Is customer-centric business the future?

In the last 12 years, the credo of my business life was “Customer First!”. It surprises and disappoints me when I experience poor customer service. Or when I hear from unhappy friends, colleagues or relatives telling me stories about how companies treat the centre of their business: customers.

Last week, when I was thinking about how to leverage this to a higher level, I came across a modern business strategy vision by Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School professor and author of the book “Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business“. In the following video Gulati tells us how to deliver what customers really want.

Reorienting vs. Reorganizing
Ranjay Gulati sees the fundamental changes appropriate for some movement in company processes. Customers have more information, more choices on products while companies are facing global competition. So, businesses have to think about their business (not only marketing or sales efforts!) and how it operates.

Redefining vs. Reinventing
The analysis of the customer base might show that the website is designed for male while the majority of the users might be female. So, we need to ask questions like “Who are my customers?”, “How do my customers shop?”, or “What do they really want?”.

Gulati explains with the latest success of Best Buy how women and men shop. At that point, he also hints to the upsale opportunity of recommendations.

Success for businesses, he believes, comes from “Inside-Out-Perspective”. Companies don’t have to produce everything themselves but need to make the client happy like Apple with the iPhone. 90% of the inputs are not made by Apple. The same occurs to the apps in the Apple store where Apple basically just orchestrates the customers wishes.

“Make this identity shift. I am not here to sell what I produce – I am here to solve a set of customer problems (…) and actually acting on that!”

How to get to a customer-centric business…
1. Shifting mindset: the intention to solve customer problems.
2. Sense of curiosity and humility: the wish to understand your customers.
3. Make a creative leap: the will to understand their needs.
4. Align the elements in the organization: the motivation to live the customer-centric business.

Spot On!
Interested to get your view on this modern business strategy. Let us know what you think about customer-centric business. Or do you think the social web will be leading us towards this business process anyway?

Can corporate social media engagement replace customer loyalty cards?

We all have our purse full of plastic cards for customer loyaly programs. These won’t make us rich. They make us save money, or get kickbacks from companies and brands if we want. And the philosophy of these programs is clever. Companies have the feeling of being in touch with their clients on a regular basis, making sure customers stay informed about their product offerings.

The customers bottleneck is, well yes, we have to carry multiple plastic cards in a credit card format with us. So, why not leaving these cards behind after 20 years and just make customers fans on Facebook and/or followers on Twitter of brands?

Imagine you go into a store and you’ll see a “Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or on our iPhone app” sign taped to the cash mashine instead of receiving print and plastic to carry home?! – Why not save the trees and oil resources!?

Companies install reward program cards or partner with small business credit cards rewards to make us buy more of their products, or more frequently. And companies get more feedback on our buying habits. So, for companies these cards are an essential part of their customer loyalty strategy.

And customers with a big purse are happy. Others don’t want to have all these cards. Thus, these customers are not lsitening to what’s the latest promotion. Now, who of the male world is happy with all these plastic cards making our trouser pockets look like fat kangaroo pouches?

In most cases, these loyalty cards are addressing and being used by an old-economy’s vanity (IMHO), or women. “Look how much companies are interested in having me as their customer”, I heard a woman say the other day.

A recent study by the CMO Council “The Leaders in Loyalty: Feeling the Love from the Loyalty Club” shows the trouble of loyalty programs. 54% of consumers mention that irrelevant messages, low value rewards, and impersonal engagements may decrease their loyalty for brands and their services, and with that their loyalty programs.

And yes, we can understand this fact when our online and offline mailboxes are full of non-personalized, unexhiting and unintersting promotions from company’s so called loyalty programs. Talking of me, these loyalty programs get one chance and I cut those cards into pieces straight away when the company loyalty program fails.

Now, what does this means for loyalty programs when we match these results with the latest survey by MarketingSherpa. The new web generation and prosumers love following brands as they expect savings, learning about specials and sales as the top motivation to friend and/or follow a brand online. If companies are aware of this fact and learn from it, why not replacing the old loyalty card concept then?

