Monday, September 29, 2014

Rencanakan Sales Anda..


“Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan” – Setting Sales Goals and Targets

We have devoted several posts recently to the importance of sales planning, including: The Complete 2012 B2B Sales Planning Outline… And It’s Only 359 Words and Proof That Sales Planning Increases Win RatesSales planning itself is such an important component of the sales process that we are hosting a webinar with CSO Insights on this topic this week (join if you can).
If you consider that the B2B sales plan sets the course for everything that goes into a successful sales year, the initial section of the sales plan, “Goals and Targets,” establishes the course for the actual written plan. Let’s take a closer look at this critical section and consider the required outcome of each key point.
The 5-Step B2B Sales Planning Handbook
Step 1: Sales Goals and Targets
  • Setting your annual sales goals and revenue targets
  • Prioritize challenges that could keep you from hitting your targets and create a defensive strategy for each
  • Define changes and investments that must be made to achieve success
1.  Setting Sales Goals and Revenue Targets
Although goals and targets are often used synonymously, they are in fact quite different.    Compare their definitions*
Goals: Destinations or where we want the business to be and feel, for example:
-      Relationships
-      Reputation
-      Image
-      Sustainability
-      Culture
Targets: Specific results we want the business to achieve, progress markers to attaining goals; for example:
-      Revenue
-      Profit
-      Market share
-      Recognition
An example of how Goals and Targets work together in this opening section of your sales plan could look like this.
Goal: Establish two new relationships per quarter in the US Financial and Accounting Outsourcing practice.  The targeted annual contract value of each new relationship is $2 million.
2. Prioritizing Challenges and Creating Defensive Strategies
Consider your last couple sales years and think about those things that kept you from achieving all your sales targets.  Be as specific as possible while keeping it functionally focused – not personal.   For example: Need more qualified output from marketing’s lead generation programs (instead of actually naming the VP of Marketing as the problem).
Here’s a simple but effective template for listing out challenges, their impact and priority, and assigning responsibility to minimizing them.
3.  Defining Changes and Investments Needed to Achieve Success
You are likely in the same boat as most sales leaders heading into a new year: You’re getting a quota increase. In the old days we might grumble a little, play around with territories and headcount then tell the CEO we need another seven incremental sales reps to meet the new number.  Your best expectation would have been for one or two of the seven to make quota.  The others become permanent “C” players or simply fail miserably.
More Effective Approaches to Investing in Sales Success
Yes, headcount is still a critical success factor for a sales team expected to make its number.   However, studies of best-in-class sales teams clearly demonstrate many other vital approaches to improving effectiveness and revenue that simply make your existing A, B and even C performers better.   (Fire the D’s, but that’s already in your plan, right?).
Here are five areas of your sales model that will benefit big time from focus and investment.   They are proven to create permanent increases in both win-rates and quota attainment for B2B sales teams.
  • Establishing a formalized sales process, including targeted account planning
  • Sales manager effectiveness training and industry-specific rep training
  • Lead segmentation and a marketing automation system
  • Sales leaders dashboard
  • Sales intelligence, prospect profiling and industry monitoring
There you have an example of Setting Sales Goals and Targets, the first section in creating your new sales plan.   You can clearly see why getting this area down on paper establishes the foundation for everything else in your plan

