbers and ratios is they can tell us where Bobby needs help and support. We wouldn’t normally have this unless we have Bobby’s contact numbers to calculate his success ratios. If it takes Bobby 30 telephone contacts to get one appointment, the numbers tell us that Bobby is at a very low 30-1 ratio. If this was his baseball batting average, we wouldn’t want him on our team. Bobby would be in a terrible slump and in serious trouble. Now we can look at several things, his telephone script, and the quality and type of the contacts on his telephone list. Perhaps the timing of his telephone calls and the tone and rhythm of his voice needs work too.The good news is that Bobby only needs a few hits to improve his ratios. All of a sudden Bobby is looking pretty good. It usually doesn’t take much to make this transformation. If we don’t have the numbers, we won’t know where we are and what our ratios can tell you.What Is A Good Ratio For Your Sales Team?Keeping track of your sales and contact numbers is an easy thing for some people and difficult for othe
There is no reason to suggest that value created for the customer is in any way antipodal to value generated from the customer. The trick lies in matching the offer to the customer needs, or, finding the "right" customer given a company's offering[1]. To achieve this goal, it is essential that a purposely chosen Customer Value Proposition (CVP) be pursued.
Measuring Customer Value
There are many possible criteria to measure corporate performance like market share, turnover, profit, number of products sold, etcetera. Aggregate turnover, sales volume or market share do not necessarily provide a reliable picture of the (financial) performance of a company. For example, a large market share could have been acquired at too high cost, and as a result the profit per customer may be dangerously low.
Rather than only rely on aggregate performance figures, it is better to also capture characteristics at the individual customer level. The question then is: what are the most useful performance criteria to determine how a company is doing? Such performance criteria should ideally also provide guidance on how to change course "in mid-air", to offer help with tactical decision making. In general, aggregate numbers are not very useful to help everyday decision making at the operational level.
Not all customers are created equal, some are more profitable than others. For this reason, you want some kind of measure for profitability. Often, the hardest part in determining individual customer profitability is dealing with the fixed costs. You need to set up an allocation scheme that takes into account how fixed costs should be allocated across customers. This is not easy, but necessary to establish an individual profitability calculation. As an example, suppose hardware is needed to host a new VR system. If only 10% of customers have started using this system in the first year, it seems hardly reasonable to "charge" these customers with the full hardware costs. Then users of essentially a more efficient system would all "become" terribly unprofitable!
Measuring customer profitability is vitally important to target the right prospects. Companies want to spend their marketing resources where this will generate the highest payoff. This requires insight in cross- and up-sell potential. It is not just current profitability, but also the development of customer profitability over time that is important. Insight in both is necessary to evaluate the ROI of marketing spend.
A New Paradigm: From Aggregate to Individual Customer Data
Businesses are increasingly run "by the numbers". CRM, the new marketing paradigm, has helped to shift the focus from aggregate company sales to the individual customer. It is not enough anymore to know that your market share went up. The underlying "quality of growth" needs to be monitored as well. Numbers like the percentage of new customers and attrition of the existing base can have a huge impact on bottom line figures, and further potential for growth[2],[3]. According to many[4],[5], CRM has failed in many respects. Even if this were true, it has nonetheless brought about a lasting change in focus on the kinds of numbers that are used to steer businesses.
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is be
What if everyone understood the value of networking? What if all small businesses could network in their communities? What if small business people were careful to get involved, join clubs and become active members in their chamber of commerce? What if all small businesses understood that often it is easier to network than to throw money at a problem? What if small business people realized that sponsoring a Little League Team in their towns made good sense for their businesses and expanded their customer base? What if small business failure rates were much lower that 5:1 and that most Small Business Loans were paid off and not in default? What if we took all the small business people and helped them understand the value of networking? What if no one had to lose their nest egg simply for chasing their American Dream of owning their own small business? What if folks who signed up at the local Chamber of Commerce went to more than the average of only two-meetings in two years? What if everyone in business became actively involved in all aspects of their community and used this involvement to recruit great employees and spent a little of their hard earned monies giving back and supporting the community that supported them? What if you did this in your small business, how much difference would it make to your success? Think on this.
Not all customers are created equal, some are more profitable than others. For this reason, you want some kind of measure for profitability. Often, the hardest part in determining individual customer profitability is dealing with the fixed costs. You need to set up an allocation scheme that takes into account how fixed costs should be allocated across customers. This is not easy, but necessary to establish an individual profitability calculation. As an example, suppose hardware is needed to host a new VR system. If only 10% of customers have started using this system in the first year, it seems hardly reasonable to "charge" these customers with the full hardware costs. Then users of essentially a more efficient system would all "become" terribly unprofitable!
