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CEOs who sell gain clarity on competitive strategy
| Guest post by: John Brennan |
Article Overview: CEOs of Nike, Intel and Sun are becoming more involved in the selling process, focusing on tailoring products and services to meet the demands of their top customers. And it's more than just a ceremonial visit. These CEOs are overcoming objections and negotiating deals, giving them an intimate understanding of market pain and the value they may (or may not) provide.
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Free Download - Adapting to Technology and the Internet By John Brennan |
CEOs who sell gain clarity on competitive strategy
From a marketer's perspective, this is a
great trend! A CEO who works directly with
customers often gains a new appreciation for
the strategic landscape. And that makes it
easier for marketers to gain the CEO's
support for strategic initiatives. It can
also help marketing gain a stronger voice in
C-level discussions on business strategy.
From a CEO's perspective, a deep
understanding of true customer needs is a
critical variable when shaping your company's
competitive strategy. It gives you an
unvarnished look at your position in the
market and a clear understanding of the
issues your marketing needs to address.
Better yet, these CEO/customer meetings can
trigger big ideas that can take your company
in exciting new directions. Take, for
example, Starbucks.
In the early 1980s, Starbucks was a
wholesaler selling coffee beans. On a trip
to Milan, Howard Schultz (a VP at the time)
visited a coffee bar and came up with the
idea to re-create the Italian coffee-bar
culture in the United States.
The company founders resisted Schultz's
recommendation to change their business model
from wholesale to retail. Recognizing the
opportunity, he quit the company and started
his own. He achieved immediate success and
bought out the Starbucks founders in 1987.
We all know the rest of the story.
Schultz's first-hand experience gave him the
insight to create an entirely new market.
But it's difficult to drive such innovation
from a VP position. He had to quit Starbucks
to make it happen on his own.
Schultz delivered what the authors of the
popular book Blue Ocean Strategy call value
innovation. Instead of just trying to beat
the competition, make the competition
irrelevant. Create a leap in value for buyers
and you can open entirely new and uncontested
markets.
Every CEO dreams of becoming the uncontested
leader in a new market space. It's also the
best spot for marketing directors. After
all, defining a new market space is usually
more exciting and rewarding than battling in
the trenches in a noisy market with
established competitors.
But it's rare for companies to achieve this
goal. Logic tells me that meaningful value
innovation comes from a deep understanding of
the market and customers. It's more than
data and customer surveys. It takes
big-picture right-brained thinking - empathy,
synchrony, creating meaning.
Remember what Henry Ford said?
"If I'd built what people were asking me for,
I'd have delivered a faster horse!"
It seems pretty clear that value innovation
is an enormously powerful business strategy.
And since CEOs need to drive strategic
changes, it's important to know the market
like the back of their hand. But they need to
know more than just the numbers. They need
to understand customer experiences to truly
innovate.
What better way to learn than to experience
it than by selling?
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Article Tags: blue ocean, c level, coffee bar, coffee beans, color 000000, company founders, competitive strategy, customer meetings, howard schultz, italian coffee, level discussions, ocean strategy, rest of the story, sans serif font, span style, strategic initiatives, style font, true customer, value innovation, vp position
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