Saturday, September 27, 2014

6 cara buat impresi pertama menarik



You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Either consciously or unconsciously, we make judgments about the professionalism, character and competence of others based on first impressions.
Just as you evaluate potential business partners, employees and personal acquaintances on your first-time encounter with them, others will judge you and your business by how you conduct yourself.
The best way to make a positive first impression, especially in business, is to embrace uncommon common sense. Many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of poise and professionalism. A few common courtesies will help you make a positive impression when you meet someone for the first time.
Use these six tips to guarantee you’ll make a great first, and lasting, impression — no matter the circumstance.
1. Prepare ahead of time. Preparation reduces anxiety and will help you show more authority. If you do your homework, you’ll have an enormous advantage over your competition. Before an important meeting, learn everything you can about your potential client and his or her unique approach to business. Familiarize yourself with the industry in which you’ll be working and brush up on current events. Visit the company website to learn more about the company’s history, staff and recent news releases. When you take the time to prepare, you’ll appear interesting and knowledgeable — two qualities that help make a good impression.
2. Find out who will attend the meeting. To go above and beyond, reach out to the meeting organizer to learn which stakeholders will be in attendance. Memorize each person’s name so you’ll be able to address everyone directly throughout the meeting. Log onto LinkedIn and learn more about each person and their background, as well as hobbies and interests. If you find you have something in common, use it as a way to break the ice with a little small talk before you move on to business.
3. Arrive a few minutes early. It’s important to be punctual, but when you arrive on time you send the clear message that you’re responsible, capable and respectful of others’ time. Those few extra minutes will give you the opportunity to go to the restroom, check your appearance and gain your composure before you walk into an important meeting. Always schedule extra time on your calendar to account for travel, traffic delays, inclement weather and finding a parking spot.
4. Suit up for success. A professional appearance will enhance your personal brand. The more “put together” you appear, the more likely you will leave a positive impression. You don’t have to purchase expensive designer suits to look your best. Instead, invest in timeless classic pieces to create the foundation of your wardrobe. Always dress for your client’s comfort, not yours. If you’re meeting with a group of bankers, a dark suit is most appropriate. Some occasions, however, call for a more creative approach. It’s okay to show more of your personal style if you work in an artistic career or when you meet with a group of designers. Be sure your wardrobe consists of clothes that fit and flatter your body shape.
5. Give a firm handshake. In most cultures, a solid handshake carries a lot of weight. Your handshake should be warm, friendly and sincere. If it is too firm or too weak, you may convey a negative impression. If you’re seated when you’re introduced to someone, stand before you shake his or her hand — it shows respect for yourself and the person you’re meeting. Remember to keep it short and sweet; many people will become uneasy if a handshake lasts for more than a few seconds. Finally, be sure to smile and make eye contact as you shake hands. 
6. Listen effectively. Attentive listening builds trust. Throughout your meeting, ask pertinent questions. When someone else speaks, make eye contact and show you’re fully engaged in what he is saying. Always allow others time to fully express themselves. If you interrupt or attempt to finish someone’s sentence, he may assume you’re in a hurry or feel you don’t respect his opinion. Effective listening skills will help you establish rapport with new clients and business partners. 

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Bagaimana mengembangkan strategi Value Based Marketing ?

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How To Develop Value Based Marketing Strategies

Begin With Two Simple Questions

At 50,000 feet the marketing strategy focuses on two sets of decisions:
  • Deciding which customers to serve
  • Deciding how to serve these customers

Which Customers To Serve

Why Care About How To Serve Customers

Under intense world wide competition companies are faced with a clear choice - “Differentiate or Die” to quote Jack Trout. The challenge is how do you create adifferentiated product? The solution begins by giving customers a reason to choose your product over the alternatives.

Giving Customers A Reason To Choose Your Product

If customers in the target market find unique value in your product offering then you have given them a reason to choose your product over the competition. This is what Peter Doyle referred to as the differential advantage.

Chosing Customers

Why worry about choosing which customers to serve? Clearly you have to find the customers who will see value in the unique value/benefit offered by your product.

Customer Selection

Selecting these customers is just as important as the product design, unfortunately though the customer selection process garners nowhere near the attention that goes into product design.
There are at least three components to this choice of customers:
  • Customers who find value in your unique benefits
  • Customers who help you build value
  • There are enough target customers to support the revenue goal

Customers Who Find Value In Your Unique Benefits

We can illustrate this with a simple example from consumer marketing. People subject to stomach bleeding caused by taking asprin will select Ibuprofen or acetaminophen as apain killer. The first case is explained with the aspirin example but the second case is worth further consideration:

Customer Who Help You Build Value

Some customers are bad for you! Sounds like heresy I know but its true. Some customers help create value, while other customers destroy value. This comes about because some customers consume so much resource that they eat up the profits made on other sales.