Measuring customer profitability is vitally important to target the right prospects. Companies want to spend their marketing resources where this will generate the highest payoff. This requires insight in cross- and up-sell potential. It is not just current profitability, but also the development of customer profitability over time that is important. Insight in both is necessary to evaluate the ROI of marketing spend.
A New Paradigm: From Aggregate to Individual Customer Data
Businesses are increasingly run "by the numbers". CRM, the new marketing paradigm, has helped to shift the focus from aggregate company sales to the individual customer. It is not enough anymore to know that your market share went up. The underlying "quality of growth" needs to be monitored as well. Numbers like the percentage of new customers and attrition of the existing base can have a huge impact on bottom line figures, and further potential for growth[2],[3]. According to many[4],[5], CRM has failed in many respects. Even if this were true, it has nonetheless brought about a lasting change in focus on the kinds of numbers that are used to steer businesses.
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is be
Pretty powerful combination you might think. What would Brian Boru have done faced with 10th century marauders wielding 20th century weapons? He would not have had a hope! That is what dynamic imagery does for advertising and marketing. It provides an unstoppable combination that is guaranteed to get results. So what's missing? To be honest, without ammunition, the Vikings actually would not have had a hope. For a start, Brian and his gang of Celts, would not have known what the machine guns were, and secondly, the Vikings would not have had any other weapons to combat the fury of the zealous Celts.It is vital that you have ammunition for your machine guns! Your Value Proposition, expressed in terms that your customer understands, is what gives your marketing the firepower required to get results. Without the right message, no-one will understand what you really stand for!Creating your Value PropositionSo how do you go about creating your unique value proposition? First it is vital that you are disciplined, and you have to hand the following material. A list of all customers For each customer you need to identifyWhat they bought A testimonial and/or value statement from those customersWhere they are geographically based The industry they are in Their size and turnover A list of your competitors and information on their products. An industry specific magazine that your best customers would read A print-out of the Mission statement of your best 5 customers We run ? day and full day workshops on this, using tried and tested questions to get you really thinking about what your offerings provide. However you can try do this yourself, if you budget is limited.Which ever category you fall in, I suggest, that to avoid firing blanks with your marketing budget, you undertake this exercise, and start getting the results you deserve.Step 1 - Know your customersTo really be able to market successfully, and by successfully, I mean getting qualified leads that turn into sales, you must relate to your prospects. If you already have customers, then they must like what you are offering. But what was it about y
Measuring customer profitability is vitally important to target the right prospects. Companies want to spend their marketing resources where this will generate the highest payoff. This requires insight in cross- and up-sell potential. It is not just current profitability, but also the development of customer profitability over time that is important. Insight in both is necessary to evaluate the ROI of marketing spend.
A New Paradigm: From Aggregate to Individual Customer Data
Businesses are increasingly run "by the numbers". CRM, the new marketing paradigm, has helped to shift the focus from aggregate company sales to the individual customer. It is not enough anymore to know that your market share went up. The underlying "quality of growth" needs to be monitored as well. Numbers like the percentage of new customers and attrition of the existing base can have a huge impact on bottom line figures, and further potential for growth[2],[3]. According to many[4],[5], CRM has failed in many respects. Even if this were true, it has nonetheless brought about a lasting change in focus on the kinds of numbers that are used to steer businesses.
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is be
What style of management best describes you? Of the most common 4 there is a "best" one? Take a look at this list and see which you think you are. Careful, after you read about each you might want to change your mind. AUTOCRATIC MANAGEMENT WORK MANAGEMENT INDIVIDUAL MANAGMENT DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT MANAGEMENT Autocratic ManagementThis is the “my way or the highway” manager. You will recognize this by the string of broken salespeople left in their wake. They will get results, but will experience high staff turnover. Their customer relationships are poor and they get very little repeat or referral business. The result is high advertising costs in an effort to continually find new customers. The cost in human capital,i.e., recruiting and training is even greater.WORK MANAGEMENT This manager believes in but does not have complete trust of subordinates. Their time is spent checking and double checking for errors, abuse of company policy and gets bogged down in details that do not promote sales. Their focus is on organization and structure. Important yes, but not the main objective. Selling is secondary to this manager. This style makes a great assistant sales manager under the right guidance.INDIVIDUAL MANAGEMENTConfidence and trust in his people is the strong suit of this manager. They share information freely with salespeople and are "one of the gang". This can lead to confusion if the need arises to exert the authority of their position.DEMOCRATIC/PARTICIPANTAccording to A. L. Mazlow, renowned management expert, 80% of employees respond positively to this style.Since style number 4 is the most desirable lets find out why.Is involved. Takes action.Are you a manager who creates business? When business is slower than you would like what steps do you take? Use slower periods for one-on-one sessions with your salespeople. Schedule additional training. Do now allow your people to be idle.Has empathy and genuine concern for employee growth and success.This is worth repeating...THEY DON'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE. You are the person they look up to. It is your responsibility to help them. They have to know you have their best interest at heart. At All Times.Solves problems through the use of knowledge
In this new marketing paradigm, the focus is now on customer lifecycle management, on developing and maintaining customer relations. Marketing spend is seen, not just as an expense, but rather as an investment in the relation with the customer.
