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Sales & Marketing
ESCO Corporation SalesLogix Case Study
by Interact Commerce Corporation
ESCO Corporation SalesLogix Case Study
Founded in 1913, ESCO Corporation designs and produces wear products and ground engaging tools. It is a privately held, global technology leader in the mining, construction, forestry, aerospace, pulp and paper, power generation and chemical processing industries.
The Challenge
ESCO's North American sales and marketing organization was using the DOS-based Action Plus contact manager. Some sales people also kept customer lists in individual Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. When it came time to do customer mailings, the company had to decipher which of its multiple information sources was the most up-to-date, as Action Plus didn't offer reliable data synchronization. ESCO's customer information management effort was also plagued by the fact that Action Plus didn't handle accounts - so every time ESCO needed to track a new contact at a customer site, they'd have to create a duplicate customer record to store the contact's information. ESCO evaluated upgrading to Action Plus's Windows version, but found its data synchronization unreliable and difficult to use.
In addition to consolidating valuable customer information, ESCO sought to automate basic marketing functions such as literature fulfillment, and to provide up-to-date product information to its sales force electronically. Implementing an easy-to-use sales automation solution would allow ESCO to meet its goal of growing sales by spending more time in front of customers versus dealing with time-consuming sale administration tasks.
For additional information contact Rainmakers at 847/251-3327 or click here: mailto:jon@rainmkrs.com
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The Facts about Sales Leads
by Richard W. Erschik
The Facts about Sales Leads
by Richard W. Erschik
If you are not doing something to make it easier for
your sales force to follow-up sales leads, you are making it harder on yourself
to measure and cost justify the expense of the media chosen to generate the
leads.
Statistics
indicate that only about 11% of raw sales leads require immediate or personal
follow-up attention by the sales force.
Further, more than 70% of raw sales leads go un-contacted while 43% of
the 70% buy what they inquired about within 13 months.
If
the above is true, why are companies spending excessive amounts of time and
money on programs that get all of their sales leads to the sales force faster,
so nothing can be done with them sooner?
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Bridge the Chasm between Sales and Marketing and WIN SALES
Leads to Sales, Inc.
by Richard W. Erschik
Marketing spent the money!
Sales spent the time!
Where are the orders?
If there was ever is a time to do nothing about a serious problem that exists in the sales and marketing department…this isn’t it, because when the need for change is obvious, the consequences of procrastination and are always more costly than the simple corrective action necessary to solve the problem permanently and reap the reward.
Click the Full Story below for all the details
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eCRM, The Promise and the Reality
by The Richmark Group, Inc.
Dear Reader;
The early adaptors (pioneers) who have ventured into Electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) have provided very useful lessons for the rest of us! The payback for those who value Customer and Channel relationships as a critical core competency of the business can be tremendous. But dangers do exist!
In fact the odds of success (expectations met on time and budget) appear better at the Blackjack table than on eCRM projects. Consider these facts: The Meta Group reported in March 2001 that 55-75% of eCRM projects do not meet the company’s objectives. Our anecdotal experience supports these conclusions.
What is [[COMPANY OR 'your company\'s']] perspective/situation? The following article, eCRM The Promise and The Reality, explores what many of the lessons “harvested” from the early adaptors are, and how to improve your odds for success.
The author, The Richmark Group, Inc., is a Rainmakers Strategic Partners whom I have successfully worked with for over three years. The Richmark Group, Inc. has a proven track record at marketing savvy and effectiveness in the B2B, channel management and market research areas. Their insights and practical advice is well worth the read. Click here or on the Full Story below to get the lowdown.
Thanks for your time. Give me a call if you have questions or need assistance.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Targeted Account Planning
Some Do's and Don'ts
by The Richmark Group, Inc.
Dear Reader,
This New Year brings continued un-predictability and volatility in the marketplace. Enhancing Top Line performance (with Bottom Line impact) is one thing I can predict is important to most Mid-Market businesses! If your company is like most – with limited resources (people, money, tools, time) - it necessitates you learn how to Sell Smarter (fail quickly).
Target Account Planning is a proven technique for increasing sales and profits with relatively low cost/investment. Good advice for these times, but unfortunately many companies either don't do Target Account Planning or do it poorly.
The related article, written by The Richmark Group, provides some focused ideas on how to approach Targeted Account Planning. They propose you target competitor’s clients – people who have not traditionally purchased from you. They also recommend how to successfully implement your planning process by enabling the field (client touch points) to drive the project/process.
With offices in Chicago and London (UK) Richmark is a long-standing Rainmakers Consortium Partner specializing in B2B, Channel, market enhancement strategies and market research in Mid-Market businesses.
Click on The Full Story below to read entire article. Let me know if you find this information useful and what topics/themes/information you might value reading. Reply to survey on the right (HTML view) or send me an email mailto: jon@rainmkrs.com
Thanks for your time.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Internet Surveys: Done Right for Fast, Cheap Customer Feedback
by The Richmark Group
Dear Reader,
Customer surveying is an important aspect of many companies marketing activities – getting customers to give feedback can be valuable. Internet surveys have become a useful tool for obtaining customer feedback quickly and cheaply. Some companies conduct Internet surveys periodically to monitor certain customer issues while others conduct surveys on as needed basis to address specific questions
My experience with many on-line surveys is they are off-the-mark and in fact suffer from the same limitations and deficiencies as mail surveys. The bottom line: there are certain customer research needs for which Internet surveys will be the right (and low cost) choice, but others for which they would be the wrong (and costly) choice.
