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Do you solve your customer’s problems or sell your products?

What kind of a sales team do you have? Do you have problem solvers or sellers? I’d be interested to find out and help you build a strong, successful sales and marketing team that offers true customer value. According to different research sources (a.o. Forrester) almost 60% of buyers prefer to do research online before […]

Posted on 2020 okt 20.

The evolution of the Marketing Mix

The marketing mix traditionally is executed through the 4 P’s. Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Over the years a fifth P has been added, namely Personnel. I’d like to add another one: the P for “Passion for the Customer” and I put this in first place! Passion for the Customer Personnel Product Place, location and […]

Posted on 2020 jan 14.

What makes SMALL data BIG?

Data is all around us. There is a lot of focus on big data for obvious reasons as cost reductions, anticipating on market drivers and operational excellence improvements. Current technology enables us to recognize patterns in customer behavior through analyzing large amounts of (structured and unstructured) available data. My advice to you for the year […]

Posted on 2020 jan 08.

Supplier engagement and customer experience connected

I usually write about how customer understanding can help organizations to create customer engagement and deliver an excellent customer experience. This time is a little different, still it serves the same end-goal! Today I start at the other end of the chain – the supplier. Recently we had an appointment at Meyer Werft in Papenburg. Here […]

Posted on 2019 okt 21.

Early engagement for more successful lifecycle selling

Through my years in the marine industry, I learned that early engagement with our customers is important. We are a much better partner for our customers when we support them already during business planning. It is in this phase, that they need to make tough decisions about financing and design. But how do you get […]

Posted on 2019 sep 28.

Talk to the correct contact level in your customer’s language!

In this post I will tell more about the importance of the right contact person to talk to and how speaking the customer’s language has a positive effect on customer engagement and success. There are on average 6.8 people involved in decision making in 2017 compared to 5.4 people in 2015 (Gartner) Since the lifecycle […]

Posted on 2019 aug 26.

Understand your customer’s business

Lots of surveys show that customers involve their suppliers  later and later in their buying process. And when they finally do, they expect you to understand their requirements and what is important to their business operations. Customers are up to 70% ready for the purchase before they approach their suppliers’ sales reps. They search for […]

Posted on 2019 jul 21.

Listen to your customer and learn….

“Customer loyalty is that even when things do go wrong, and you keep listening to your customer and you do your utmost to solve the issue, the customer forgives, forgets and comes back’. This is what marine suppliers tell me when I ask whether they have loyal customers and what loyalty means in this industry. I […]

Posted on 2019 jun 14.

Become more successful as a lifecycle supplier

When ship owners invest in new vessels and upgrades they are dealing with huge investments. Vessels will often be in operations upto 30-40 years, which makes that decisions have an impact for a very long lifetime. I have worked on the marine equipment supplier side for nearly 20 years now, and I have learned that […]

Posted on 2019 mei 02.