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Be a better negotiator by having a “BATNA”

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By Leigh Thompson

It’s something many negotiators agonize over.

Sometimes they don’t even think they have one.

It’s your BATNA, or your “best alternative to a negotiated agreement.” In other words, it’s what you’re left with if a given negotiation doesn’t work out, your default state.

Your BATNA is critical, as it determines your leverage in life’s most important negotiations, such as a job offer or the sale or purchase of a house, and in everyday dealings in business. If you feel pretty good about your BATNA, you’re more likely to “stick to your guns” and not negotiate as hard. If you’re not thrilled about your default situation, you may be much more willing to concede certain terms in the negotiation, to make it work.

Despite the importance of the BATNA, people often are at a loss as to how to define it, improve it, flaunt it, or perhaps hide it. Many people enter negotiations under the self-limiting belief that they don’t have a BATNA. Others enter negotiation with a false sense of security. And even when negotiators have a well-formed BATNA, they’re often unsure how best to leverage it.

Following the do’s and don’ts below will position you to understand, sharpen, and leverage your BATNA to reach the best outcome in any negotiation.

Don’t panic if you think you don’t have a BATNA

If you only get one job offer or one bid on your house, you might not think you have a BATNA. In reality, you always have a BATNA, and must make the distinction between having a BATNA and not liking your BATNA. For example, you may not wish to remain at your current job (your BATNA), but if a job offer you’ve received doesn’t include what you see as fair compensation, it may be best to keep looking for new opportunities, especially if it’s early in your search.

Do be proactive about your BATNA

Think of your BATNA like a plant; it needs to be nurtured. If you’re seeking a job, make sure you’re networking and going to recruiting events, so you’ll be able to weigh a job offer in the context of other potential opportunities. If you’re looking for a supplier, talk to as many as possible that fit your broad criteria. DON’T be passive when it comes to developing your BATNA.

Don’t lie when asked about your BATNA in a negotiation

It’s very likely the other party will ask about your BATNA. If they do, don’t claim to have offers you don’t actually have. That’s unethical, and will likely ruin your credibility with the other party and, possibly, others. Instead, follow the advice below.

Do signal that you have a BATNA, without showing your whole hand

The other party will probably ask you about your BATNA! Rather than revealing exact details, such as the compensation another employer has offered, say something like: “I have other options I’m intrigued by. But I prefer to talk about what it would take to work things out with you.” That keeps the focus on the current discussion and prospective relationship.

Don’t start a bidding war

If you’re fortunate enough to have multiple offers, don’t play them off one another—although a negotiation where price is the main term, such as a home sale, may be an exception. One manager I know had his top-choice employment offer rescinded when the company discovered he was engaging them and another firm in a bidding war. As tempting as that kind of behavior may be, it’s short-sighted and can result in a worst-case outcome. Don’t go there.

Do share your top choice and target terms

Telling your top-choice company—or supplier, or other counterparty—they’re your Number One can promote goodwill and expedite the negotiation. If you tell them they’re your top choice, and they agree to your terms, accept the offer on the spot. If they don’t agree, tell them you need more time to “think it through,” and then do that, while weighing your BATNA, including other in-hand or likely offers.

Don’t forget to be gracious

Appreciation matters. If a party makes you an offer, thank them genuinely for it. If you have more than one offer, remind yourself how fortunate you are to be in that position, and consider releasing some of them so you don’t waste people’s time. This also could open up space for other candidates.

I hope these do’s and don’ts come in handy for your next negotiation, whatever it may be. I hope you get what you want. And if you can’t, then I hope your best alternative is truly the best one it can be.

By Leigh Thompson

Sourced from QUARTZ at WORK

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What makes for effective audio. With Ciaran Cunningham, CEO of Radiocentre Ireland

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Sourced from the Association of Advertisers in Ireland

PLACES ARE FILLING FAST!

We have had a great response so far for our next #Toolkit webinar: What makes for effective audio with Ciarán Cunningham.

Date: 31st of May
Time: 10am
Location: Online
Registration: Here. 

Ciarán Cunningham was appointed as CEO of Radiocentre Ireland in January this year. Radiocentre Ireland is a new organisation, funded by RTE and the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland with a remit to promote audio as a marketing medium. Ciarán will take us through research that contains insights on what makes effective audio from a creative and media planning perspective.

