We are excited that our work has helped an important client to update their channel partner program. Last week, they announced the new program and got good press on it. About a year ago, my client was introducing smaller, less expensive systems that were meant to be sold through the channel. Although the client already had a channel program in place, it was not geared for these new products.  So, the client needed to update their channel program to better motivate and attract channel partners to resell these new systems. This client engaged Brillianta to help them with market research and ..read more

I do voice-of-the-customer interviews for B2B businesses and investors, interviewing existing and potential customers. Over the last 5 years, I've spoken to many hundreds of businesses. As part of my methodology, I always ask what is important to the customer in their decision-making process and later, I ask how a specific vendor has performed relative to that decision-making criteria. The relationship with the salesman and/or vendor is always on the list of criteria. And what I found is that the closer the business is to selling a commodity product, the more important that interpersonal rela ..read more

This is my old logo, which I made myself. I worked with Jason Polkovitz from Tiny Little Mind on my logo design. I selected him because his designs are simple and clean. Jason was patient and easy to work with.  We went through a large number of iterations of logo designs. In fact, Jason wrote a blog post about it. As we went through the process, I realized that there are 3 important ingredients for a good online logo design: In addition to a traditional logo, I needed a relatively simple square image that can be used on Twitter, Facebook, G+, LinkedIn and as a favicon on ..read more

My new client, TeleSure, a call tracking and lead management system  helps marketers in small and mid-sized businesses get better return on their marketing investments. TeleSure uses phone numbers and extensions to track sources of phone calls. It includes campaign-specific phone numbers and/or extensions, call routing, call tracking, and call reporting to automate the lead capture and management process for both on-line and off-line lead generation activities. And I am helping them with market development. When I worked at Direct Marketing Department at Oracle Corporation ..read more

I'm working on a project for New Heights Research, interviewing tire dealers. And one of the tire dealers had an interesting perspective on how technology is causing a decline in replacement tire sales. It is a good example of how technology is transforming yet another industry... With increased Internet usage and telecommuting, people aren't driving as much to/from work. With increase in online shopping, people aren't driving as much to/from stores. With automatic tire pressure monitoring, available on newer cars, your tires are more likely to be properly inflated. With smart phones becoming ..read more

Assisted a computer manufacturer with better understanding their channel partners' experiences and expectations for the new systems. Interviewed over two dozen client's channel partners worldwide about the partners' business, the mid-market customers, their experiences with different platforms and with the client's channel program. This project focused on helping the client better understand their channel partners' business models, where the client's products fit within partner's offering portfolios as well as anecdotes of best practices for different channel program elements. It's interesting ..read more

One of my clients is a computer manufacturer. I help them with their voice-of-the-customer initiatives. For this project, I interviewed two dozen of client's customers around the world about their expectations and experiences with their computer equipment for their 2012 Customer Listening Program. The primary focus of this initiative was to help the client fine-tune their marketing messages. But in addition to the marketing messages, we also asked about how they used the systems, their decision-making criteria and process as well as how well the client delivered on their promises. Althoug ..read more

With many competing demands for investment, a win/loss program may not be near the top of your list. You can invest in sales training, lead generation, validation, product development, customer service. The list goes on and on. Why invest in a win/loss program? Identify Best Investments A data-driven win/loss program can help you prioritize other investments, including sales training, lead generation, investment validation, product development, and customer service. An effective win/loss program helps you to identify initiatives with the highest ROI and measure your success. Establish Baseline ..read more

The blog post titled When do NPS and CSAT scores fail to predict churn? covered reasons customers churn despite high customer satisfaction (CSAT) and high net promoter scores (NPS). This post looks at the opposite situation: why unhappy customers stay. In a number of interviews, decision-makers have described recurring problems. Many of them have been having issues for months and sometimes years. The people are clearly frustrated. The pain is clear in their voices. They give their vendor low CSAT and NPS scores. It seems that they are ready to jump ship. But when asked if they are plannin ..read more

Blog RSS Based on conventional wisdom, high customer satisfaction (CSAT) and high net promoter scores (NPS) predict customer loyalty, while low CSAT and NPS scores indicate risk of churn. Except when they don't. On a number of recent in-depth interviews, interviewees appeared to love their current vendor, gave their current vendor outstanding CSAT and NPS scores; then explained that they were jumping ship. Surprise! Has this happened to you? Did you feel blindsided? We dug deeper to identify possible causes. Did the people misunderstand or incorrectly answered the questions? The ans ..read more