Examples of customers destroying value

Examples of customers destroying value Destroying Value in Semiconductor Test
In this example we discuss how in spite of meeting customer demands a vendor still failed to win an order and ended up spending a huge amount of money with no return. How Customers Drove The Developer To ExhaustionIn this case we look at a software product in which a nieve developer tried to please all his customers until eventually he burned up all his resources, including himself, and finally just abandoned the product.

How To Serve Customers

Its All About The Customer Experience

Its worth remembering that in its early days of consumer marketing much of the emphasis of was on using marketing communications to persuade people to buy products. While this emphasis still remains the key to getting customers to buy your product in the 21st century is to provide value. Unfortunately this phrase is so trite it has no value in the conversation. Go out into the world and you will be overwhelmed in a tsunami of claims about the value that products provide, and how the mission of companies is to delight their customers. Value is delivered in tangible and non tangible ways.

Tangible

  • Cheaper air fares
  • Pain Relief
  • Safer Food
  • Time saving
  • Etc. Etc.

Intangible

  • A feeling of well being from wearing a particular fragrance or designer clothing
  • A sense of well being from being well organized
  • Being entertained - why is the idol of the current teenage generation derided by their parents generation?

Examples

  • Southwest Airlines - a value exchange
  • ITunes - the value in organization and convenience
  • Social Networking - Replacing the letter/phone with instant updates
  • Un-boxing An Apple Product - Who can be first to get a video to the web?

Customer Experience Is Essential

The recognition of the value comes essentially from the experience of the customer with the product. Even in very tangible situations where you can measure the ROI for a piece of capital equipment this is still true. In this case the experience is not only the measurable effect on the performance of the business but its also things like how easy the product is to install, to use and the quality of customer service. Product design therefore has to be all inclusive, it has to embrace the user in such a way that when customers come to use the product their experience will reinforce the idea that what they paid for was good value for the money.

How Do You Find Value For Customers?

The process of finding value for customers is perhaps the hardest part of developing value based strategies.
There are a number of ways that companies approach this problem:
  1. Inspiration:
I’ve got a great idea. Let me make the product and then I’ll need a great marketing campaign and some great salespeople to convince people to buy it.
  1. Market Research
Ask customers that they need and want.
  1. Solving Customer Problems
Understand the problems and issues that customers are facing and develop solutions that help them improve their performance.

Discussion

Inspiration

The above approaches are ranked in order of initial difficulty. In the first case having the idea might be effortless in a moment of inspiration but the resulting challenges of sales and marketing after the product is made might present formidable challenges unless the value of product is self evident. That isn’t to say that you can’t succeed with this approach,pet rocks still stand out as an improbable success, and there are plenty of other examples where moments of inspiration have produced very successful products.

Market Research

Market research provides an opportunity to understand customers immediate needs and wants. In essence the idea is that they will tell you what they want and perhaps what they will buy. There are, however, a number of difficulties with the approach.
  • The view of customers tends to be constrained to their immediate needs. Not because they are not thinkers but in general they don’t have the time to daydream about future possibilities. Steve Jobs said it well when he said that “customers don’t see round corners”. The result very often, but not always, is that products based on market research tend to be predictably “evolutionary”, for instance you move from USB 1.0 to USB 2.0 because customers demand more speed. Features like this are in the must have category (think Kano Model) as opposed to the unique features that will create a differential advantage
  • There can be problems with the market research approach. Very often the tools used are closed ended and force customers into make artificial choices. Open ended questions can reveal a lot more information, the challenge is that people doing the interviewing have to be skilled at listening and formulating new questions in the moment to get useful information from the customer

Solving Customers Problems

The final approach, helping to increase customer performance, is really an outgrowth of the last point, trying to understand customers with open ended questions. The goal here is not to identify the next set of features but understand the performance challenges faced by the customer and develop solutions that will help them improve their performance - think tractors over horses. This might mean that you have to have a better understanding of the customers business or goals than they do.
If you can improve the customers performance you can justify higher prices that will lead to increased profitability. To return to the introduction of the tractor for farmers the capital outlay for a farmer might have been considerable but the productivity improvements were substantial enough to justify the price. This is a fair exchange of value.

