The document summarizes an article that suggests suppliers of non-strategic products focus on identifying a "tiebreaker" or unique benefit that helps customers solve important problems. This "justifier" approach can help suppliers stand out over competitors and gain additional revenue opportunities. The article outlines how suppliers can discover justifiers by understanding how customers use their products, finding opportunities to integrate with other offerings, and identifying customers' business priorities. Implementing justifiers requires investment but can create a crucial advantage for suppliers.
Intro to Branding & Brand management - ElkottabMuhammad Omar
it's my material for the training workshop of "Intro to Branding & Brand Management" that has been held among other 7 workshops of #elkottab training event organized by E3langi.com in November 2014
Intro to Branding & Brand management - ElkottabMuhammad Omar
it's my material for the training workshop of "Intro to Branding & Brand Management" that has been held among other 7 workshops of #elkottab training event organized by E3langi.com in November 2014
Brand positioning is a crucial part of the marketing plan, select our Brand Positioning PowerPoint Presentation Slides to find out how to position your brand. This is very important to identify your brand uniqueness and attributes what makes you different from your competitors. The Positioning strategy PPT helps you to make a distinct place in the minds of target customers. The goal of this strategy is to highlight your product’s most powerful attributes. The brand strategy PowerPoint complete deck contains templates such as positioning strategy, brand positioning framework, brand worksheet, statement and model, product communication and repositioning, etc. Additionally, this amazing market segmentation Presentation slide is also helpful for topics like market projections, brand positioning, product strategy, brand strategy, product marketing plan, segmentation and targeting, customer engagement, brand management and many more. An effective brand positioning strategy can maximize brand value. Download product positioning PowerPoint template to get an edge over competitors. Eliminate disparities with our Brand Positioning PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Be absolutely fair in your every deal.
Leveraging secondary brand associations to build brand equity
Content Extracted from “Strategic Brand Management” 3rd Edition
Authors: Kevin Lane Keller
M.G. Parameswaran
Issac Jacob
Presentation developed from SLIM Diploma In Brand Management Students
Presentation developed by Leroy J. Ebert (17th May 2014)
Workshop to help brand leaders write brand plans that everyone in the organization can follow. Case Study, using fictional “Gray’s Cookies” brand to complete a Brand Plan, which is the final stage of our overall Beloved Brands planning process.
Brand positioning is a crucial part of the marketing plan, select our Brand Positioning PowerPoint Presentation Slides to find out how to position your brand. This is very important to identify your brand uniqueness and attributes what makes you different from your competitors. The Positioning strategy PPT helps you to make a distinct place in the minds of target customers. The goal of this strategy is to highlight your product’s most powerful attributes. The brand strategy PowerPoint complete deck contains templates such as positioning strategy, brand positioning framework, brand worksheet, statement and model, product communication and repositioning, etc. Additionally, this amazing market segmentation Presentation slide is also helpful for topics like market projections, brand positioning, product strategy, brand strategy, product marketing plan, segmentation and targeting, customer engagement, brand management and many more. An effective brand positioning strategy can maximize brand value. Download product positioning PowerPoint template to get an edge over competitors. Eliminate disparities with our Brand Positioning PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Be absolutely fair in your every deal.
Leveraging secondary brand associations to build brand equity
Content Extracted from “Strategic Brand Management” 3rd Edition
Authors: Kevin Lane Keller
M.G. Parameswaran
Issac Jacob
Presentation developed from SLIM Diploma In Brand Management Students
Presentation developed by Leroy J. Ebert (17th May 2014)
Workshop to help brand leaders write brand plans that everyone in the organization can follow. Case Study, using fictional “Gray’s Cookies” brand to complete a Brand Plan, which is the final stage of our overall Beloved Brands planning process.
In this article, the authors suggest that sales managers need to realize that not all sales visits to the customers will necessarily create value for the customer. Sales managers need to realize that different sales processes exist when dealing with customers and the key factor determining the sales process is got to be based on how much value a salesperson can bring to the customer. The
authors go on to identify three different types of sales processes and give reasons as to why value based segmentation is the best way to help your salespeople deliver value not just for their customers but also for themselves.
Business to Business Customers are very different from any other types of customers. A close look at what are their expectations from businesses and how businesses can fulfill them
Procurement challenges may seem daunting, but there is hope. Here we have discussed ten common procurement challenges for businesses & tips for overcoming them.
