Marketing & Customer Strategy
Channel Management: The Customer Chain – Value Chain Framework
To achieve sustainable growth, best-in-class companies work with their channel partners to periodically review end customer expectations….
Simple Answers and Hard Tasks
Former President Ronald Reagan once said, “There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.”…
If I Were You…
In the new television series Touch, the main character Martin Bohm advises another “I wouldn’t do…
How to Crush the Competition with Customer Service
Price and product quality can only go so far. Value-added services can help manufacturers differentiate themselves…
Pay Attention to Your Premarket
A number of years ago, I worked with an automotive parts manufacturer, in the division that…
Are Surprises Foolish Things?
I recently had an appointment with a physician who had also been a friend for some…
The Leadership Challenge in Becoming Customer-Facing
The April 26, 2012 issue of Industry Week featured an article titled New Celanese Chief Pushes…
The Challenges of Surrounding Products with Services
Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a manufacturing client that was part of a…
Growing Market Share in the Process Automation Market
The Challenge: Our client wanted to grow its market share to double digits in five years…
Telecommunications Component Supplier Seeks to Improve A Major Customer Relationship
The Challenge: Our client, a components supplier, wanted to significantly improve its relationship with a major…
A Collaborative Assessment of Business Opportunities for An Office Products Supplier
Challenge: An office products supplier and its largest customer had an interdependent relationship, but the pair…
Taking Dashboards out of Wonderland
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just…
Relationship Management Strategy for a Supplier to the Oil & Gas Industry
The Challenge: Our client, a supplier of automation technology and solutions, wanted to significantly improve its…
An Electrical Equipment Manufacturer Seeks to Reduce Lost Bids and Increase Business
The Challenge: A large manufacturer of electrical equipment was losing an alarming percentage of bids for…
Targeting Market Segments for Supplies Wholesaler
The Challenge: Our client, a wholesaler of supplies to various resellers, was looking to evaluate and…
Benchmarking Dealer Programs for an Agriculture Equipment Manufacturer
The Challenge: Our client, a leading agriculture equipment manufacturer, faced an intense marketplace, confronting prominent competitors…
The Future Market For Second Mouse Companies
Will Chinese companies begin to evolve and be more like its Western competitors? Note: This article…
Every Road Will Get You Nowhere
In the past several years, second only to a renewed focus on emerging markets, “developing a…
Earning a Return on Your “Relationship Fund”
The case study that follows started off a number of years ago with a quite troubling…
The Sales You Didn’t Make
Bill Gates once said “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. In that…
Three Cs of GAM
Suppliers can simultaneously respond to their shareholders’ growth expectations and their major customers’ expectations for global…
I Would Pay 50% More…
In a recent discussion with an executive client, he commented that he believes his hardest challenge…
Pricing! Pricing! You Can’t Talk about Pricing!
Jim Mora, a former NFL coach, was made famous in a recent beer commercial that featured…
CoDestiny Relationships Between Manufacturers And Distributors
Atlee Valentine Pope and George F. Brown, Jr. discuss issues that can arise in manufacturer-distributor relationships,…
From Assessment To Action: Managing Distributor Relationships
One of our clients in the building systems industry asked us to help resolve a dilemma…
Deleting Voicemail 666
We were having a conversation with one of our clients following a meeting related to their…
Sales Models In Business Markets With Complex Customer Chains
We have often described “major customer relationships” and “third-party channel relationships” as two of the most…
A Blueprint for Strong VAR/Vendor Relationships
William Blake, the English poet and painter, has been quoted as saying, “He hasn’t an enemy…
Growth Is A Project
Recently, we asked a procurement executive within a large communications equipment company to describe a supplier…
Strategic Accounts As Engines of Growth
Last month, we were invited to meet with a marketing and sales executive at a leading…