Let’s take the easier route

Creating a differential advantage is clearly a hard row to hoe. So you might ask why not just do a “follow the leader strategy”? Just let others build market success and then make copycat products that sell for a lower price? However, this approach presents its own set of challenges:
  • If you sell for a lower price you have to be able operate with correspondingly lower expenses than your competitors. If you make the assumption that your competitors are bright and have done the obvious things to reduce their costs then you have the challenge of inventing new ways to do the same job – you need to innovate but this time you need an innovative business model as opposed to marketing strategy.
  • This is a difficult strategy to follow if you are following companies with deep pockets. If you are a small company they can drop their price to drive you out of business.
Of course if you have no interest in building the value of your company then don’t worry about it but if increased value is your focus then innovation is important to you.

Creating A Unique Product

Clearly if a product is to have unique features these features must be present in no other product on the market. At the core of this approach is innovation. Using innovation in this way might be applied in a number of ways:

Invention

Inventing something entirely new in the way of products or process

Adaption

Using known technologies to add features

Slimming

Trading off features to optimize a product for a particular customer segment

An Exchange Of Value

For a value based marketing strategy to work effectively there must be an exchange of value. That is to say if you can deliver a unique value to a customer they in return must return value to you, the company.

How Is Value Returned

Value FROM customers may be returned in several ways:
  • Pricing - By paying a price that increases the Free Cash Flow of your company
  • Customer Loyalty - The price of acquiring customers can be very high. There are two ways in which a customer can return value through their loyalty:
    • By making repeat purchases, this reduces marketing costs
    • By making direct or indirect referrals to other customers. With the advent of the web this has become particularly important

Profitability

Effective Pricing Lead to Profitability

There are two components to the subject of profitability – the price you charge and how much it costs you.
As noted previously we are looking for opportunities to improve customer performance, for businesses this inevitably means economic improvement, so that premium pricing is fully justified. This aspect of the pricing has to do with the benefits that accrue to the customer as a result of using the product. However, the other side of profitability is the cost of delivering the solution. If products are expensive to develop, expensive to make or require a lot of free customer support then the effects of premium pricing can quickly be destroyed.

Product Design - Differential Advantage

As noted earlier its important that products are designed with a “Differential Advantage” if a value based marketing strategy is to be successful.

Defining Differential Advantage Through Criteria

Peter Doyle looked extensively at what consitutes a “Differential Advantage” in his book “Value Based Marketing”
He suggested the following criteria:
  • Must be seen by customers as having value to them in improving their performance or experience
  • Unique
  • Profitable
  • Sustainable

Apa tujuan dari Values Based Marketing ?

The Goals of Values-Based Marketing

by Vanessa Cross, Demand Media
When selling products or services, values-based marketing is an appeal to a customer's values and ethics. It shifts marketing from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one. A company's advertising and promotions to its customers express its values as part of its core brand message. Values-based marketing might also entail incorporating customers' values into the way products or services are marketed.

Customer-centric

Values-based marketing is sometimes initiated because of external changes in customer attitudes. For example, Kraft Foods, Inc,, changed its advertising when market research revealed a shift in consumer opinions related to direct promotions of junk food to children. Kraft's customer-centric marketing goals lead it to change its marketing strategy. “Our relationship with consumers is about trust. If you don’t align with society and you get out of step with that, then you’re going to destroy shareholder value," said Robert K. Deromedi, Kraft's CEO, in a CreditUnions.com article.

