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• Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

  Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales

  Frank V. Cespedes and Tracy DeCicco

  Common advice in sales is to provide insights to customers during sales calls. But this advice generally stays at the level of “tell people something they don’t already know” and results in sales conversations littered with many irrelevant factoids. This article provides examples of how salespeople develop and deliver resonant insights in customer conversations and why the framing of insights depends upon to whom they are talking and when in the sales cycle.

  Keywords: Sales; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy;

  Citation:

  Cespedes, Frank V., and Tracy DeCicco. "Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales." Harvard Business Review (website) (August 19, 2019).  View Details

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• Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

  How B2B Companies Can Win Back Customers They've Lost

  Frank V. Cespedes and León Poblete

  Most research and training in sales focus on acquiring new customers. But winning back previous customers is increasingly important: mergers, choice in supply chains, and uncertainty about trade wars mean that B2B customers are constantly re-evaluating relationships with suppliers and making changes. Meanwhile, large buyers account, on average, for over 25% of revenues at publicly traded firms, up from 10% in the 1980s. This article discusses how and why the process for reacquiring lost customers requires a different approach than acquiring new ones and illustrates the process and its implications via a case example.

  Keywords: B2B; customer reacquisition; Customer Relationship Management;

  Citation:

  Cespedes, Frank V., and León Poblete. "How B2B Companies Can Win Back Customers They've Lost." Harvard Business Review (website) (June 3, 2019).  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2016 (Revised April 2019)

  InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan

  Mark Roberge, Tom Eisenmann and Frank Cespedes

  Fred Shilmover and Sam Clemens prepared for their fourth quarter board meeting. They were excited to have scaled their software startup, InsightSquared, to $2 million in revenue and secured an $8 million round of venture capital. However, they disagreed on the path ahead, specifically on the sales and marketing plan. Shilmover preferred a sales-centric approach to growth while Clemens preferred a marketing-centric one. Which strategy was optimal for their venture’s next phase of growth?

  Keywords: Sales planning; Software; Marketing; Sales; Planning; Growth and Development Strategy;

  Citation:

  Roberge, Mark, Tom Eisenmann, and Frank Cespedes. "InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan." Harvard Business School Case 816-074, February 2016. (Revised April 2019.)  View Details

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