The current pandemic has disrupted many of the traditional sales methods used by field-sales organizations to engage, and sell to, buyers. In an effort to provide help, many vendors have recently announced new features that focus less on the management of sales organizations and more on tools to help salespeople sell. This has been coupled with a renewed interest in using data to help with the science, alongside the art, of selling, as referenced in my AP: The Art and Science of Sales from the...
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Topics:
Sales,
Analytics,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Digital Technology,
sales enablement,
Sales Engagement,
AI & Machine Learning
This has been a dramatic year for contact centers. The underlying technology has been changing for some time, but that change is now accelerating because of the urgent operational shifts forced by the pandemic. When you can’t gather dozens or hundreds of people into a single, open-plan site, you must look at alternative models for staffing and interaction handling. You must also work harder to create positive customer experiences across multiple contact channels.
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Topics:
Customer Experience,
Voice of the Customer,
Analytics,
Contact Center,
Product Information Management,
Digital Commerce,
Subscription Management,
agent management,
AI & Machine Learning
It’s very exciting to embark on a new chapter of one’s career, so I am thrilled to be joining Ventana Research to lead the practice of expertise in customer experience (CX). Some who know me might remember that I’ve been in this industry since a much younger version of me edited Call Center Magazine in the 1990s and 2000s. Others might have crossed paths in my role at several industry analyst firms. I’ve been around for quite a while, invigorate and help CX emerge as a competitive...
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Topics:
Customer Experience,
Voice of the Customer,
Contact Center,
Product Information Management,
Digital Commerce,
Subscription Management,
agent management
The last decade has seen exponential growth amongst subscription-based business models. Pioneered in the B2C market with cloud-based SaaS offerings, the last decade has seen exponential growth in the share of the economy that is now subscription based. Increasingly, this modern business model is permeating throughout more traditional style industries and companies. But regardless of whether a company is natively subscription based, or is transitioning, maintaining this growth requires...
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Topics:
Sales,
Customer Experience,
Office of Finance,
Voice of the Customer,
embedded analytics,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Collaboration,
Internet of Things,
Contact Center,
Product Information Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Digital Commerce,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
natural language processing,
robotic finance,
revenue and lease accounting,
Subscription Management,
agent management,
intelligent sales,
sales enablement,
AI & Machine Learning
Subscription-based business models have seen exponential growth over the last decade. The growth of this recurring revenue business model, where a subscriber commits to repeatedly pay for a good or device for a fixed or indefinite timeline, has been caused by the shift from the one-time selling of physical products to selling digital services on a subscription basis. The first phase of this transformation was led by “digitally native” organizations, typically B2C, that have only ever offered...
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Topics:
Sales,
Customer Experience,
Office of Finance,
Voice of the Customer,
embedded analytics,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Collaboration,
Internet of Things,
Contact Center,
Product Information Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Digital Commerce,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
natural language processing,
robotic finance,
revenue and lease accounting,
Subscription Management,
agent management,
intelligent sales,
sales enablement,
AI & Machine Learning
I’m very excited to announce to my network as well as the ever-expanding Ventana Research community that I’m now directing Ventana Research’s Office of Sales practice. The focus is to guide and educate sales and business professionals on the selling applications and technology including digital commerce, price and revenue management, product information management, sales enablement, sales performance management and subscription management. While these are the main topics of our Office of Sales...
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Topics:
Sales,
embedded analytics,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Collaboration,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Sales Performance Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Digital Technology,
Work and Resource Management,
Conversational Computing,
collaborative computing,
mobile computing,
intelligent sales,
sales enablement,
AI & Machine Learning
Economic dynamics and market pressures during a black-swan event can wreak havoc on efforts to effectively manage revenue operations and pricing for business continuity. For many organizations, environmental changes disrupt the methods by which these essential business processes are managed can be disrupted, damaging the revenue streams that create profitability. The array of pricing strategies and related promotional tactics across channels for configure, price and quote (CPQ), digital...
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Topics:
Sales,
Customer Experience,
Human Capital Management,
Marketing,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Collaboration,
Internet of Things,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Sales Performance Management,
Workforce Management,
Workforce Planning,
Price and Revenue Management,
Total Compensation Management,
Conversational Computing
Marketing is inextricably linked to business success, and digital technology is essential to an organization’s overall marketing potential because it generates interest and brand awareness. In a black-swan event, the marketing department often is overwhelmed by short-term demands, so in these situations it’s of the essence that digital transformation gets the attention it deserves. In challenging times, a “putting-out-fires” mentality tends to take hold — this is not unreasonable but in...
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Topics:
Sales,
Customer Experience,
Marketing,
Office of Finance,
Voice of the Customer,
Analytics,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Digital Technology,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Conversational Computing
Contact centers play a substantial role in an organization’s success. The customer journey is engaged here, at each moment of interaction. Agents, whether human or machine-driven, are intrinsic to the customer experience and the value of the contact center. Customers are essential to an organizations’ overall business potential because they generate revenue. In a black-swan event, demand for customer service may spike or dip, so in these situations it’s of the essence that agents get the...
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Topics:
Sales,
Customer Experience,
Marketing,
Office of Finance,
Voice of the Customer,
Analytics,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Digital Technology,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Conversational Computing