Social Responsibility

An organization's corporate statement might expressly include values-based goals. For example, Ben & Jerry's ice cream company expressed its corporate vision in one of its 2000 reports as follows: "within both our domestic and international trade, we continue to seek out progressive, values-driven strategies and corporate practices that can be integrated throughout the company's internal business operations as well as play a central role in our external relationships." Its targets included initiatives related to economic and social justice, eliminating negative environmental impact and increasing its generosity toward the communities in which it does business.

Business Alliances

A company might use business alliances to help it achieve its values-based objectives. This is particularly effective when alliances relate to delivering value to help communities. For example, WESTconsin Credit Union, a Wisconsin financial institution, developed a strategic business alliance with auto dealerships to develop an auto-assistance program that ultimately helped more than 100 low-income, single parents purchase vehicles.

Customer Values

An important part of developing values-based strategies is discovering what customers value. Attention should be paid to quantitative data that reports customer preferences. Qualitative research, such as surveys and focus groups, can also provide important insights on customer values. A company can then develop a values-based marketing strategy using the vision and mission statements as vehicles for articulating customer-centric goals and objectives.
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About the Author

Vanessa Cross has practiced law in Tennessee and lectured as an adjunct professor on law and business topics. She has also contributed as a business writer to news publications, including the "Chicago Tribune," and published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Cross holds a B.A. in journalism, a Juris Doctor and an LL.M. in international business law.

Apa sih Value-Based Marketing ?

WHAT IS VALUE-BASED MARKETING?

Exhibit 1.6 Benefits and Costs Associated with Value
Consumers make explicit and/or implicit trade-offs between the perceived benefits of a product or service and its cost. (See Exhibit 1.6.) Customers naturally seek options that provide the greatest benefits at the lowest costs. On the other side, marketing firms attempt to find the most desirable balance between providing benefits to customers and keeping their own costs down.
To better understand value and develop a value-based marketing orientation, a business must understand what customers view as the key benefits of a given product or service and how to improve on them. For example, some benefits of staying at a Sheraton hotel might include the high level of service quality provided by the personnel, the convenience of booking the room at Sheraton.com, and the overall quality of the rooms and meals offered. In broader terms, some critical benefits may be service quality, convenience, and merchandise quality. The customer’s potential cost elements (for this example in the terms of a value-based marketing strategy) would include the price of the room and meals, the time it takes to book a room or check in at the hotel, and the risk of arriving at the hotel and finding it overbooked.
In deciding whether to stay at a Sheraton, potential customers trade off

How Firms Compete on the Basis of Value

With such a simple formula, marketers should be able to deliver value consistently, right? Well, not exactly. In today’s quickly changing world, consistently creating and delivering value is quite difficult. Consumer perceptions change quickly, competitors constantly enter markets, and global pressures continually reshape opportunities. Thus, marketers must keep a vigilant eye on the marketplace so they can adjust their offerings to meet customer needs and keep ahead of their competition.25
Value-based marketing isn’t just about creating strong products and services; it involves deciding which products/services to provide for whom. For example, Walmart does not serve customers who are looking to impress their friends with conspicuous consumption. Rather, Walmart serves those who want convenient one-stop shopping and low prices—and on those values, it consistently delivers. But good value is not always limited to low prices. Walmart carries low-priced pots, pans, and coffee pots. But cooking enthusiasts may prefer the product selection, quality, and expert sales assistance at Williams-Sonoma. That is, the prices might not be as low as Walmart’s, but Williams-Sonoma customers believe they are receiving a good value because they can enjoy that extra selection, quality, and service.

How Do Firms Become Value Driven?

Firms become value driven by focusing on three activities. First, they share information about their customers and competitors across their own organization and with other firms, such as manufacturers and transportation companies, that help them get the product or service to the marketplace. Second, they strive to balance their customers’ benefits and costs. Third, they concentrate on building relationships with customers.