Ciarán became the CEO of Radiocentre Ireland in January this year after spending 25 years in the media agency sector working in Dentsu, Carat, dentsu X and Initiative Media. Ciarán has worked with many clients including Unilever, Diageo, Vodafone, ESB, Heineken and Bank of Ireland. Ciarán started his career in RTE back in 1989 so it is great that he is back again working on the media owner side.

Register Now

Sourced from the Association of Advertisers in Ireland

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How to overhaul your approach to customer success in 2022

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Customer success has come a long way to become a value driver for growth within an organization. That momentum has accelerated in the last five years, and now even large enterprises are adopting the function to increase their growth rate. All customer success professionals should be celebrating the function going mainstream and the opportunity to play such a central role in corporate strategy.

But if we look ahead to future needs and challenges, it’s clear we need to consider an overhaul. Customer success has become vulnerable. It is in danger of stagnating and not continuing to move ahead. It’s important to be alert to pitfalls, even in growth. We have recently seen how Peloton was caught off-guard, not prepared for a world without pandemic-related demand. It’s important to applaud what we have achieved, but we should also pay attention to warning signs.

Here are five key areas to consider to overhaul customer success in your own company.

1. ALIGNMENT OF CS OPERATIONS

Last year was significant in terms of customer success operations getting mainstream approval. CEOs are recognizing the need to allocate budget so that CS leaders can staff their operations. At the same time, there’s a clamor for a unified revenue operations function cutting across marketing, sales, and customer success operations. Ideally, it should have a dotted relationship with the sales ops leader, but this will take time. Down the road, such a relationship may be a possibility, but for that, the revenue function needs to mature. Today, CS leaders have to institute a productive working relationship with both CS ops and sales ops.

CS ops and sales ops must reconcile through the CRM. CS clearly benefits from its own system of record, as does sales ops, but both need to help further establish the CRM as a more precise executive dashboard. Since the CRM is treated as the ultimate source of truth by the CEO and CFO, the two operations groups should ensure a clean dataset which is a bane of every organization. CRM hygiene and clean-up tops the list of priorities for many companies. For many, this is an unending and underachieved task.

In addition, there are important factors from both operational teams that should be reflected in the CRM to reveal a broader, more accurate truth. That said, the focus of the two groups is different. For sales, the central objective is opportunities, while for CS, it’s the customer. The end-to-end customer journey needs to be conveyed in the CRM. CS operation should continue to focus on CSM enablement (tools, process, templates) and CS reporting (productivity metrics, board KPIs, customer book of business). Additionally, they should work with sales in enabling sales-CS handoff, tooling integration, and growth metrics.

2. EXPANDING TEAM STRUCTURE WITH SPECIALIZATION

It’s time for the CS leaders to think of specialization versus generalizations, which means instead of hiring CSMs, think of hiring onboarding specialists, renewal specialists, adoption coaches, etc. In his book Blitzscaling, Reid Hoffman talked about how as a company evolves, it needs to hire specialists to bring process focus and maturity. The SaaS industry is facing a massive activation problem. Onboarding done well is a major step toward activation and then retention. Similarly, renewal specialists bring assurance to the process and know-how to structure the deal conversation with customers.

3. TRAINING AND ADOPTION FOR CHANGING HABITS

CS needs to take training more seriously. Of course, in most companies, there’s a big push for self-serve training and lots of evidence for the value of video tutorials and knowledgebases, but we need more than just information—we need to change our habits. CS needs to embrace specialist trainers who not only encourage building habits around the product but also provide best practices. Expecting CSMs to bring in a daily cadence around this is a massive expectation.

4. EXTENDING VALUE MANAGEMENT AND ADVOCACY

Value management needs to be at the core of CS going forward. That starts with onboarding, where expectations around the outcome value are understood and documented. It continues into showing value at the activity and milestone level, having a conversation on the value on QBRs, and finally delivering a value-based renewal. Customers who see value become advocates. Advocacy has been a stepchild in the customer success world, and at times there is confusion around who owns it—marketing or CS. Remember, a fully functional customer will churn if the customer is not excited about the company or the product. Having advisory board meetings, city tours, annual conferences, and product roadmap roadshows needs to be part of the strategy for every CS team.

5. RETHINKING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Customer engagement usually has been built around the customer journey, which is a good practice that has been established over the last five years. It needs to evolve with content-based programs and leverage real-time channels. It’s important to think about having a content writer on CS staff who brings some rigor to the process. CS teams often shy away from real-time engagements, thinking of them as a time sink or voicing fear that the channel will be abused by customers.

It’s not enough to have proactive check-ins; there must be meaningful interactions. This will happen when enough content is produced for every scenario, use case, and inspiration.

