Why Predictive Matters

by Mark Larson, March 28, 2008

Imagine that you are a professional poker player. As you look at your cards, you realize you have no concept of what to bet. You stare at your hand, but even though you know youve won pots before, you cant use that knowledge to predict your odds of winning again.

Poker is a game of leveraging odds: pitting the chance that you hold the best hand against those of the other players. Without an understanding of those odds, a player will lose a lot of money very fast. Professional poker players are experts at understanding the odds before them and how to bet appropriately to maximize their winnings while hedging against losses.

If you are in marketing, sales, market research, or an executive, much of your job revolves around weighing the odds of strategic decisions. If you dont have some understanding of the ramifications of each move, you can lose a lot of money very fast for both you and the company.

Predictive Analytics from Primary Intelligence filters out the unnecessary data that can distort your understanding of the odds. By developing impact scores based on statistical modeling, Primary Intelligence can point out the areas of your business that will bring you the best ROI with the least dollars invested. In this way, you can act as the professional poker player: positioning yourself for greater returns while hedging against unnecessary losses.

For more information about predictive analytics, give us a call at 800-400-2174 or email us at info@primary-intel.com

How Not to Win Friends and Influence People

by Bill Van Fleet, March 26, 2008

I recently witnessed the lament of a CFO who was trying to reconcile the tremendous cost of a solution his company had just selected. He complained of a large, generally uninformed sales staff and wondered aloud how much the final price had bloated due to each member getting his cut.

Its not surprising the CFO in this scenario was concerned. Every day I hear ads on the radio suggesting that the only qualifications needed for a future in sales are being “a people person” or, even worse, the desire “to make a ton of money.” When a group of executives is sitting across the table from a vendors representatives, they are looking for individuals motivated to offer the most competitive, valuable solutions in the industry. If the sales team is preoccupied with putting in a pool or whether leather seats really hold up better over time, the results could be catastrophic.

Charisma and a positive attitude can really only take one so far, no matter how many motivational books litter the desk at home. As more and more businesses turn to market research to help them make the best decisions, the days of the clueless CEO with a blank check are rapidly fading. To succeed in a competitive world, sales personnel have to be responsive, knowledgeable, and humble. The point isnt to know every facet of ones products and have an answer to every question; the most important thing is to demonstrate a commitment to finding the right answer quickly and efficiently.

Ive read countless comments about sales teams that lost the deal because they were arrogant, unresponsive, and sadly, ignorant. To succeed in a competitive, informed marketplace, it really does take more than the desire to make a ton of money. The sales team is the face of the company, and potentially the only one a client will ever see. Corporations of the world beware: dont let that face sport a smirk.

Who is listening to the Voice of the Customer?

by Don Miller, March 21, 2008

The voice of the customer is the term to describe the stated and unstated customer needs or requirements. The voice of the customer can [be] captured in a variety of ways: direct discussion or interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer specifications, observation, warranty data, field reports, etc. ¹

Voice of the Customer (VOC) has become something of a buzzword in the competitive intelligence community, similar to thinking outside the box. Everyone understands, or at least claims that they understand, that the best way to obtain information on what the customer wants or needs is to ask that customer directly. Much has been written about how to best go about gathering this informationfocus groups, individual interviews, online surveys, contextual inquiries, etc.how to quantify the results, how to organize the information, and how to analyze the data; but many people overlook one key issue regarding any VOC projectwho is listening?

If there is one common failure with competitive intelligence, it is that the people who most need the intelligence are not getting it. A VOC initiative gives your organization unique insight into you customers likes, dislikes, wants, and needs. But all too often, usable information is never acted upon because it never gets to the right people.

VOC is often labeled as a market research tool, and therefore the marketing department usually gets all of the information and has to decide what to do with it. This can be problematic as information that is critical to account management, product development, or sales may be of little value from a marketing perspective and is not passed on to other departments. Alternately, marketing may be circulating information that it considers valuable, but is of little concern to anyone else.

Another factor to consider is that most VOC projects are commissioned by senior management. The results are often available to management, but not distributed to others within the organization who could benefit from the information.

Taking the opposite approach and giving all of the information to everyone in your organization has its own set of problems. Giving people too much information is just as bad as giving them too little. Few people are going to have the time available to go through all of the customer responses to get to the information they need, and therefore wont look at any of it. So, all of the valuable information you collected goes to waste.

Any competitive intelligence project generates a great deal of information and someone needs to categorize the information and disseminate it throughout the organization (and since you are reading this, that person is probably you). It is important to remember that each department in your organization has its own goals and needs different information. Sales wants to know how to close the deal, marketing wants to know how to attract more customers, product development wants to know what features to add to an upcoming release, etc. Make sure you tailor the appropriate messages to the correct department.

The Voice of the Customergood, bad, or uglyis only useful if when it is heard. For your company to pay attention to the VOC, it is critical that each department within your organization gets the information that is pertinent to them. So, the next time someone asks Who listens to the Voice of the Customer? You can say, We all do.

¹Voice of the Customer, by Kenneth Crow, DRM Associates, http://www.npd-solutions.com/voc.html

Newsletter Changes

by Mark Larson, March 19, 2008

Starting with this issue of our newsletter, we have made some alterations. In trying to push more topical information, we have started producing new A-List reports. This will highlight new deals going on in the business world and give new insights into the reasons decision-makers choose one vendor over another. These deals are ones that are announce to the public sector by way of press releases. We are also consolidating our other articles into BlogCentral. All articles that would have made it to our Cover Story section in the past will instead be part of our blog schedule. Certain of those articles will make their way into our newsletter.

