Top Companies Consider Values, Not Just Value

Consumers prefer doing business with firms with a conscience, Accenture finds

Aggressive Negotiations Are Still Key to Sales Success

Sales leaders who dictate the terms of deals have a better chance of closing them

Sales Analytics Show Strong ROI, Gartner Finds

Coaching and skills development uses deliver the largest benefit

Consumers Fear Facial Recognition

A GetApp survey finds consumers wary of firms capturing such personal data

Browsers Respond to Consumer Distaste for Cookies

Google is following Apple's and Mozilla's moves to block third-party cookies, but what are the alternatives?

Required Reading: Put Customers in the Driver’s Seat

Companies need to spend time with customers to avoid disruption

Transparency Is Critical to Resolve Privacy-Personalization Paradox

Companies need to be up front with consumers before collecting personal information

Marketing Spending Expected to Grow This Year

Winterberry expects marketing investment to hit $390 billion, up 7 percent

Shoppers Place Growing Emphasis on Convenience

97 percent of consumers have backed out of inconvenient purchases, NRF reports

Customer Experience Measurement Must Be Consistent

Those who understand customer experience's impacts get bigger budgets, Gartner finds

B2B Needs to Align Digital and Humans

Sales require a human-centered approach supported by technology, Accenture finds

Required Reading: Dialogue Is the Key to Retail Sales Success

The need to adapt communications strategies is non-negotiable

CX Leaders Struggle to Show the ROI

Communicating the benefits of their CRM investments eludes many, West Monroe researchers find

CCPA Is Now in Effect

California's consumer privacy law took effect Jan. 1

What Lies Ahead for CRM?

CRM industry insiders share their predictions for 2020.

Gartner 2019 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service

In the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant report for CaaS, you'll learn how contact center solutions measure up. You will also discover why now might be the right time to update your contact center.

Required Reading: Journey Mapping Must Bring Customer-Focused Change

In their new book, How Hard Is It to Be Your Customer? Using Journey Mapping to Drive Customer-Focused Change, co-authors Jim Tincher and Nicole Newton of Heart of the Customer note that 65 percent of customer journey mapping projects fail to drive change.

Gartner Hypes Blockchain as a Sales Tool

26 Nov 2019

A handful of technologies are on the brink of making a splash in CRM sales technology but are still five to 10 years away from any significant adoption, according to Gartner, which recently released its "Hype Cycle for CRM Sales Technology" report.

Brand Management a Challenge, Gartner Survey Shows

26 Nov 2019

Even though global brand management is critical for company success, more than one-third (35 percent) of companies struggle with it, Gartner reports in its most recent brand survey.

Forrester Uncovers Customer-Marketing Disconnect

26 Nov 2019

When marketers began to build customer profiles and personalize interactions, they had good intentions, but inadvertently, many of those efforts have led to creepy and even harmful experiences, Forrester Research contends in a new report.