Feature Image Credit: vegefox.com / Adobe Stock

By Shreesha Ramdas

Shreesha Ramdas is a co-founder of Strikedeck (Medallia) & LeadFormix (Callidus/SAP) and an active investor/board member in startups.

Sourced from Fast Company

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Customer expectations on brands in a post-pandemic world

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Sourced from IT Brief NewZealand

Cheetah Digital has unveiled five key trends shaping the state of relationship marketing in the year ahead with the release of its recent digital consumer trends index.

The report details consumer preferences, including:

  • What they expect from the brands they buy from
  • The channels and formats they prefer to communicate
  • The type of data they’re willing to share
  • The terms under which they’re willing to share it

Key takeaways at a glance

  • Protection of privacy is on the rise

As privacy regulations sweep the globe and data breaches continue to dominate news cycles, consumers are more privacy-conscious than ever online. There have been huge rises in those turning to incognito browsing (50% increase), a PC cleaner (48% increase), password generator (40% increase), ad blocking tech (37% increase), paid for premium software (31% increase), and a password manager 31% increase).

  • Use data but with permission

While most consumers will trade personal data for personalised content, they prefer brands only use data that they’ve explicitly shared directly to the brand (zero-party data). Other tactics are considered “creepy.” Among those considered creepiest are ads based on location data (67%), retargeting ads derived from tracking cookies (62%), and ads related to something they discussed near a smart device (61%).

  • Brand loyalty comes with conditions

57% of consumers say they are prepared to pay more to buy from a preferred brand, with loyalty metrics spiking across the board. Among the growing reasons they stay loyal are when brands understand customers as individuals (110% increase), treat their data with respect (71% increase), align with their personal values (58% increase) and offer admirable loyalty programs (55% increase).

  • Contests, sweepstakes and exclusive access is in demand

Consumers’ expectations of the loyalty programs are maturing, with a desire for contests and sweepstakes increasing 73%, exclusive access and content rising 58%, and personalised product recommendations increasing 56%.

  • Email reigns

When it comes to driving sales, email remains one of the most effective channels, beating banner ads, social media ads, organic posts, and SMS by up to 108%. Half of consumers report purchasing a product directly as a result of an email they received in the last 12 months.

A critical time to recalibrate

This data comes at a critical time, as the effects of the pandemic continue to reverberate throughout the marketing landscape. While some consumer behaviours and attitudes remained the same, many others changed — and quickly. Shifts that once took years to emerge are taking place in a matter of weeks, pushing brands to arm themselves with the latest data to keep up and respond appropriately.

“The path to customer acquisition has evolved from a relatively straightforward train track to a bowl of spaghetti, with multiple channels and formats to navigate,” says Cheetah Digital, VP of content, Tim Glomb. “Brands can no longer get away with lumping customers into segments, but rather must treat them as individuals. This requires developing authentic relationships, offering real value exchange, and interpreting the right customer signals at the right time in the right channel. That’s a lot to absorb.”

Brands need “to assess their ability to create and execute campaigns that meet and exceed consumers’ growing demand for more personalisation, more privacy and a deeper relationship with the brands they know and trust,” Glomb says. “How brands respond will impact their bottom line in both the short and long term.”

Sourced from IT Brief NewZealand

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Top tips for creating a productive home office

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By Jerry Balworth

How can we increase productivity with your home office?

Whether you are working from home, or at the office, we can often find ourselves losing focus. Working 9-5 with only one break can feel overwhelming or monotonous. At times like these, we can feel ourselves slowing down. If you are working from home, you may feel that your lack of focus increases. Everyday distractions and having the pleasantries of your home at your fingertips can make focusing difficult.

home office

To increase productivity, we have to first look at our environment. Here are some easy ways to increase productivity at your home office.

Distractions

It goes without saying that a home office will have a considerable increase in distractions. Anything from family life, to your hobbies, can make you lose focus. Having a personal computer close by may result in idle browsing, or extended time looking at social media, decreasing productivity. Family life can also get in the way, usually with the little ones.

One of the easiest courses of action for this is to create a home office, separate from your personal computer or any distractions. This can help separate you from potential distractions and allow you to focus on your work.

Office layout and design

Picture your work office, what is it like? Most offices are kept clean and open, creating an environment that helps motivate employees. It’s no surprise that your surroundings can have a serious effect on your mood. Therefore, it’s so important to keep your office space clean and open. Don’t leave clutter around, and make sure it isn’t too cramped. Having a window and plants help with motivation as well.

