The Future of Customer Relationships: Where is all this heading?
Shifts in technology and human behavior are rapidly changing customer's expectations of companies. Things are moving so fast, that most executives are not only trying to catch up with the changes, but identify what some of the changes are. Understanding what those changes mean to each business is a … Read More»
Social Media, Collaboration, and Customer Insights with an elite group of experts: April 4-6, 2011
When SugarCRM asked me to assemble the social track for SugarCon, the first thing that impressed me was the "spirit" of the track, and conference for that matter. It had little to do with touting Sugar; the company, or the products they make. Rather, it was all about creating a gathering of thought … Read More»
Social Business: May I try and simplify this?
Business is about creating value, and reaping a return from that creation. People (and/or groups of people) are responsible for: (1) Evaluating value offerings (2) Making decisions to exchange value with other people (and/or groups of people) for equal or greater value Social media is a … Read More»
The changing face of Marketing
As the social web evolves and we collectively turn off our ears to unidirectional ads and messaging, the face of marketing continues to evolve. Prospects continually seek to find and pull valuable information and content without wanting to give up much in exchange. How do marketer's respond? The … Read More»
Three New Required Roles for your company: (#3) Media Mogul
Longer ago than I'd like to mention, I started a series called "Three New Required Roles for your company". As the business landscape changes, shifts in business models and design require new roles and adjustments to traditional thinking. New opportunities emerge, and businesses who understand the … Read More»
March Madness: Timeless Business Lessons from the Greatest Coach of All Time
The Final Four tips off tomorrow to determine who will play in the NCAA Men's National Championship Game. Every March, 65 basketball teams are given an admission ticket for a chance to play their way into a dream - competing for a National Championship. It's my favorite time of year. It's a time … Read More»
Three New Required Roles for your company (#1): CIA Operative
You might be thinking you landed on the wrong blog or be asking yourself "What does this have to do with CRM? Now this Brian guy is telling me that I need to hire a CIA Operative? I'm moving on. I've got real business to tend to. " Wait! Yes, you do...have real business to tend to, and this will … Read More»
The 5 Stages of Customer Acquisition for the Social Business (Part 3)
This is the third and final of a three part post. We've been talking about the AIPEE Pyramid over the past couple of weeks. I haven't embedded the full image of the AIPEE Pyramid on this post, but if you'd like to take another look, you can click here to have it open in a new window, or review Post … Read More»
The 5 Stages of Customer Acquisition for the Social Business (Part 2)
This is the second of a three part post. In post 1, I introduced the AIPEE pyramid, talked briefly about what it was and what it wasn't, and pointed our attention to R Value Exchange (the circled blue R under Interaction Medium) - which represents our target destination when participating socially … Read More»
The 5 Stages of Customer Acquisition for the Social Business (Part I)
This is the first of a Three Part Post. "The purpose of a business is to create and keep customers." -- Theodore Levitt So then, the next logical question is how do we create customers? And once we get them, how can we keep them? While keeping them engaged and developing them into advocates is … Read More»