Market probe pre customers and former customers white paperMichael Lowenstein
Enterprise preoccupation with generating prospects (sometimes at the expense of cultivating existing customers) and neglect of potentially profitable former customers
presented by Rob Bentley and Paul Reiman of Hewitt Associates at the TrueConnection 2008 Sales Performance Management Conference, hosted by Callidus Software
Companies fiddle constantly with their incentive plans and sales executives are always looking for ingenious ways to motivate their teams. If sales targets are missed, they blame the sales compensation plan and start over. Meanwhile, The finance organization views the comp plan as an expense to manage. That’s not
surprising: Sales force compensation represents the single largest marketing
investment for most B2B companies. So naturally finance tries to ensure that comp
plans have cost-control measures designed into them. Additionally, many companies
respond to cost-cutting pressure from the finance department with incentives that
backfire. More often than not, controls encourage salespeople to spend time with
customers according to the company’s internal needs, rather than when the customer
is ready to buy.
This is the world of the sales machine, built to outsell less focused, less disciplined competitors through brute efficiency and world-class tools and training. Recently
sales has been caught off guard by dramatic changes in customers’ buying behavior and sales performance has grown increasingly erratic. The very approaches that made the sales machine so effective now make selling harder. The sales machine is stalling. Leaders must abandon their fixation on process compliance and embrace a flexible approach to selling driven by sales reps’ reliance on insight and judgment.
Companies have become savvy customers; they have often determined the solution and the supplier they need, and the price they are willing to pay, before the salesperson enters the scene. In this competitive environment, the premium on finding, training, motivating and retaining star performers has never been higher.
Because firms only measure past sales performance, they have limited insight into how a salesperson will do going forward and what types of training and incentives
will be most effective. Failing to forecast a salesperson’s future value can lead to costly misallocation of training and incentive dollars. Many firms overvalue their poor performers and undervalue their stars, which might lead to undervalued top salespeople to slip trough their fingers and into competitors’ arms. This article illustrates a novel method for measuring a salesperson’s future profitability to the firm. Future performance is linked to specific types of training and incentives and show how those investments can dramatically boost revenue.
Social networks are critical in sales. Companies and salespeople can improve
performance significantly by understanding the interplay among the different webs
of customers, leads and colleagues they develop.
The sales process can be represented as four distinct stages, which all require a
different set of abilities and network configuration. If salespeople and managers
understand how networks function, they can pinpoint the most effective network
configuration for each stage of a sale and take the actions necessary to create it and
outshine competitors. In each stage of the sales process, the salesperson’s efforts
come down to two essential and complementary types of network-management
actions: managing the information flow and coordinating the efforts of contacts. This
article offers a framework for systematically managing different social networks, by
matching the network to the task. The article also presents three levers managers
can use to encourage salespeople to integrate the network-based view and make the
best possible use of social networks.
This document summarizes three connected pieces of work by Steve W. Martin, that should resonate with salespeople and sales managers alike. A lot of research has been conducted concerning the right capabilities a salesperson should have to become a high-performing top salesperson. This project involved the interviewing of top salespeople and sales leaders to gather more information
about the attributes necessary to exceed your quota.
This interesting articles suggest that successful salespeople need not always
exhibit extrovert tendencies, nor will salespeople be at a complete disadvantage
if they introverts. The author works on a concept proposed by bestselling author
Daniel Pink and proposes the ambivert (referring to an individual who falls
between an extrovert and an introvert) as the ones who are more likely to be
successful in the long run. Basing himself on a sample of salespeople, Adam
Grant, proves his point and offers some pointers for sales managers.
Based on extensive research, this study by the Corporate executive Board
(CEB) builds on their idea of the challenger sale by providing strategies by
which salespeople can better understand the diversity that exists in the decision
making unit of the customer and work on making sure that the diversity does
not drive apart the customers from a key decision. On the contrary successful
salespeople work on developing a consensus in the decision making unit of the
customer and using this to drive home the sale. The various strategies to help
consensus are then elaborated in the article.
1. Vlerick Sales Center: Article Summary Series
Tiebreaker selling: How nonstrategic suppliers can help
customers solve important problems (by James Anderson, James
Narus, and Marc Wouters, Harvard Business Review, March 2014)
Summarised By Ellen Croux and Deva Rangarajan, Vlerick Sales Center
Article At a Glance:
Based on research conducted in over 46 companies across Europe and
the United States, the authors suggest that exceptional suppliers or “tie-
breaking sellers” invest in resources that help their salespeople focus on
ONLY ONE extra benefit that is relevant to the customer and helps the
customer increase their credibility within their own organization. This is
particularly relevant for those suppliers whose offerings are not
considered to be of strategic importance to the customer. Authors go on
to identify methods to identify these justifiers and some additional
benefits of these tie-breakers in creating additional, unplanned revenue
building opportunities.