You should also consider the furniture you have. Think about how it’s designed, is it ergonomic? You will be sat down most of the day, so having a comfortable chair and mouse is a must. You should also consider details like lighting. Lights can strain eyes or be off putting and distracting. In winter times, you will be using them a lot more, so make sure to find something which fits your office space perfectly.

Breaks

It might seem counterproductive but increasing short breaks may help with productivity and motivation in your home office. Our minds can only work so much until they start to drift. If you feel yourself drifting and losing focus, it might be time to take a short break. Go outside for a quick walk, or briefly check social media, do something to take your mind off things.

Whatever it may be, giving yourself 5 minutes every hour or so can really help lower stress. Taking a break allows the mind to rest and gather its thoughts, letting you tackle your work with renewed energy.

Health and mental wellbeing

If you are a social person, then working from home might not be for you. That being said, some offices may require you to work some days from home. On these days, it may feel difficult to get work done, especially if you are used to the social environment of an office. At times like these, it is important to keep communication up. Keep communicating with your team via Microsoft Teams or whatever communication software you may use. Keeping a dialogue going can help streamline work and make sure you don’t lose motivation from a lack of contact.

Conclusion

Working remotely can be challenging to those who aren’t used to it or enjoy working in an office. It can cause a lack of motivation and negatively affect productivity. By following these tips, you can hopefully see a boost in productivity when working from your home office.

By Jerry Balworth

Sourced from Talk Business

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App appeal: four steps to successful app engagement

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By Steve Peretz

The attrition rates for app users are staggering – but do they have to be? Steve Peretz, group director (health experience and product strategy) at Appnovation, shares four strategies for engagement and retention.

Abandoned shopping carts, neglected Netflix series, snap decisions on Tinder. There’s plenty of evidence that audiences in the digital age have low attention spans and rely heavily on first impressions.

It’s no different with apps. The average app loses 77% of daily users within three days of installation. Within 30 days, it’s 90%. Three months in, 95%.

Often this rapid disengagement results from something simple, such as an error in the app’s design or a frustrating experience. But this negative first impression invariably has adverse commercial consequences for the brand or company behind the app.

Dubbed the ‘halo effect,’ app users can base their entire perception of a business on this initial interaction. They express their dissatisfaction by taking their purchasing power elsewhere.

Fortunately, the halo effect can also work in reverse. Get that first impression right, and customers will stay for longer. Follow up with great customer experience, and they’re likely to spend more, stay loyal and increase frequency of impulse purchasing.

Here are four first impression strategies to help brands achieve a match and ensure initial interactions result in successful engagement:

1. First contact: convey benefits simply and succinctly

Users judge apps by their descriptions. App descriptions and reviews are a fundamental reason people consider a download, so keep it focused. Use relevant keywords. Explain the app’s value proposition concisely. App users don’t want to scroll endlessly to understand the point of a product, so craft a message that cuts through.

Challenger bank Monzo’s app couldn’t be clearer about what it does: ‘Banking made easy.’ Likewise, Deliveroo entices app users by saying: ‘Food: we get it. We all have our favourites. With Deliveroo, get your favourite local restaurants and takeaways delivered straight to your door.’

If the initial messaging easily answers questions around why someone should engage with a digital solution, the brand has hit the bullseye.

2. Debut experience: try before you buy

Sharing a flavour of the app’s experience makes sense before customers commit to the download. If possible, offer the app for free – at least upfront (tiers can come later). Share content that gives a sense of the experience without requiring consumers to hand over personal data. Avoid blitzing people with ads, which will build frustration, not engagement.

Wellbeing app Headspace tells potential customers it will help them ‘Get happy. Stress less. Sleep soundly.’ It then supports app users from the first point of engagement with free educational resources on managing stress, improving sleep and learning to meditate. Users get ample opportunity to build trust in the brand before confidently purchasing the app.

Consider offering a preview video, which increases app conversions by over 20%. A well-crafted video delivers a compelling first impression, building immediate engagement and showing how the app works. For example, podcast and audiobook service Audible differentiates itself with a preview that doubles up as a mini-tutorial and a short promo.

3. Onboarding: use gradual disclosure

After downloading an app, users want to use it immediately. They get frustrated if they can’t engage with an experience quickly. Avoid complex registration processes and complicated tutorials.

Instead, brands need to use gradual disclosure techniques to educate and inform customers about the app in bite-sized chunks. The goal is to tell the audience what they need to know when they need to know it, not overload them.