The benefit of the fan and follower systemtic is quite obvious…
- You become a fan and/or follower when a brand becomes of interest for YOU as a customer
- You become a fan and/or follower of your favorite brand when YOU are in a purchase process
- You can check status updates on sales, discounts and promotions when YOU need them (not when the company wants to sell more products)

OK, thinking of business intelligence and data mining sales cycle topics, it might become difficult for companies to track purchase processes as good as now. But, isn’t the customer king with the rise of social media? And companies could save money for print mailings and their plastic card production, right?

Spot On!
Some weeks ago, I have thought about Twitter as a sales tool and with this post, I am trying to take this idea a bit further. It shall illustrate how much a company’s sales and customer service strategy gets influenced by a new social web strategy where the customer holds the power of interest in promotions.

So, let us know what you think about the idea that Facebook fan pages, Twitter company accounts or corporate LinkedIn groups could replace loyalty programs in the future? A dream, a vision or a stupid idea?

News Update – Best of the Day

Content strategy becomes more and more important as customers approach companies and get engaged in company buzz. In order to be prepared companies should have a good content strategy in place. Shay Howe writes about the relevant tactical steps involved in developing a content strategy and offers great case studies with it.

Marketers want to get insight in what kind of advertising are seen and what is not being noticed o the web. The book “Eyetracking Web Usability” offers some answers based on an eyetracking study. Only close to 36% notice ads on a web page. 52% look at purely textual ads, 52% view ads where image and text were separate, 51% of viewers noticed sponsored links on search engine pages. Ads carrying text on top of images is not very successful.

What is the formula of social media success? With Starbucks we have an interesting show case which was summarized by Ayelet Noff that highlight their powerful social media tactics and strategic motivation.

Neukundengeschäft in der Krise – Motivation im Sales gesucht

An der Aussage ist eigentlich nichts Neues. Dennoch ist sie aktueller denn je. Gerade in Zeiten der Wirtschaftskrise erscheint ein aktuelles Ergebnis einer Studie des Personalberatungshauses Xenagos wahrlich unfaßbar…

Für 80% der Unternehmen spielt die Neukundengewinnung offensichtlich keine Rolle.

Das Neukundengeschäft ist also ebenfalls in der Krise. Nicht einmal ein Viertel der Umsätze macht die Gewinnung von Neukunden aus, besagen die befragten Vertriebsspezialisten. Jeder Dritte der Befragten meint, dass sich dieser Anteil in 2009 sogar noch verringert hat – nur bei der Hälfte ist er gleich geblieben.

Motivation belebt den Erfolg-Kreislauf beim Neukundengeschäft
Jeder Vertriebsleiter weiß um die Wichtigkeit des Neukundengeschäftes zum Auf- und Ausbau des Business. Und dennoch fällt es den Salesmitarbeitern schwer, den Hörer in die Hand zu nehmen und mal schnell die Kaltakquise zu starten. Die Frage ist ‘Warum?’, wenn der “5-Sales-Stufen-Erfolgs-Kreislauf” doch jedem Kaufmann bewußt ist…

1. Je höher die Motivation des Salesteams ist, umso mehr Kaltakquise wird durchgeführt.
2. Je mehr Kaltakquise durchgeführt wird, umso schneller werden Neukunden gewonnen.
3. Je mehr Neukunden gewonnen werden, umso schneller entwickeln sich Bestandskunden.
4. Je mehr Bestandskunden das Business gewinnt, umso mehr Umsatz wird geschrieben.
5. Je mehr Umsatz das Business gewinnt, umso höher die Motivation Salesteams.

Eigene Erfahrung bestätigt…
Vor noch nicht einmal einem halben Jahr habe ich bei einem schwedischen Autohaus in München für eine Probefahrt meine Visitenkarte hinterlassen – klares Kaufinteresse wurde signalisiert. Die Visitenkarte mußte ich dem Verkäufer geradezu aufzwingen, da er gerade kurz vor einer Auslieferung stand, wie er mich wissen ließ. Statt Begeisterung sprach aus seinen Augen nichts als Streß, Unzufriedenheit und mangelnde Motivation. Auf den Rückruf warte ich bis heute. Ein ähnliches Beispiel erlebte ich vor einem Jahr bei einem der größten deutschen Autobauer.

