Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

As we gear up for an intensive recruitment effort to find our new General Manager for Initiating, Opening & Sustaining Client Relationships (which others might call a GM for Sales and Marketing) it was timely to see this “8 ways to build customer loyalty” article posted on Inc.

Maintaining a high retention rate is critical to our business, and something we’ve done reasonably well over the past 12 years – but there’s always room for improvement (it’s not 100%).

These 8 pointers will be another useful reference in the months ahead…

We have no department for Sales and Marketing.

Though 2 very busy years has elapsed, not much has changed (in that respect) from when I drew this diagram back in early 2010:

It was obvious to us, then, that we first needed to overhaul our department for “Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the customer wants”.

This took some time, but we have done so (as such, that side of the organogram looks very different now). As alluded to here, we’re starting to see early signs that clients are being delighted with product upgrades again.

Given that we’re now gearing up to make our first hire at the top of our department for Sales & Marketing, it was a good coincidence that I happened upon the article “Ending the war between Sales and Marketing” published in HBR back in 2006.

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Let’s get one thing out-of-the-way straight away, for those who are easily distracted – yes, it is an unfortunate choice of acronym.  Back in 1988, when the book was written, political debate was not as lightweight and sound-bite-sized as at present.

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I can’t recall who it was who first suggested I read the book, but it was some time ago and (since that time) I have read the book several times.

The Book	What we thought
“Spin Selling” by Neil Rackham	It’s certainly worth it, for us, given the nature of our business

I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books (and about the links above)… .

With this book in particular, I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy in order to gain the value – what follows is my attempt to just hit the highlights.

The book describes the SPIN technique, which evolved based on some fairly extensive studies of sales effectiveness completed by the author during the time he was founding the Huthwaite business.

Here’s a brief 5-minute video in which Neil outlines what SPIN selling is all about.

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This was the only book I managed to finish over the Christmas – New Year period, after starting out with a few.

The Book	What we thought
“Word of Mouth Marketing” by Andy Sernovitz	Worth a Read

I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books…

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