Sharing Information

Collecting and sharing information among departments at J.Crew is important for its success.
In a value-based, marketing oriented firm, marketers share information about customers and competitors and integrate it across the firm’s various departments. The fashion designers for J.Crew, for instance, collect purchase information and research customer trends to determine what their customers will want to wear in the next few weeks; simultaneously, the logisticians—those persons in charge of getting the merchandise to the stores—use the same purchase history to forecast sales and allocate appropriate merchandise to individual stores. Sharing and coordinating such information represents a critical success factor for any firm. Imagine what might happen if J.Crew’s advertising department were to plan a special promotion but not share its sales projections with those people in charge of creating the merchandise or getting it to stores.

Balancing Benefits with Costs

Value-oriented marketers constantly measure the benefits that customers perceive against the cost of their offerings. They use available customer data to find opportunities to better satisfy their customers’ needs, keep costs down, and develop long-term loyalties. Such a value-based orientation has helped Target and Walmart outperform Standard & Poor’s retail index, Kohl’s beat other department stores, and Southwest Airlines succeed where mainstream carriers could not.
Southwest Airlines keeps costs low so its customers receive low prices.
Southwest Airlines has become the largest U.S. carrier, flying approximately 101 million customers around the country for an average ticket price of $119.16 (compared with JetBlue’s average ticket price of $139.40). Southwest makes frequent and short trips, such as Las Vegas to Los Angeles.26 The company cuts costs through its famous “cattle call” seating methods, in which customers get to choose their seats on a first come, first served basis. For those flyers who value being first on the plane though, the airline also provides an “Early Bird” check-in service for $10 per flight.27 Some low-frills, low-cost carriers, such as Ryanair and easyJet,28 have adopted Southwest’s model to offer customers cheap intra-Europe airfares too. Ryanair and easyJet generally fly to and from out-of-the-way airports like Stansted, which is 34 miles northeast of London. But many customers balance such inconvenience against the price to determine the value: Consider, for example, the London to Zurich, Switzerland, route for $50 or London to Athens, Greece, for $100. Around the world, conventional airlines have started their own low-frills, low-cost airlines, such as Singapore Airlines’ Tiger and the Australian Jetstar, run by Quantas.
Many companies have been able to lower costs and still deliver excellent overall value by focusing on what the customer values. For example, IKEA does not have highly paid salespeople to sell its furniture, but its simple designs mean customers can easily choose a product and assemble it themselves.
Furniture retailer IKEA focuses on what its customers value—low prices and great design.

Building Relationships with Customers

During the past decade or so, marketers have begun to realize that they need to think about their customer orientation in terms of relationships rather than transactions.29 A transactional orientation regards the buyer–seller relationship as a series of individual transactions, so anything that happened before or after any transaction is of little importance. For example, used car sales typically are based on a transactional approach; the seller wants to get the highest price for the car, the buyer wants to get the lowest, and neither expects to do business with the other again.
UPS works with its corporate shippers to develop efficient transportation solutions.
relational orientation, in contrast, is based on the philosophy that buyers and sellers should develop a long-term relationship. According to this idea, the lifetime profitability of the relationship is what matters, not how much money is made during each transaction. Thus, Apple makes its new innovations compatible with existing products to encourage consumers to maintain a long-term relationship with the company across all their electronic needs. In a more service-oriented setting, UPS works with its corporate shippers to develop efficient transportation solutions. Over time, UPS then becomes part of the fabric of the shippers’ organizations, and their operations become intertwined. In this scenario, they have developed a valuable long-term relationship.
Firms that practice value-based marketing use a process known ascustomer relationship management (CRM), a business philosophy and set of strategies, programs, and systems that focus on identifying and building loyalty among the firm’s most valued customers.30 Firms that employ CRM systematically collect information about their customers’ needs and then use that information to target their best customers with the products, services, and special promotions that appear most important to them.
Now that we’ve examined what marketing is and how it creates value, let’s consider how it fits into the world of commerce, as well as into society in general.