Und dann höre ich vor ein paar Wochen, daß das schwedische Autohaus Insolvenz angemeldet hat. Wundert mich das noch? Die Neukundenakquise spielte offensichttich hier keine Rolle, oder doch? Dies ist sicherlich kein Einzelfall, bekommt aber in Zeiten der Autokrise noch höhere Bedeutung. Vermutlich gibt es unendliche viele solcher Beispiele.

Am Thema Motivation scheiden sich die Geister im Vertrieb. Das Glück des Unternehmens ist davon aber maßgeblich abhängig. Wenn ich mir nun die Worte meiner Freunde, Kollegen und Businesspartner vor Augen führe, so zeigt sich, daß genau hier die Wiege der Erfolgsspur in Salesteams liegt. In den letzten Jahren haben sich ein paar klare Motivationskiller herauskristallisiert, die nicht einmal auf dem alten Thema ‘zu hohe Ziele’ beruhen.

- Merger & Akquisitionen
- Überbelastung des Einzelnen
- Steigendes Qualitätsgefälle im Salesteam
- Streichung von motivierenden Sales-Incentives
- Streichung von Sales-Trainings und Coachings
- Unverständliche Kompetenzzuteilung
- Mangelhafte Führung durch Vorgesetzte

Aufgrund der oben beschriebenen veränderter Unternehmenssituationen, sinkt die Motivation proportional zur Begeisterung und Kompetenz, Kaltakquise überhaupt durchführen zu können.

Spot On!
In meinen Augen kommt das Thema Motivation in vielen Salesteams zu kurz, was sich natürlich auf die Neukundenakquise auswirkt. Die Frustration eines nicht erfolgreichen Kaltakquise Calls ist hoch und wer läßt sich schon gerne auf so schnellem Weg demotivieren. Wenn die Stimmung im Team dann nicht stimmt, ist der Weg zum Bestandskunden dann der einfache – und bequem. Während der Xenagos Geschäftsführer Christopher Funk die Ressourcen-Frage -vermutlich nicht ganz uneigennützig- mit der Suche nach Huntern begründet, so sehe ich die Lösung eher in der Wiedererlangung alter Tugenden, die ich mal auf einem Sales-Training bei CMP gehört habe…

Motiviere Deine Mannschaft als gutes Vorbild. Fordere mit einer hoch gehängten Karrotte, die gebührend belohnt wird. Nicht unbedingt mit Geld. Aktionen zur Förderung des Teamgedankens sind oft dienlicher. Das ist die Motivation der Zukunft.

Wie gehen Sie mit dem Thema Motivation um?

Study: How women use blogs and social networking…

A recent study Women in Social Media from BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, shows that the motivation of women using blogs and social networking differs. Blogs for women follow the purpose to find the right information while social networking platforms have the ‘mere’ sense to connect.

The results state that US women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites. Blogs are seen especially valuable as a source of information (64%), advice and recommendations (43%), and opinion-sharing (55%). Social networking sites are more used to share their strong affinity to connect and to entertain themselves.

Women show much more interest and increase their activity in social media. So, women are turning to blogs (55%), social networks (75%) and online status updating (20%) to satisfy their interest.

The new study found that women spend less and less time engaging in traditional media activities like watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading magazines or newspapers.

And for women blogs are becoming more and more important as a trendsetting and purchase sources of information. Seeing the influence of blogs on purchase decisions, the study makes clear that women are more likely to buy a product after reading a customer post or reports about the item. 45% of survey respondents bought a product after reading about it on a blog.

“The scale of social media usage among US women continues to grow, and blogs remain the go-to resource for those who want to gather information, share ideas and get reliable advice,” said Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer co-founder and COO. “At a time when the economy is top-of-mind for more than 70% of these active social media participants, women who blog are turning to online resources, including blogs, to help them make their day-to-day purchasing decisions.”

