This is the first blog in a series on the topic of Service Chains. Service ChainsSM are a key building block to becoming less opportunistic and more deliberate in your go-to-market approach. Let’s examine what we mean by the term Service ChainSM. Service ChainsSM comprise a pre-defined set of sales activities and projects ...

This is the first blog in a series on the topic of Leading with Ideas. At the heart of True IntimacySM is being a valued advisor to your clients on important opportunities and challenges to their business. Often conversations that could or should be about these opportunities and challenges are really ...

Building Customer Intimacy with the market and leveraging those relationships as a mechanism to grow share-of-wallet at your existing accounts and open doors at new accounts requires more than just new sales approaches and good relationships.  Truly realizing a Customer Intimacy strategy as a competitive advantage takes a commitment to ...

In the previous entry, we discussed solution development as a process and shed some light on the intricacies needed to create a winning portfolio. Now let’s look at the design of the portfolio itself: Think about the portfolio from a holistic point of view. What are we offering that is ...

The entry to the commercialization phase of the Customer Intimacy Journey requires a re-evaluation of your Market Participation Strategy. This deals with which markets, which geographies, and which accounts we are trying to impact. The answer, of course, will include several over time. Remember, companies live in ...

Here, we will discuss the importance of establishing a beachhead – a successful safe-place to expand into a market. This is important for an early solution business and for any new market/customer segment you go after. You must focus early offers on the market exclusively – it is ...

Since it’s so important to success, let’s talk about messaging and the sales force. You must differentiate your business with clear messaging attributes which include: An Idea Selling™ storyboard Answers to key questions like:– “Why” they should do this– “How” they can do this– “With whom” should they do this The Idea Selling™ ...

One of the first questions we get is “Where in our business would this apply?” It’s a good question – because in many corporations, multiple customer engagement models co-exist in support of various parts of the portfolio – and will continue to do so. To answer the question, it helps ...