In 2011, the Sales Executive Council had thousands of interactions with sales executives around the globe, held dozens of conferences, examined hundreds of thousands data points, and we ended the year with a series of intimate roundtable discussions with leading CSOs. This capability includes insight generation, insight messaging, lead generation and opportunity selection based on receptiveness to insight, and insight-focused sales interactions. Mobilizers are stakeholders who excel at driving organizational commitment for a purchase, but rarely want to interact with vendors. MORE >>

Automation software has helped marketers generate higher interaction with their customers. Around Valentine’s Day, what could be worse than unreciprocated love? For many marketers, this seems to be a year-round pain – the leads they so painstakingly manage to generate do not convert to actual purchases. MLC research shows, on an average only 25% of marketing-generated leads result in desired follow up and results. It is but natural that marketers would try to enhance the quantity and quality of leads they generate, to result in higher conversion. MORE >>

As a customer service rep you may no longer need to “delight” your customers as exceeding expectations during service interactions has negligible impact on customer loyalty. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. And if you’re the chef, you know not to overstuff your turkey unless you want to risk a bird explosion in the oven. Ask Rachael Ray or Martha Stewart if you don’t believe me. know, it’s tempting to put in just a little bit more deliciousness. If we have it, why not use it?  Cooking up an insightful model from a mountain of data can be just as stressful as cooking a banquet. MORE >>

If you’re interested in seeing which org structure is right for your company, please use our interactive decision tree and check out some examples from your peers. With most advanced economies stuck in a stagnant, low-growth phase, companies – B2Cs and B2Bs alike – are increasingly looking beyond their own borders for growth. But global expansion isn’t easy, and global ambitions are very difficult to fulfill. It’s a classic business conundrum: what’s the proper mix of local control and central coordination when it comes to global expansion? Hybrid. MORE >>

But, at the end of the day, most sales still depend on a successful interaction between customer and rep, and marketing still has an enormous role to play in driving message resonance inside customer organizations. As a whole, B2B marketing is becoming more strategic, as companies’ offerings, as well as buying processes, get more complex. B2B marketers, accordingly, have spent a ton of time tackling things like messaging, competitive differentiation, thought leadership and performance measurement. It teaches customers something new. It’s advocate-friendly. MORE >>