Three Myths about What Customers Want - Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird

by Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird | 9:10 AM May 23, 2012 This post is the last in a three-part series. Most marketers think that the best way to hold onto customers is through “engagement” — interacting as much as possible with them and building relationships. It turns out that that’s rarely true. In a study involving more than 7000 consumers, we found that companies often have dangerously wrong ideas about how best to engage with customers. Consider these three myths. Myth #1: Most consumers want to have relationships with your brand. Actually, they don’t. How should you market differently? First, understand which of your consumers are in the 23% and which are in the 77%. Myth #2: Interactions build relationships. No, they don’t. Of the consumers in our study who said they have a brand relationship, 64% cited shared values as the primary reason. Myth #3: The more interaction the better. Wrong.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/three-myths-about-customer-eng/

Marketing for the Extremely Shy - Dorie Clark by Dorie Clark | 1:41 PM June 6, 2012 Let’s face it: selling isn’t for everyone. Some people, including executives and entrepreneurs, panic at the thought of “putting themselves out there,” especially when that means asking colleagues for referrals or reaching out to past clients to drum up new business. 10 business courses we wish they offered in college By Martin Zwilling FORTUNE -- I'm sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses we should have taken. What's more disconcerting to me is that I can name a few that weren't even offered, and more than a few students who graduate ill-prepared for the real world! I won't even try to cover here the ones you didn't find for your personal life, like managing personal finances and credit.

How to build a great business (from a good one) Standing out from the crowd is tough when your competitors are also working towards the same end. Occasionally, though, a business that has been doing 'fine' suddenly starts doing better than fine. In fact, it goes from being good to great. 9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money The ability to motivate employees is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can possess. Two years ago, I realized I didn’t have this skill. So I hired a CEO who did. How to align your sales process to your buyer's journey The buyer's journey describes the process a typical business buyer takes as they move through the sales funnel. It's their process, not yours. The journey is not an administrative process, but a cognitive one. The buyer moves from being complacent to troubled, then becomes clear about needs and viable options, before deciding on preferences and opening the way for an acceptable contract.

Three Types of People to Fire Immediately “I wanted a happy culture. So I fired all the unhappy people.” —A very successful CEO (who asked not to be named) The best tidbits from the Steve Jobs bio "Steve Jobs," an eagerly awaited biography of the late Apple-co-founder, went on sale Monday. "Steve Jobs," the first authorized biography of the late Apple co-founder, went on sale MondayWalter Isaacson's book contains a wealth of fresh details about Jobs' life and careerJobs chose Apple logo over another -- a whole apple that looked too much like a cherryIt was Jobs' idea to get rid of the screen on the iPod Shuffle (CNN) -- "Steve Jobs,' the biography of the late tech visionary that went on sale Monday, has already produced plenty of headlines: How Jobs met his birth father without knowing who he was, how he swore bitter revenge on Google for developing its competing Android system, and how he waited too long after his cancer diagnosis to get surgery that might have saved him. But the 656-page book by hand-picked biographer Walter Isaacson also contains a wealth of smaller, but no less telling, details about the brilliant but difficult Apple co-founder.

Is there a 'bamboo ceiling' at U.S. companies? - Ask Annie By Anne Fisher, contributor FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: I just got passed over for yet another promotion, the third one in five years, even though I've been working flat-out and all my performance evaluations have been great. This is upsetting, but perhaps not surprising, considering that I am Asian American (third-generation Chinese) and there is no one of Asian extraction in any high position at this company. I hate to "play the race card," but given the circumstances, I can't help wondering if there is some subtle race discrimination at work here. What are your thoughts?

Why your HR department needs a major reboot By Gary Hamel (TheMIX) -- Most of us have no trouble coming up with examples of companies that failed to mobilize around a major new opportunity (Intel (INTC) and chips for mobile devices), or procrastinated when confronted with a wrenching discontinuity (Kodak and digital photography), or struggled to let go of a beloved but dying strategy (General Motors (GM) and its bloated brand portfolio). In most of the cases of strategic inertia I've come across, HR wasn't the primary culprit, but neither was it a powerful force for change.