Spot On!
The influence of blogs on purchase decisions shows the importance for companies to evaluate blogs as a new important part for their media plans. Reading about the habits and attitudes, the study revealed that half of the survey respondents participate in social media activity daily and weekly or more often. When we think of the 42 million women participating in social media weekly, 55% of women do some form of blogging activity; 75% participate in social networks (i.e. Facebook or MySpace) and 20% are using Twitter. The data provided shows the change in the media landscape. While traditional platform face a decrease of importance, social media is on an all time high. The time seems right to rethink traditional and digital media planning.

Studie: Twitter bei deutschen Jugendlichen unpopulär

Sie lieben SchülerVZ, Facebook, MySpace oder studiVZ – aber Twitter läuft bei der Web 2.0 Bewegung den Jugendlichen noch hinterher. Dies zeigt eine aktuelle, nicht repräsentative Studie aus Deutschland hinsichtlich neuer Trends bei der Webnutzung von Jugendlichen. Die Nutzung von Social Networks und Instant Messenger-Software steht im Vordergrund.

Eine aktuelle Online-Studie des Jugendreise-Veranstalters RUF Jugendreisen mit über 3400 jugendlichen Teilnehmern zwischen 11 und 21 Jahren zeigt, daß bei mehr als 90% der deutschen Jugendlichen der Micro-Blogging Dienst Twitter unbekannt ist.

Zur Kommunikation genutzt werden von den meisten Jugendlichen im Internet ICQ, MSN und schülerVZ. Lediglich ein Prozent der Befragten nutzen laut der Befragung mit dem Micro-Blogging Dienst Twitter.

“Dass Twitter bisher überhaupt nicht bei den deutschen Jugendlichen angekommen ist, hat uns sehr erstaunt“, sagt Dirk Föste, Vertriebsleiter bei RUF Jugendreisen. “Wir hatten angenommen, dass die Kids als erstes auf den Zug aufspringen und Twitter vom Kommunikationsbedürfnis der jungen Leute profitiert“, so Föste.

Die Ergebnisse der Studie sollen in den nächsten Wochen veröffentlicht werden.

Spot On!
Interessant wäre es, diese Befragung mal aus dem Blickwinkel zu betrachten, warum Twittern Erwachsene überhaupt? Was ist die Motivation? Selbstdarstellung? Der Drang, Medienmacher sein zu wollen? Community Building für eigene Projekte? Bei mehr als 200 Followern ist das Folgen eh schon schweirig- und wenn die Jugendlichen die Zeit dafür nicht haben, warum sollten berufstätige Erwachsene diese haben?

News Update – Best of the Day

There are two guys that really do know what they are talking about in terms of our social media world: Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan. They have been ‘pretending’ to sit at a fireside chat, talking about VC’s, Twitter, Search & Content Marketing, Blogging and Responding to Criticism. I am really sharing Guy’s view on search ‘…SEO as “witchcraft,” and is first to admit that he doesn’t actually know anything about it.” Valuable content rules!

Did you know that via Facebook Ads there is an option to target ads by location and language? Sarah Perez explains how this new targeting process works.

Have you ever thought on how you are making money online. David Heinemeier Hansson (Ruby on Rails/37signals) has. And he shared his views with Start Up School 2008 reviewing the past from 2000 which is in everybody’s mind but it seems we all have forgotten about it. This is a great speech on the motivation to build a profitable business, not just a business for the sake of it…

Are social testimonials the future drivers for strong brands?

When BBDO Consulting came up with their latest ‘brand parity study‘ in Germany*, we could all learn that brands are ‘exchangeable for the consumer’. Although companies spend a fortune in brand building which are meant to raise emotions for purchase decisions, the direct implicitness of a ‘brand buy’ looses more and more its value. Today, the customers brain seems to resist this powerful and expensive approach.

“Companies need to upload brands with motivation and find the right benefits for the consumer in customer communication”, says Björn Sander, Managing Partner, BBDO Consulting.

So, we might ask the question: Is advertising via emotions still the driver of the consumer buying decision in the world of the future brand building? Or will strong brands be ‘tackling’ the money via word-of-mouth in the future through ‘brand-vangelists’? Let’s call those people ‘social testimonials’ (or name it ‘social model’ or rockstars if you like)…

An example. Imagine you think about buying a new mobile phone. In the shop you get offered a Nokia and a Blackberry. We all know what these brands stand for: Nokia as one of the first-time mover in connecting people away from home, Blackberry one of the top mobile business enablers for managers. Through the years we all were educated via different communication strategies that these brands, while positioned in the same market segment, are meant to serve these different purposes and benefits. But the knowledge around brands and their impact on consumers seems to be built via the same learning concept:

“People buying from people because people are relying on word-of-mouth from people they trust.”