The A-List: Embry-Riddle Worldwide creates new classroom experience with Sabas Centra (New!)

Embry-Riddles faculty had determined that it was possible to create an effective interactive classroom experience that could reach students worldwide, increase enrollment, and minimize course cancellations. However, the current small online course system, Breeze (currently known as Adobe Connect), was only selected by a few people, and was not able to effectively facilitate the desired classroom experience.

(For more, click here)

BlogCentral: Implementation, are you building Customer Loyalty or opening the door for your competition?

Recently I have been working with a one of my customers on a post implementation study that has been very successful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in their software implementations. This organization has several different divisions selling different types of software along with support services.

(For more, click here)

Implementation, are you building Customer Loyalty or opening the door for your competition?

by Mike Brose, March 11, 2008

Recently I have been working with a one of my customers on a post implementation study that has been very successful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in their software implementations. This organization has several different divisions selling different types of software along with support services. One of the key things our client wants to understand through this study is how they are doing in building customer loyalty. That will help them cross-sell other products and build a defense against any of their competitors gaining a foot hold in these accounts.

Our clients original sales process is very expensive and time consuming, but sales of additional support services and software becomes much easier. Therefore, the company is even more concerned with ensuring that its customers are happy with the software implementation. If things go wrong and are not resolved, our clients customers are left with a negative perception of the company, making it harder to sell other services after the initial sale. Not only that, but the longer that negative feeling persists, the harder it becomes to renew contracts in the future.

By interviewing the customers after implementation, not only has our client been able to address any issues before the account becomes too frustrated with problems, but they have found this is a great time for them to uncover opportunities to sell more product and services to the same company in a informal sales environment. As our client has been performing this study, it has found that post-implementation studies not only build customer loyalty by showing a commitment to it customers happiness, it gives our client the chance to continue selling to those already open to its products and services.

As I have talked with many of our other clients, I have noticed that many havent considered this path of communication. If you are not doing some sort of post-implementation study, I believe you are missing out on a great opportunity to build greater loyalty, thus opening the door to more sales with the same clientele. By putting such a study in place, you keep concerns from becoming problems, thus giving competitors a chance to sway your customers to their products. Also, customers would be likely to buy additional services and products from you as well as improve your ability to renew contracts in the future.

Competitive Intelligence: The Red-Headed Step-Child?

by Mark Larson, March 6, 2008

It seems to me that many CI efforts at companies get nothing but token treatment from management. They know its important to give attention to this issue, but they just cant bring themselves to care. This can stem from many issues, but one underlying reason always seems to stand out: they just dont believe research efforts understand their company and problems like they do.

When CI is presented to management, there are generally two reactions. If the research runs contrary to management thinking, the research is considered faulty. If it confirms their pre-set beliefs, they feel the research is unnecessary since they already know whats going on.

So, how does someone present CI in a way that is interesting and relevant to management? Here are some thoughts that could bring CI to the forefront of a company:

1. Stay in the minds of management. Generally, if you are someone toiling in a back room and out of sight, you and your work will not be considered important to day-to-day decisions. Keep a consistent flow of information in front of the right people. It doesnt have to be daily, but you should make sure they get regular communication from you.
2. Go beyond stating data. Everyone is busy, and certainly that applies to upper management. Many times, they dont have the time to assimilate data on their own. Make decisions and opinions based on the data you are receiving and present those findings instead of the data. Only include the pertinent information that supports your platform.
3. Keep it short. I know, we all love writing business dissertations. What? You dont? Well, the only thing less fun than writing such a volume is to read it. Get to the point.
4. Keep it relevant. You may have found some fascinating data that says prospects love toast in the morning, and that 33 percent use strawberry jam. For stat hounds, that may be interesting (although they may question your survey techniques), but what does it matter in regards to buying your products? Although that example is extreme, it points out how irrelevant intelligence will just cause peoples eyes to glaze over. Know what strategic initiatives are important to management, and gather intelligence that would affect those decisions.

By keeping to these four points, you may find your work more important to those who can most use it. Talk about retaining job security!

p.s. My apologies to anyone who was a red-headed step-child. Im sure you were loved. Really.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter: Resonating with Customers

by Mark Larson, March 5, 2008

Our newest newsletter covers ground to which we all aspire: resonating with customers. Why is it that we all feel that we don’t quite know what they want, but rarely bother asking them about i?

Cover Story: Resonating with Your Customers
There are many sales methods being peddled these days on creating and retaining new customers. Some of them are diverse, but all point to a common theme. An article on businessknowledgesource.com puts it very succinctly: “Your customers come to you because of the particular value of your products and the ability of that product to fulfill a want that your customer has.”
(For more, click here)

BlogCentral: Competitive Intelligence Tip #2 for 2008 Choose the Best Sources
How different is the job of the competitive intelligence professional with the immediacy and availability of the internet. Of course, these are not new developments. You probably started leveraging the internet more than a decade ago to either develop your program or augment your data.
(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive: Quincy Newspapers Selects Avid for News Production Technology
All of QNI’s television stations use computerized newsroom systems. This type of technology is constantly evolving, however, and the Company decided that many of his news rooms needed updating. Because the newsrooms at the stations used a number of different technologies, the solution that QNI implemented would have to have superior cross-platform functionality. Primarily, however, the Company needed a solution that would be easy to use and would speed up the editorial and production processes. QNI evaluated solutions from a number of vendors, but decided to select Avid Technology as its provider.
(For more, click here)