This can take the form of streamlined content previews, ‘accordion’ elements, mega-menus, sliders or animated hints. Start with the basics and then disclose the more complicated aspects of the solution once the customer needs them.

Shopify is especially adept at gradual disclosure, incorporating the method right from the sign-up page via a non-intrusive pop-up window that explains the domain. Registration processes should be user-friendly and well-tested.

4. Retention: prompt action with instant reward

So far, all the brand has done is get its customer to the starting line. But the main battle begins once the customer is onboard. Work to sustain their early enthusiasm by rewarding their effort immediately and providing instant gratification.

New users should realize that brand interactions will directly lead to personalized rewards. Caffe Nero’s app immediately offers users the opportunity to accumulate stamps for a free coffee, which draws them into an app experience that positions them against competitors through positive reviews on Apple’s App Store.

Elsewhere, health group The Mighty invites new members into the community by extending an invitation to make an introduction. Right away, they feel like a part of the group, having found an online home.

Beware of deterring new users with a barrage of push notifications. It’s a tricky balance, particularly for digital health solutions that require regular inputs (for example, to monitor chronic conditions). If in doubt, err on the conservative side, and restrict communication to relevant, purposeful messages.

Some user attrition is bound to occur, no matter how well-designed the solution. But a strong first impression undoubtedly contributes to committed customer engagement. First impression strategies can help build impactful, purposeful apps with longevity.

By Steve Peretz

Sourced from The Drum

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Shocker: US teens don’t care about the metaverse

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By Matt Milano

A new survey casts doubt on the potential success of the metaverse.

The metaverse may be all the rage for companies large and small, but those companies may be severely overestimating its appeal among teens.

The metaverse refers to the convergence of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), along with immersive, online 3D worlds. In many ways, it’s the next evolution of current VR tech. Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Epic, and many others are investing billions to stake their claim on the burgeoning market. Unfortunately for the companies involved, a survey by Piper Sandler of 7,100 United States teens shows they aren’t that excited about the metaverse.

According to the survey, only 26% of US teens own a VR device, a critical component for interacting with the metaverse. Of those, only 5% use their VR device daily, while 17% use it weekly.

Even more telling is the fact that 48% of teens are unsure of their interest in the metaverse, or are completely uninterested. Only 9% of teens are interested in it and plan to purchase equipment, while 18% are moderately interested and may purchase equipment. The remaining 25% are interested in the metaverse, but have no plans to follow through with purchases.

Meta recently made headlines when it announced it would charge content creators a 47.5% commission on the content they create for the metaverse. Meta may be setting itself up for half of not much at all, given the apparent lack of interest from the demographic that is going to make or break its success.

By Matt Milano

Sourced from ANDROID AUTHORITY

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Podcasts and Audio Outpace Streaming Video, Hit $4.9B in Ad Revenue During 2021

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By J. Clara Chan

An IAB report finds that digital audio — defined as podcasts and streaming for music and radio — had the largest year-over-year growth rate compared to streaming video and social media advertising.

Podcasts and streaming for music and radio has seen the largest growth in ad revenue, hitting a total of $4.9 billion in revenue during 2021, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau released Tuesday.

With a nearly 58 percent year-over-year growth in ad revenue — up from 13 percent the previous year — the digital audio category outpaced streaming video, social media, search and display advertising growth during 2021, the report found.

The majority of growth in the digital audio category came from mobile devices, which brought in $4.1 billion in ad revenue and accounted for 85 percent of the category’s total revenue. Revenue on desktop devices for digital audio paled in comparison at $739 million, the report said.

But in terms of total dollars, search continued to drive the most revenue for the year at $78.3 billion, followed by display advertising at $56.7 billion. Digital video was the third-largest ad revenue driver, bringing in nearly $40 billion in 2021, representing a 51 percent year-over-year growth.

The report also found that social media advertising was able to recover from some of the decline seen in 2020 at the start of the pandemic to bring in a total of $57.7 billion last year. But companies like Facebook parent Meta and Snap are continuing to contend with revenue declines caused by Apple’s iOS privacy changes, which went into effect last year and allow users to opt out of tracking, the impact of which may not be fully seen until later this year.

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Source: IAB / PwC Internet Ad Revenue Report, FY 2021 IAB / PwC

By J. Clara Chan

Sourced from The Hollywood Reporter

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How relationship marketing works, its pros, cons and levels

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By Griffin LaFleur

An effective relationship marketing strategy can be a key component in acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.

Whether a startup or full-fledged enterprise, every company should evaluate the overall cost of customer acquisition.

