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I challenge you to quickly recall five great product stories that went viral and made national headlines. If you’re like 99% of the population, you’re struggling to think of them. If I had asked you to think of five stories about brands that made national headlines because their product or service failed you’d be thinkingRead more

This is not a typical Sensei Wisdom blog post. Today I’m taking a break from the usual insights, experiences, opinions and rants I post on customer experience strategies to share a story that challenged my thoughts on the meaning of success. Professionally, over the last few years I’ve started a new business, travelled extensively, designedRead more

B2B customers have become more independent buyers in the procurement process as a result of their increasing access to information, research and peer-recommendations. In fact, this modern buyer is something of an enigma to B2B vendors.   Traditional lead generation efforts such as trade show and publication advertising, direct mail, email, etc. are decreasing in effectiveness.Read more

I wish to congratulate Yahoo on selling its stake of Alibaba, a Chinese Internet company, for a reported $4.3 billion dollars. After all, this transaction fulfills many financial analysts’ predictions and recommendations for Yahoo’s success when it appointed Ms. Marisa Mayer CEO back in July of this year. “In the short term, just how muchRead more

Your customer does not see how unrealistic their demands are. They see how you respond. Your customer does not see your profit and loss statement, nor do they care. They see their shrinking wallet and what you plan on doing to help them with that. Your customer does not see the price of a product.Read more

Closing out my series on the YinYang of Customer Experience (CX) is a brief argument that your best form of influence on new and existing customers is your business’ customer experience. Well designed, relevant and executed with decent timing, you exert tremendous influence over the decision-making cycle of your customers. The issue most enterprise’s haveRead more

The customer lifecycle references the stages customers pass through when considering, purchasing and using products or services offered by their vendors as well as the associated marketing, sales and service tactics the business engages in to push those customers towards a purchase decision. Among B2B marketers, this is not a new concept; however, the mannerRead more

In my last post, The Games Corporate Buyers Play, I suggested that corporate buyers are moving towards economic-inspired buying patterns where price dictates what products and services are brought to market. That inspired a debate on best practices and the role of procurement in achieving the businesses goals. Specifically, I charged that this trend isRead more

Reed Holden wrote an interesting piece for Harvard Business Review Blogs in which he reports that corporate buyers are playing a “high-stakes poker game” with their suppliers – and are winning. He suggests that corporations are changing their patterns from being “relationship buyers” to “economic buyers”. Relationship Buyers focus on procuring products, services and savvyRead more

This past week, I chose the Intrawest-owned Blue Mountain resort in Northern Ontario as the destination for a last-minute mini-vacation with my family.  The relatively short drive time, reputation and variety of family-oriented activities were critical in our selection of destination. Weather was spectacular, local beach wasn’t busy, we were joined by family and goodRead more