Beyond the Executive Tour
- Catalina Osorio
- Apr 6, 2015
- 4 min read
When executives of multinational companies want to take a deeper dive to understand what is happening in their regions, they typically resort to the “executive tour,” a whirlwind trip throughout the region to meet with and gauge their subsidiaries, partners, and customers. Such tours will always be valuable in terms of the in-person contact and ability to gain first hand information about the business environment. At the same time, a wide range of tools have emerged over the past few years that lessen the need to “be there” because they can provide deeper insights into the company’s business than traditional staff meetings and business and financial reviews.
Customer Relationship Management
At Nextant, we are big proponents of customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and we have helped companies of all sizes identify and implement CRM solutions for their businesses. Although most people understand that CRM helps automate the sales process by managing interactions and synchronizing sales, marketing, customer service, and tech support, they are less familiar with how it can be used for purposes other than sales/marketing automation. For example, we have helped companies use CRM more broadly in other areas, including:
Calendar: Beyond the traditional function of scheduling meetings and/or training sessions. Field people (in one case trainers) fill-out the calendar with information about local events, shows, activities and celebrations that are important at the local level and can be leveraged for branding, sales, and community relationships.
Social Networks: Most CRM systems have some type of social network tool. Usually the tool is used to share information about product features and launches, promotions, sales incentives and contests, wins, etc. Nextant has helped clients use CRM social network tools as market research tools to share competitor activities, to escalate product issues, and to share the voice of customers and the voice of users.
Blockers/Levers: As part of the opportunity process, we have helped companies use CRM to identify what is blocking/delaying purchase decisions and provide suggestions (or authorization requests) to manage and resolve blockers.
Training: In addition to scheduling training sessions for certain retail employees, we have used CRM to track the amount and type of training, attendees, ratings and comments about sessions and trainers. CRM tools provided valuable feedback about store layout, brand/product presence, and methodologies for evaluating how standards and training content have been used across client stores.
Routing / Merchandising: Nextant helped one company integrate CRM with a GPS solution to plan and control routes, number of visits, average time spent on route and on customers. The solution included a store layout to analyze flow and evaluate brand positioning, product exhibition, and pricing.
Business Assessments
Assessments provide an exceptional mechanism to understand capabilities and readiness across the entire range of a company’s organizations, partners, and channels. Nextant has developed a proprietary assessment methodology used to help companies assess capabilities and readiness, among other things, in broad strategic transformations, transitioning to new business models precipitated by the Cloud, and service performance in the context of developing service excellence and a strong service culture. For a related article, see here.
Specifically, a good assessment model can help companies evaluate and understand capabilities and identify gaps in terms of readiness to adopt and deploy new priorities and strategies. With that information, they are better positioned to prioritize investment and assistance and to set the groundwork for future tracking and monitoring of organizational capabilities and alignment.
Importantly, an assessment model should be:
Objective: Able to assess gaps in execution of core activities and to identify gaps in capabilities and readiness. Designed to maximize feedback and value, not to provide audits.
Customizable: Accommodate client and individual organizational needs. Is tailored to provide relevant information specific to the client. Scalable model that can be updated and customized.
Automated: Automated processes provide real time information and views. Automated features require fewer resources to implement and manage.
Enlightening: Provide business intelligence by connecting assessment with performance to provide insights that allow client to make informed decisions on where to prioritize and focus investment and improvement efforts.
Flexible: Capable of being deployed broadly across company or channel rolling out all at once or over time.
Using our model, we are currently working with a number of clients to assist them in understanding whether and how their partners are positioned to take advantage of the companies’ new strategic initiatives and transforming business models. The assessments are providing detailed data-driven intelligence and actionable insights that are being used to improve the companies’ return on their partner investments and relationships.
Sales Analytics
There are an almost overwhelming number of sales analytics tools available with predictive analytics capabilities, forecasting tools, and modeling options. Many are embedded in CRM packages and offerings, while others may provide a standalone option or third party add-ons to existing CRM tools. Like the other tools mentioned, sales analytics can provide insights that supplement the tangible and intangible benefits of an executive tour and facilitate information gathering and decision making.
Nextant is currently working with a company developing a sales analytics tool that provides robust, actionable information relating to each stage of the lead, pipeline, and forecasting management processes. We will discuss it in more detail in an upcoming blog entry as it gets rolled out.
Clearly, there will always be a need for the executive tour. That being said, companies should utilize the many tools available to them to make those tours more efficient and productive.
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Scott Hoing is a founding partner of Nextant LLC, a consulting firm specializing in assisting companies expand their businesses in international markets, with a strong focus on Latin America. Scott practiced as an attorney in a leading international law firm in Washington, D.C. and London, concentrating on international economic regulation and transactions. He also held positions as an executive and associate general counsel of a Fortune 100 company, where he served as secretary to the Audit Committee of its board of directors. Scott’s expertise centers around business and legal strategy development, regulation and compliance.
Scott's email is: shoing@nextant.com
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Nextant has extensive experience in assisting leading clients through its Market Expansion and Business Optimization services. For more information on how Nextant can assist your company in socializing a market entry and initiating sales, please visit our website at http://www.nextant.com
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