Every year at this time, you hear all of the hoopla around one of Pennsylvania's most recognized residents - Punxsutawney Phil. I always end up laughing as my mind then shifts to Bill Murray's classic performance in the movie Ground hog's Day. We all know the premise: a guy gets to "re-do" the same day over and over and over again, but discovering little nuances and trying new things along the way, in order to get to the outcome he really desires (to get the girl).
In business, wouldn't it be great if we had that ability? Not to 'get the girl', but to be able to see every possible angle before we execute. Every strategy, every sales call, every marketing campaign, all fully vetted through numerous attempts of trial and error. Well, of course we can't really do that. Not exactly anyway. But, we do have some terrific 'guidance' tools at our disposal: personal experience and the collective experience of our customers.
When setting strategy, designing a marketing program or campaign, or virtually anything else, our own personal experience can be a directional guide - allowing us to move generally in the right direction. By leveraging the collective experience of others - our peers and most importantly, our customers, we can fine-tune our direction, exacting a path to success. The experience of the collective is akin to the trial and error in Ground hog's Day, only we didn't have to experience it ourselves. Customers will (in one form or another) tell us everything we need to know. We just need to provide a forum to enable us to listen.
Sometimes in business it feels like many companies are caught in the same loop - making similar mistakes over and over again. Progress and growth have slowed, and there can be a sense of frustration. Organizations that actively engage and listen to their customers (or collective) are breaking out of these never-ending loops and are thriving. What path is your company on? Start your journey by answering this question: "Are you actively listening or are you living in your own Ground hog's Day???"
Marketing is the common thread that weaves throughout all other business units in every B2B company. Marketing holds the potential to unleash predictable, profitable growth for your company. When Marketing is utilized to its fullest potential, it can be the driver for customer retention and increased sales, while at the same time creating executive alignment and focused strategic innovation.
How can Marketing do all this? Because Marketing is the “Center of the Universe”! Author Sean Geehan discusses all of the marketing programs and initiatives driven by Marketing to achieve sustainable, predictable, profitable growth in his national best seller, The B2B Executive Playbook. Once you read this book, I would wager a bet, that you will believe that Marketing is the "Center of the Universe" too!
Gary Vastola, Vice President of Field Marketing & Service Support from Xerox and I participated in a Whale Hunters Expert Series call last week. The call and discussion was focused around the common challenges companies faced as they closed out 2011; flat sales, retention, and customer satisfaction issues. 
As we kick off the New Year companies want to turn the tide towards exponential growth. The quickest way to achieve exponential growth is by focusing on your most important customers at a decision maker level. That sounds so simple but so many companies become distracted trying to do that with all their existing customers. The truth is that all customers are all not worthy of that type of attention and resources. As we all know, if you don’t prioritize your efforts than the efforts get diluted and so do the results.
Once you have focused on your most important customers at a decision maker level, the next question is what do you do with them? The days of “howdy calls” are over. You remember those days, an executive comes in to visit one of your important customers and basically the executive takes them to breakfast, lunch or dinner or meets in their office to introduce themselves and talk about sports and something else that is meaningless. The executive leaves and the customer executive is thinking nice guy, but I don’t have time to waste doing that again. One way to engage your decision makers in a meaningful valuable way is through an Executive Sponsor Program (ESP). An ESP is that one on one relationship (executive to executive) that is outside of any sales transaction. When launched well, the results are undeniable.
I’ve seen first-hand how customer advisory boards provide market/leadership team alignment, strategic insight, and marketing direction, and that they lead to improved sales, customer retention, and product innovation. I’ve also known them to lead to sustainable, predictable and profitable growth (SPPG), as outlined in Sean Geehan’s book, The B2B Executive Playbook. So I know how customer advisory boards can truly impact an organization. I did not however, consciously realize that an organization’s inherent resistance to change can make that transformational impact that much more difficult.
To achieve truly impactful results, consider the following when developing your advisory board.- Done right, an Advisory Board is synonymous with continuous improvement and can be transformational.
- An Advisory Board implies that change is about to happen. After all, that’s why you are investing in it! You see the need for change (a new direction, increased sales, improved relationships, etc.) and realize that your customers can provide you with the guidance you need to make it happen.
- Stakeholders inherently resist change, so communicate progress early and often.
- Culture impacts an organization’s ability to change, so build a tolerance for ongoing change into your corporate strategy.
- Change doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time and requires a certain set of skills, so designate a change agent/architect to manage the process.
P.S. If you would like to read along and discuss as we go, let me know!
Back in September, Gartner came out with their rather controversial CIO Advisory: Four Recession and Growth Strategies That Make Sense for 2012. Though forecasts for growth in 2012 are modest, Gartner recommended that clients plan ahead and “avoid consuming time preparing for growth should growth opportunities suddenly arise” and that “however long a distressed economic climate may last, growth will remain a top priority of CEOs and boards of directors.”
Many organizations may prefer to wait and see what the economy does, but that would be a big mistake. I agree with Gartner that organizations must be prepared to take action when the opportunity arises.
Plan ahead. Get started by attending Geehan Group’s upcoming B2B Executive Summit:
Navigating Growth & Transformation. Designed exclusively for VP & higher executives, the B2B Summit provides an intimate setting (attendance is limited to 50 attendees) for learning from a prestigious roster of speakers, including Paul Gottsegen, CMO at Infosys, Joe Austin, SVP Customer Experience at Juniper, and Brent Ahrens, General Partner at Canaan, as well as author Jim Hauden.
- Learn how Bill Fathers, President of Savvis, helped shape the company’s international presence, increased its market share, and developed leading-edge products for the financial services, media and telecom industries.
- Discover how John Schwarz, former CEO at Business Objects, doubled the company’s revenue to more than $1.5 billion, improved profitability, and oversaw seven strategic acquisitions.
- Hear how Joe Morgan, CEO at Standard Register, is transforming his organization from a document printing company into a provider of communications technology.
Click here to learn more and to receive your personal invitation.
“Rarely do you find an approachable business environment that invigorates your social senses with intriguing conversations, collaborative exchange of inventive ideas, fascinating speakers with applicable war stories, and the urge to network well beyond the two days that the Geehan Group brought us all together. What I gained out of this B2B gathering of like minds expanded my strategic thinking, opened new opportunities about how marketing can make an impact, plus enlightened me on similar management challenges with realistic solutions and results.”
Greg Jorgenson, SVP Marketing, VeriSign
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