Now, in terms of buying decisions, word-of-mouth has become an enormous influence on brands with web 2.0 (i.e. through rating, review, crowd-sourcing, etc.). In our case, some fellow ‘social-testimonial’, a fellow worker, peer or friend, might argue correct saying: “Why should some construction worker need business features like email or sync functionality on a mobile?” The brand reward for his colleague’s need is deciding on the brand, not the emotion.

It is not that this person does not understand or rate the other product or it’s message. It is simply not paying the credit that his fellow, peer or friend needs. But the reward ‘Connecting people’ is exactly what this example of a construction worker wants – nothing more, nothing less. And this was the Nokia brand pitch on consumers right from the beginning of the brand building process: spreading word-of-mouth easy, fast and everywhere you are going. What a great reward, right?

Vision or Utopia: social testimonials enforcing future brands?
Let’s take this idea a bit further. In business everything turns around the reward concept: ‘What is the reward for selling something…?’ Now, as word-of-mouth is one of the biggest benefits of social influence today, why should not ‘everyday people’ (and not VIPs) get the option to be rewarded for becoming a social testimonial for a brand?

What if there was a kind of reward for using private social media tools (blogs, micro-blogging or even social networks profiles) as a personal tool to say and show online ‘Yes, these are my brands!’ Would this not change our behavior towards brands? Not in terms of writing (micro-)posts as people already do it. But in terms of ‘wearing and carrying around brands with your online presence, your online pictures, your personal digital dna, etc…

Generally speaking, if our ‘engagement’ in brands could be rewarded, a brand will have more visibility, our enthusiasm for that brands will increase and with it our word-of-mouth for the value of the brand and all it’s impact. Correct? Or is this against online reputation? Or are people not happy to being testimonials?

Spot On!
We all know that without any reward, there is limited commitment for brands. But what if we were showing our favorite brands open to everyone and avow ourselves to those we ‘adore’? Virtually speaking, companies could take us by the hand like advertising columns and reward us with a mechanism they see as appropriate? Are brand committed people not the best emotion drivers for their ‘followers’ (as the ‘Twitterati’ would say)? Would this not carry a brand’s word-of-mouth to a next all-time high? And in the end, would this not work in the favor of making brands more emotional and less exchangeable?

Open to discuss…

*BBDO Consulting has only a German version of the study.

Top IT Consultants: What is your Twitter strategy?

Yesterday, we were focusing on the Twitter strategy from top strategy consultants, today we will finish this report with checking the activities from the top IT consultants. If these companies don’t use Twitter there is no reason saying they are the ‘technical specialists in communication’. We will merely focus on the official company accounts and the possible company brand accounts.

One thing before we start: Compared to the strategy consulting companies, IT consulting companies are quite ‘open-minded’ about the share economy. There is no hiding in the communication fields of the old economy. This is -in most cases- talking markets, showing transparency, creating value for the web busisness community and believing in the power of social software.

Let’s make the case…

Top IT consultant companies (in alphabetical order)
The questions that The Strategy Web asked these companies were like… Do you have a corporate Twitter account, how do you use it and what is your strategy behind it? Please find the answers, some were translated into English by The Strategy Web …

Company Account
twitter.com/BearingPoint
twitter.com/GovTwit
The first impression counts in business, the people say… “My personal Twitter strategy I learned directly from MC Hammer – ‘Forget the number of Tweeters – just stay interesting!’.” Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field Marketing at Bearingpoint, knows of personal branding, reputation marketing and the changing world of communication in the sense of ‘getting things gone differently‘.