Problems with nonstrategic suppliers
When making nonstrategic purchasing decisions customers mainly use
price and quality criteria to select finalists that meet all basic
requirements. The tie between these finalists is broken by the ability of a
supplier to offer ‘something more’. Most suppliers misinterpret this
customer request. They respond by stressing distinctive features of their
offerings that other competitors’ lack, even when customers don’t want
or need them. Or when this well-worn strategy does not work they
propose price concessions. In most cases customers are looking for
neither of these things. These techniques are the two most common
mistakes suppliers of nonstrategic products and services make. For
example, price concessions might lead to equal price cuts in other finalist
offerings and not resolve the request of the customer for ‘something
more’. Lower prices might also create doubts with the customer about
the quality of the product or the deal might be considered too good to be
true.
Ineffectiveness of these techniques can lead to higher pressure on the
sales force, which results in short cuts in time spend with the customers
and direct requests of customers that could easily lead to justifiers are
ignored. Especially when suppliers focus more on management costs
2. instead of investing in selling. Most suppliers of nonstrategic products
and services are wasting time and resources because they think they
have few options other than selling on price or pushing distinctive
features that don’t really matter to customers. The justifier approach is
an attractive alternative.
The justifier approach
This approach is based on the premise that most customers make their
buying decision based on a justifier or tiebreaker, which is an element of
an offering that would make a noteworthy difference to their company’s
business. It’s a clear-cut reason for selecting one supplier over others
and breaking the tie. Suppliers win by giving purchasing managers a
visible win. The decision of the purchasing manager gets more
recognition and suppliers might get the possibility to price their offerings
near the upper end of a customer’s acceptable range. Sometimes the
discovery of a new tiebreaker may even lead to a new source of revenue
for the supplier. For example, a tiebreaker could be to offer an extra
service after purchase at low price. Tiebreaker sellers invest resources in
discovering and developing justifiers.
How to discover justifiers: 3 potential sources of ideas
First of all find out how customers actually use their offerings. Check
reviews of large customers or ask open-ended questions to find
identifiers the supplier is unaware of. Secondly search for opportunities
to integrate offerings with offerings from other companies. Suppliers can
explore how their products and services relate to other purchases the
customer is making and how they might be combined to provide added
value.
Thirdly the customers’ business priorities and yearly top goals of a
customer’s senior management can also be a great source of ideas for
justifiers. For example visit a customer’s website, pursue it’s annual
report or keep track of social media.
Examples of tiebreakers:
- Emphasize financial strength of the supplier; this is a real benefit
for customers because it offers them a more reliable supplier
source.
- Offer important strategic introductions
- Education and training of customer’s personnel
- Charitable contributions
3. Identifying fresh justifiers
As justifiers are a response to customer needs they will have a limited
life span because of continuous changes in customer priorities and
concerns. Justifiers are a competitive advantage that can be copied by
competitors. There is a constant need for identification and development
of fresh justifiers. New tiebreakers could be discovered in periodic
meetings in which segment and regional sales and marketing managers
should be encouraged to offer new ideas, in this process brainstorming
will be an important tool.
Implementing justifiers
Like any big change, implementing a justifier is not an easy process. Not
only investments in new structures and processes will be necessary but
it will also require a change in the mind-set of the executives and
salespeople of the supplier. But recent successes with the justifier
approach demonstrate that when implemented appropriately, it can
create a crucial advantage point for a supplier to persuade a customer
with ‘something more’.
Word of caution
In tiebreaker selling it is important not to react to quickly to requests by
customers, offering a justifier should be well considered by the supplier.
All the facts and consequences for the supplier should be examined
before granting a benefit.
Vlerick Food for Thought for Sales Executives
1. If you are a supplier, always ask yourself following two questions
before going all out with your guns blazing- a) how important is
this customer to us, b) more importantly how important are we to
the customer.
2. Familiarize yourself with Kraljic matrix to help you understand
sourcing decisions of your customer (Purchasing must become
supply management by P. Kraljic, Harvard Business Review, 1983)
3. To understand where you can create value for the customer,
understand the customer’s workflow or customer journey. (check
out our short video on customer journey here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRZwXFdZK3w&feature=yout
u.be)