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Comcast Uses Twitter?
C.C. Chapman shared his quite interesting experience of Comcast monitoring Twitter for negative comments and scheduling a technician visit in response to his post about his lackluster HD picture during a Celtics game. I must say that I’m rather impressed. This is the first time that I’ve ever heard of monolithic brands effectively using social…
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How Can Customers Provide Competitive Advantage?
Someone recently asked me, “How can customer research provide competitive advantage?” There are far too many ways! Here are a couple: Let your customers tell you what your competitive advantage really is. When FedEx gathered a group of executives to show them a video of their new planes, the huge capacity they have as described…
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Are You Too Losing $100M?
I was speaking with a major market research firm that in the not too-distant past had scuttled an eagerly anticipated new practice area, claiming that there wasn’t a market for the new practice and associated research. Yet, a few years later, their biggest competitor has a huge, booming practice in the same area! The competitor’s…
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Sacrificing Customers for Profitability
I spoke with a rapidly growing software company last week about their sales compensation practices. Like many software companies, they provide sales incentives on license revenue, but NOT on services revenue. In other words, they want their sales team to sell software, but NOT the services required to implement the software and deliver the ROI…
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Speaking The Customers’ Language
Another tidbit from Drucker’s Effective Executive: “The man of knowledge has always been expected to take responsibility for being understood. It is barbarian arrogance to assume that the layman can or should make the effort to understand him, and that it is enough if the man of knowledge talks to a handful of fellow experts…
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How can I contribute to your success?
Peter Drucker, in his book, The Effective Executive, describes the effective executive as one who “focuses on contribution” in that he/she asks, What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution that I serve? Answer this honestly (but admit it to none but yourself): Do you focus downward…