Value From or For the Customer?
Sometimes the debate on value creation is treated as a zero sum game: by doing more for the customer the company is earning less. This is only an apparent paradox[6]. Sustainable value can only be created if the supplier can afford to offer the current service level and still maintain profitability.
From the customer perspective, they consistently need to get a better overall deal than they could get from the competition[7]. If dealing with the current supplier does not generate excess value, customers will leave. Value for the customer means more than just offering a better price. As an example: the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is not cheap. But the service is excellent. As long as the "total experience" is better, the Ritz-Carlton still provides more value to those who can appreciate this superior service.
For the corporation, value creation comes in the form of a steady cash flow, which can be counted on to extend into the future as well. Value is created in marketplaces where both suppliers and customers are in a win-win relation. Only then will the supplier be able to sustain its market position, and only then will it be in the customer's best interest to maintain the relationship with this supplier.
Loyalty is not something that can be bought, at least not profitably for prolonged periods of time. In fact customers cannot even be owned. Customers can be rented from the marketplace. But this comes at a price, namely acquisition and retention costs. Loyalty is a privilege one can earn by consistently delivering superior value to the customer.
Dynamics of growth
Providing value to the customer leads to growth in the market. This in turn leads to a better understanding of the reasons behind success (customer feedback and research), which then shows the way to providing even more value. This cycle can continue growing. It is a self-reinforcing cycle.
Focus on the right kinds of customers is a leverage point in that it can make or break success. A loss of focus will cause this same cycle to gradually break down over time.
The risk of success is that it can blind you. Success in the marketplace should come from a match between your CVP and meeting needs of customers. What is it about the service that customers value the most? Dell is an example that might apply here, They had years of stellar growth, and pioneered innovative distribution and supply chain management methods. Currently they are wandering, their service and quality are dropping because they appear to be too many things to too many customers. By putting effort where this is most appreciated by your customers, you stay "lean and mean".
It is crucial to determine your core competencies. You need to define exactly what the benefits are for the customers. Then you need to specify the needed processes, systems and communication that are required to deliver these unique benefits. Why is it that (high value) customers like you? Then, focus all energy towards meeting those goals.
Given an organization's infrastructure and value proposition, certain customers can be profitably targeted, others maybe not. The constellation of organization structure, systems in place, and the value proposition a business is working with (its "capabilities"), together comprise the most important elements that will influence the costs of an organization. Moving outside of these core competences entails a risk of inefficiencies.
Risks of an undifferentiated approach
What are the risks of an undifferentiated growth strategy? This will result in a loss of value in four places:
1 - There is less of a match between the value proposition and your new customers. As a result, you become increasingly dependent on customers choosing you, instead of the other way around. This risks devaluation of your brand for two reasons. Firstly, for many customers you cannot deliver what they expect. And secondly, you loose your differentiated position. Your brand becomes an "average", there is no longer a way to differentiate yourself from the competition[8].
2 - You loose focus on your core competencies, given the CVP-segment match. Because of heterogeneity in new customers, a pressure arises to diverge activities, to fulfil more different kinds of needs (similar to the problems Dell is currently facing). For example, there will be more processes to manage, more different kinds of questions and requests from customers, and you risk running into service and communication problems. It is inevitable that lack of a clear priority of service and value will lead to higher operating costs. As a result, you can expect more errors in fulfilment because you are being been forced to offer more diverse services.
3 - Once "the wrong" customers have entered the base, it becomes much harder to cross- and deep sell. Also, developing new products becomes much harder: whom to develop them for? This will then further amplify the difficulties in cross-selling.
4 - The leverage on the market goes down, costs go up, and therefore there is even less competitive power. You don't "know" your customers, simply because there is no "typical" c
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