In July of 2012, SEC launched the Challenger Workshop Series to help members begin building an organizational capability to develop and support Challenger behaviors within their companies. But, it will come as no surprise that developing such an organizational capability is far from easy. Before companies can even begin thinking about moving in that direction, they need to prove they can first develop effective commercial insight. One of these best practices comes from Dow Chemical, where they developed a customer outlier analysis to arrive at their unique strengths. MORE >>

How geographic differences are significant to product planning, marketing and sales I recently sat down with Raghu, VP of Product Management and Marketing for Cloud Solutions, at one of our clients. Whether your product management / product marketing teams are in the US, Japan, Europe or elsewhere, they bring with them an understandable bias to their home market. This oversight significantly impedes the expansion of products internationally and reduces global sales opportunities. Research : The first step is to conduct some research on market segmentation. MORE >>

  Most revealing was how many phases of production took place and how each phase was an experiential process in of itself.    Jeffrey Katzenberg that day told the story of how many times they went back a step or two in the production journey to get the right film they were looking to produce.    It also will set the stage, along with buyer insights and buyer persona development , to lead the organization through the efforts of Buyer Experience Design to create highly memorable and fulfilling buying experiences. Research. Assess. Support. MORE >>

Higher Grade Product Design Concept Models (Photo credit: Jordanhill School D&T Dept). This is part 5 and final article of a limited series on why buyer choice modeling is the new view B2B Business must adopt to improve revenue performance and develop long lasting relationships with buyers. . Leaders in B2B marketing and sales will soon have to migrate towards buyer segment teams that are focused on activities that are focused on the buyer’s entire brand and buyer experience.  As we covered, many B2B businesses are wrestling with the unknown and the invisible.  MORE >>

  Executive turnover is rampant in the key positions of head of sales and head of marketing.    Let’s look at each role briefly: Buyer Experience Strategist : in this role, one examines buyer strategy, buyer insights, and developing end-to-end journeys that enable buyers to buy.   While eBay is an online auction model, it is in the unique position of having to support an infrastructure that enables a seller and buyer marketplace.    Image by J. Stephen Conn via Flickr. Sales Enablement, and Marketing Automation.  MORE >>