Getting a new customer is one of the most expensive and difficult activities of any organization and often marketers and business leaders are left asking, “How can we retain customers?” and “How can we find the right customers that will stay with us?” The answer is to use a relationship marketing strategy.

There are many levels of relationship marketing: basic, reactive, accountable, proactive and partnership marketing. All achieve the same goal of deeper, more meaningful connections with prospects and customers. This long-term strategy for customer engagement and loyalty can take away the pressure of customer acquisition and one-time sales.

A relationship marketing strategy aims to turn every new customer into a returning customer, and it has pros and cons as a strategy for businesses. To evaluate relationship marketing requires an understanding of how it works and the five levels that represent different relationship stages.

What is relationship marketing and how does it work?

Transactional marketing tries to earn the next sale through advertisements and solicitations. Companies invest extensive resources and money to get customers’ attention, make a sales pitch, and then facilitate a sale. Therefore, they use different strategies for transactional sales versus growing relationships. Many marketing departments split resources to focus on one or the other.

Relationship marketing is a tactic to form long-term relationships with prospects and customers. Relationship marketing focuses on overall experience with the brand rather than sales alone. A brand experience helps attract new customers and retain them for a long time, earning repeat sales.

Businesses must foster customer loyalty and provide products that those customers deem exemplary. In turn, customers stay with the company longer and make unsolicited referrals. Companies that invest in relationship marketing have the potential to achieve a much greater ROI than with transactional marketing.

With relationship marketing, the goals can vary, including increased revenue, reducing customer turnover, higher customer lifetime value or average order size, and lowered costs.

Pros and cons of relationship marketing

Any business strategy has benefits and challenges. Relationship marketing yields high-value free referrals but also takes time to pay off, for example.

Relationship marketing focuses on overall experience with the brand rather than sales alone.

Pro: Returning customers purchase more than first-time customers. Relationship marketing increases the likelihood of retaining customers. These customers turn into repeat buyers, from cross-selling or upselling. Customer lifetime value (CLV) refers to what a customer spends over time with a brand. The more they buy, the higher their CLV.

Pro: Free word-of-mouth marketing. Customers who have a positive experience with a brand because of the relationship or the value the product provides are likely to tell others. These customers create a positive, viral, one-on-one marketing experience.

A good experience isn’t enough to generate this type of marketing. Consumers are more likely to spread the word and leave positive reviews when an experience goes beyond their expectations.

Pro: Personal connections. Whether a business sells directly to customers or sells a service to businesses, they always reach a person who makes the purchase decisions. Personal connections with the buyers create meaningful individual interactions. Customers want the following:

  • to be heard;
  • to have problems and challenges addressed; and
  • to receive regular communication, follow-through and support.

These personal connections build strong relationships and result in more, or continued, business.

Con: It takes time. A business needs to take the time to build customer relationships. Spend more time with each customer, for example. Or give customers room to make a purchase decision. Many sales do not happen on the first engagement point. It takes many interactions to establish the trust and relationship needed to garner results.

Con: Negative feedback. Word of mouth, if negative, can ruin a relationship marketing campaign. Consumers often expect immediate gratification. One negative experience shared with others has the power to derail a campaign. Consumers share experiences fast. If they don’t get what they want, in the timeframe they expect, they will tell others about their bad experience. Balance strong relationships with the ability to capture buyers at the right time.

Con: New customers are no longer a priority. A strong relationship marketing strategy aims for customer retention and growth. But a business cannot succeed without new customers. Don’t neglect opportunities to foster new relationships. No matter how much an organization prioritizes retention, some customers leave, and growth calls for repeat and new purchases.

The five levels of relationship marketing

Levels of relationship marketing

There are five levels of relationship marketing. Each level represents a different stage in the relationship marketing journey.

  1. Basic marketing. The first step in relationship marketing is to acquire a customer by guiding them through a sale, also referred to as a direct sale.
  2. Reactive marketing. The second step is encouraging the customer to provide feedback after that purchase.
  3. Accountable marketing. At this stage, the company contacts the customer to ensure that the product or service meets their needs. This is also a great opportunity to solicit feedback for future improvement.
  4. Proactive marketing. The fourth level of relationship marketing focuses on collaboration with the customer to develop improvised services and products. Regular feedback helps inform future relationships as well.
  5. Partnership marketing. The last level of relationship marketing is when a business tailors products and services to the customer to foster a long-lasting relationship.

By Griffin LaFleur

Sourced from TechTarget

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