Summary
Let’s talk about the GovTwit account first. This is one of the most excellent examples of a Twitter directory that probably exists on the web with Twitter IDs and links to official government blogs and URLs noted in Twitter bios. Beraingpoint knows how to share and all companies can learn from that example..
Nevertheless, the second one, the brand Twitter account, seems quite down to earth like a simple press release-RSS-push. But there is a clear strategy line as this Twitter account is the access point and traffic driver for the corporate blog which lives and broadcasts social media.

Company Account
twitter.com/CiscoSystems
twitter.com/CiscoGeeks
So, there are two different interesting Twitter streams: the first one for press releases, news on personal and management changes, and it picks up RTs of stories around Cisco from followers (Nice give-and-take scenario!). The second one (start Dec. 2008) pushes their Cisco AXP contest for application developers who are meant to “think outside the box”. No, the top brand account belongs to someone else. And Cisco started early sending tweets out… so this is to everone: you better hurry up to get your brand account.

Summary
Cisco has defintely entered the web 2.0 scenario big way. Using different social media like blogs, FlickR and sure, Twitter – to get all these activities around modern communication and messaging fly high. Twitter seems to be adding value to their marketing, their pr, and pushes corporate branding.

Company Account
twitter.com/gartner_inc
The man behind the corporate Gartner account is Andrew Spender -Vice President, Corporate Communications- and this company has more than 60 analysts (!) on Twitter. The corporate Twitter account from Gartner mixes internal knowledge, pr releases, communication on consulting issues, hints to their analysts and shares company experience from events and career opportunities. It’s the aggregator of their global Twitter and business knowledge satellites.

Summary
“Briefly, we use Twitter to communicate with a broad range of people. This includes IT end-users, technology providers, journalists, bloggers, etc. It has become a very effective way of developing a direct, credible, authentic two-way relationship with people who have an interest in what we have to say about the business of technology. Twitter is a great way for anyone to engage directly with our analysts and we’re always listening for feedback!” (Andrew Spender)
PS: Again, the most obvious account belongs to someone else…

Company Account
Many! – … and the brand account…?
There is nearly nothing that Twitter does not support for IBM: business sections here, here and here, events here and here plus community building accounts here. Is the brand account changing it’s owner? There were more follower, there is no actual IBM logo and there is definitely something going on…

Summary
IBM is a very active user of Twitter. It becomes obvious from the named examples that IBM uses new media for their communication strategy – not surprising as collaboration software is part of their business. “Social media tools are impossible to be taken away from an innovative communication concept.” says Petra Bauerle, Web Managing Editor at IBM – yes, she twitters as well.

Company Account
twitter.com/oracle
Similar ‘strategy’ that IBM has: Twitter for big events like Open World and it’s push as well as it’s blog), for tech communities around Oracle Technology Network (OTN) as well as an ‘cocktail-mixing’ aggregator account. Wanna see all Oracle Twitterati? Go ahead… and check their wiki with Oracle and non-Oracle people.

Summary
“Generally, as a company, we encourage communication among our employees, customers, partners, and others – and blogs, social networks, discussion forums, wikis, video, and other social media can be a great way to stimulate conversation and discussion. They’re also an invaluable tool for experienced Oracle users who want to share information and tips on the use of Oracle products. (…) I’m not aware that we have a formal, documented plan for the use of Twitter, just as we don’t for other social media, but we definitely have a level of participation, since it can be a good way to reach out to and engage with a variety of communities.” Steve Walker, Vice President EMEA

Company Account
None – brand account options difficult.
“At the moment, the trend washes Twitter in the spheres of a brand name like Google: Twitter is not only seen a web-service for micro-blogging but a synonym for for the dialog in 140 words – you “twitter” like you “googled”! This trend makes the service and the micro-blogging attractive for a bigger user group.” Torsten Schollmayer, Senior Associate Marketing & Analytics

Summary
Sapient sees the value of also for business accounts for the benefit of social information finding and -exchange, and supporting own brand building – Twitter offers direct and konvergent 1:1 and 1:n-dialogue with clients, competitors and specialists. That’s the reason why Sapient will be on Twitter in a short time period in order not to lose innovation leadership in te market of interactive consulting. BUT: The brand account is gone, so we will wait and see what the digital consulting experts will be doing… The question remains: Why do they start so late on Twitter?

