Linkages are pre-planned connections from one offering that pulls through the next offering. The connections are made by carefully pre-planned and executed sales activities. Of course in reality, linkages do not begin at the end of one project and end at the beginning of the next. Linkages are positioning activities ...

When developing Service Chains™ it is important to evaluate their business value and your ability to implement them in the market. At McMann & Ransford, we recommend tracking the following criteria to help foster customer intimacy:

Let’s take some time and discuss the power of ideas and their importance as the central component of a True Solutions™.  Good ideas facilitate the road to true customer intimacy.  A solution is the embodiment of an idea – and how the idea can be realized.  The idea is the kernel ...

In the simplest sense, marketing has a direct role in market strategy, participation strategy, and enabling the success. Because of their unique role and perspective on the business, marketing owns or is heavily involved in the strategy of the business, and often drives the decision-making process of how to address ...

In our line of work, we often see companies which innovate past the point that customers need or will pay for.  We have seen this phenomenon in almost every B2B product group. The cause?  A mistaken belief or assumption that companies can compete only through continuous innovation which is translated as continuous ...

Typically in the Form phase of the Customer Intimacy Journey, you will develop the initial True Solutions™ sets and take them to market. Like product development, a framework and process exists to define, develop and take your Solutions to market in a deliberate and defined manner. This building block is key ...

Most B2B companies strive to build an intimate and trusted relationship with their customers, at least that’s what they say they want. They expend a lot of energy educating their sales professionals to work in that space thinking that this is the area most in need of help. After dedicating ...

Eighty-eight percent of all CEOs say getting closer to the customer is the most important dimension to realize their strategy in the next five years.  According to an IBM study, “The most successful organizations co-create products and services with customers, and integrate customers into core processes. They are adopting new ...