A competitor’s unhappy customer may not be ready to switch suppliers. A complaint is not a buying signal A salesperson can spend a meeting listening to a long list of problems with the current supplier and come away thinking the deal is almost certain. Yet the customer…
Cold calling remains effective. Salespeople often avoid it anyway A new survey of 153 sales managers and salespeople suggests that direct…
A better customer experience is not a strategy. A company must know what it wants to excel at and what it will deliberately not optimize Trying to offer a lower price, more features, faster delivery, better…
B2B customers no longer need a salesperson to read out specifications. Value begins with diagnosing the real problem B2B customers come to salespeople better prepared and increasingly find…
Good customer communication does more than announce a problem. It helps customers avoid having to call at all Contact centers can reduce part of their demand not by hiding the agent but…
Generic marketing superlatives increase distrust. A precise fact sells better than the word “premium” Words such as sustainable, clean, revolutionary or AI-powered are intended…
Customer statements lose value when a company reduces them to keywords without context and consequences A customer may say they need “better visibility,” but that does not…
A weak pipeline does not necessarily mean weak sales execution. More low-quality leads can make the problem worse When the sales pipeline weakens, the first reaction is often pressure for…
Deflecting customers away from human agents may save costs in the short term while quietly destroying loyalty Customer service has long measured success by contact volume, call duration…
Marketing and sales cannot align in a single meeting. They need to define together whom they actually want to win Conflict between marketing and sales often begins before the first contact…
Company websites are no longer read only by people. Marketing must explain the offer to customers and AI systems at the same time B2B customers increasingly receive their first explanation of a problem,…
Margin is not lost only in the final negotiation. A salesperson can give it away in the very first conversations Companies often respond to declining margin by tightening discount…
Companies are deploying AI across customer service, but survey data show costs are not falling and sometimes are rising A survey of 150 customer-service and IT leaders shows a striking gap…