Company Account
Many – company does not make them public as project-based…
“The motivation for our involvement in Twitter and other micro-blogging tools is connected with expertise. Through the use of these tools, experts of Siemens IT Solutions and Services can not only exchange information or present their expertise, but also interact with customers and stakeholders. Networking and open innovations play an important role within the Siemens group, therefore we also designed the open source tool ESME (Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment), which can be use by every enterprise.” Janine Krebs, Media Relations

Company Account
None – brand account options difficult… or not?!
Unisys pr agency answered briefly: “Unisys has decided not to go with Twitter. The companies opinion goes along the lines that Twitter is interesting, generally speaking, but up to now, there is no response from clients to head for Twitter.”

Summary
I am sure there will be some activity when they have been reading about the Twitter options in this post… if so, tell us in a comment, ok?!

Spot On!
We can learn a lot about the pr and career chances, capabilities and possibilities of Twitter from the IT consulting companies, and nearly all of them are using Twitter in a big way. If you need some more background on the Twitter effect for the benefit of your marketing, you should listen to Jon Samsel’s advice. Generally, the especially the real-time business benefit is obvious…

Before companies even join, they can search on Twitter and monitor what people are saying for any term or terms about their employees, their company, their industry, their branch etc. – and then simply put the results into a RSS feed reader.

The real time focus makes it one of the most valuable resources in fast moving industry days. And it tells companies very early when customers have a problem with their communication (see Johnson&Johnson Motrin example) or customer service.

Seeing all the positive aspects… there is one thing that needs to be said about the no. 1 micro-blogging tool: All the positivism in mind and seeing the wonderful new world of communication, Twitter can also be a time-thief if not treated carefully. For some managers professional support will make sense. Tweets attract your personal psyche, shake their body of words and love the power of anticipation in dissipation just like … does.

Anyway, happy to hear what you think of these IT consultants strategies…

Studie: Vertriebsstrategie ist aggressiv

Krise hin oder her. Der Vertrieb setzt auch Angriff. Eine aktuelle Studie unter 15.000 Vertriebsfachleuten durch Xenagos geht der Frage nach, wie Unternehmen von der Vertriebsseite dem Konjunktureinbruch begegnen. Die Studienergebnisse verdeutlichen dabei die aggressive Strategie des Vertriebs der Unternehmen.

Über 70% der befragten Vertriebsexperten geht es 2009 um die Gewinnung von Marktanteilen. Besonders aggressiv zeigt sich die Dienstleistungsbranche, in der sogar über 75% eine Angriffsstrategie bestätigen. Nur 26% verfolgen eine Verteidigungsstrategie, bei der die Sicherung von Marktanteile im Vordergrund steht.

„Der Vertrieb weiß, dass 2009 ein schwieriges Jahr mit großen Herausforderungen wird“, sagt dazu Christopher Funk, der Geschäftsführer von Xenagos. „Einerseits sinkt die Nachfrage in vielen Bereichen und andererseits wird erwartet, in einem schwierigen Markt zusätzliches Geschäft und neue Kunden zu akquirieren. Unternehmen, die sich in der Krise wegducken, könnten allerdings an deren Ende feststellen, dass aggressive Wettbewerber weitaus stärker dastehen als zuvor.“

Interessant ist dabei die unterschiedliche Einschätzung zwischen Führung und Teammitgliedern in den Vertriebsteams. Unter den Führungskräften schätzen rund 65% die Strategie ihres Unternehmens als aggressiv ein. Bei den Vertriebsmitarbeitern im Feld hingegen sind es 10% mehr.

Spot On!
Der Vertrieb steht wie immer ‘top down’ unter Druck. Der Druck aus dem Markt spiegelt sich laut der Studie auch im Managementverhalten der Vertriebsführung. Stellt sich die Frage, ob es hier auch andere Ansätze gibt? Denn, wie wir alle aus Management-Trainings wissen: Druck erzeugt Gegendruck und ist erfahrungsgemäß selten zielführend. Ist Druck dennoch der einzig funktionierende Führungsmechanismus oder gibt es auch andere ‘Motivationsstrategien’ für die Vertriebmitarbeiter?

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