The Richmark Group, a Rainmakers Strategic Partner, offers full capability to manage your Internet survey including web hosting, software especially modified for use by B2B clients, and 20 years experience doing professional market research by phone and mail, techniques which have been adapted to Internet research capabilities. Please read the attached article for some good ideas on the pros and cons of Internet surveys and to click on a link for a demo survey.
As always, thanks for your time.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Case Study: Using Simulations to enhance sales staff results
BUSINESS SIMULATION ACCELERATES SALES STRATEGIES
by Denniston Consulting
Dear Reader,
Improving Top Line performance is a very common problem/challenge these days. I’ve seen companies try a lot of things over the past 23 years to solve this problem. Living vicariously has become a specialty of mine – especially when learning from other people’s experiences.
Some of the most successful people have used one or more of these strategies:
- Buy synergistic customer base through acquisition
- Sell new products/services into existing customer base (and new markets).
- Sell existing products/services (maybe minor modification) into new markets.
- Expand channels via partnerships, Rep organizations, distribution and other creative means
- Leverage existing relationships (customer base) by selling value-added services or products/services from 3rd Party
By the way, none of these strategies will work if you don’t, at a minimum, deliver consistently satisfied customers. Customer satisfaction issues will undermine any efforts and must be corrected prior to launching a new marketing strategy or you are “throwing good money after bad”.
Of course determining an appropriate strategy is maybe 10-15% of the work. Implementing the strategy weans the Men from the Boys! The attached Case Study illustrates one innovative tactic an international commercial financing services organization used to improve their sales forces ability to sell a new product into a higher-level in existing clients.
Denniston Consulting delivered these results by utilizing a Business Simulation tool (read game) to transfer specific knowledge and truly educate an existing sales force and move them out of their “comfort level” to successfully up sell (sell to C level). Learn more by clicking on the Full Story below.
Feel free to call me to discuss how to improve [[COMPANY OR 'your firm\'s']] top line. Thanks for your time.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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GETTING A BETTER RETURN ON YOUR LEAD GENERATION $
by The Richmark Group
Dear Reader,
Lead generation is one common denominator for any business – especially in the B2B marketplace. Getting the needed quantity AND quality of leads is an elusive outcome which too often does not materialize. The attached article discusses how to organize lead generation activities to improve the odds of getting both the quantity and quality of opportunities to generate top line revenue. The author, The Richmark Group, has been a Rainmakers Strategic Partner for over five years.
They have helped many firms design and implement effective lead generation and marketing plans – especially firms in the B2B space. Please read the full article by clicking on The Full Story below.
Your companycan benefit by improving your lead generation effectiveness. Feel free to let us know how we can be if service. Thanks for your time.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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e-Learning Case Study: How a mid-market company built customer loyalty
Using e-learning to educate your customers and customers employees
by Dr. Daniel Farb
Dear Reader,
What’s your company’s primary competitive advantage?
I doubt many American firms are successfully competing based on lowest cost only!
In its simplest terms you must Add-Value to your customers to keep them… and continue adding more Value to protect your margins and build competitive barriers.
This is not necessarily an easy thing to do. Rainmakers helps by providing Good Ideas on Best Practices that help you prosper. One such Good Idea involves using e-Learning technologies to build value for clients and help your sales team differentiate for competitive advantage. The attached Case Study from Dr. Daniel Farb, Founder and CEO of UniversityOfHealthcare and UniveristyOfBusinesscare, discusses how one mid-market firm used e-Learning to deliver relevant content and education to their customers, and their customers' employees. This firm's sales team used this as a tool to differentiate and win business. This unique model holds many advantages to firms whose competitive advantage is based on customer intimacy, quality and/or ease-of-doing business.
Mid-market business can successfully incorporate e-Learning Best Practices very cost-effectively by selectively outsourcing what isn’t currently a core competency of the business. Little capital investment is needed to test out the applicability to your company’s client relationship strategies.
As always, thanks for your time. Let me know how we can be of service.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Key Accounts - How to Maximize Opportunities, Minimize Disappointments
by The Richmark Group
Dear Reader;
Anyone in the B2B marketplace understands something about Key Accounts – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly realities. Targeting, winning and controlling them are the critical factors that dictate successful Key Account programs…from failures. This is especially difficult in tough economic times – all too often your competition is chasing the same opportunity.
This SMOKE SIGNAL article discusses how to maximize [[COMPANY OR 'your company\'s']] Key Account opportunities while minimizing disappointments and unqualified pursuit. The authors have been a Rainmaker Consortium Partner for many years, and provide some real Value-Add advice:
v Describes the 3 major issues for B2B marketing programs that apply to all types of Key Accounts
§ Large End Users
§ OEM’s
§ Retail and Channel Partners
o How does a company differentiate itself from the competition?
o How can companies make a profit from Key Accounts?
o How does a company successfully implement a Key Account Program?
v Outlines the 4 Principles of a Key Account Program
v Reviews actual case projects to illustrate ideas and examples
Click on the Full Story below for the details. If your firmcan benefit from improving (or learning more about) Key Account Planning, give me a call of click here to send me an email.
As always, thanks for the opportunity to be of service. I hope you find this information valuable.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
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