January 2006

Magazine Features

Dangling the Carrot: Drive Your Sales Force to Profitability

Selecting and implementing the proper sales compensation tool to drive and motivate your sales force is more important than ever.

Safe Secrets

When is safe too safe? Establish reasonable guidelines and stick to them.

A New Marketing Medium

Blogging allows marketers to start conversations with prospects and customers through a powerful new avenue of communication.

Surefire Hires

Organizations jeopardize their ability to best serve customers if they don't have selection, retention, and development strategies for contact center agents. Here, industry insiders offer nine tips to help minimize risk.

Front Office

Calling the Cops on Telemarketers

This is an example of a simple market research campaign becoming a botched effort, resulting in a call to the police.

Reality Check

CRM: The Past and the Future

Born of contact management applications 25 years ago, enterprise software systems have come a long way.

Customer Centricity

Is Your Product Really That Great?

Loyalty programs won't work if a company's core product or service is perceived to have little or no value.

The Tipping Point

Put More Feet on the Street

To extract more value from existing sales machinery, B2B companies must address fundamental sales productivity inhibitors, focusing first on process, policy, and guideline improvements.

Pint of View

Promising That This Year Won't Be Like Last Year

Thirteen goals that businesses can actually hit.

Insight

Microsoft 3.0 Is a Go

The company beats the release's expected launch date with aplomb.

The Bitter Taste of Offshoring

Europe is setting an example of best outsourcing practices that American business might want to follow.

Aspect's Facelift

The new company must balance rationalizing its overlapping functionality with retaining and attracting new customers.

MarketScope: Manufacturing: CRM's Next Makeover

Analytics can reinvigorate the industry now that consumers are consuming again.

destinationCRM Dashboard

Required Reading: Why Customers Do What They Do

Today, the customer is the real decision maker.

Statistically Speaking

The Pulse: What Web support service will your organization implement in the next 12 months as part of its online self service initiative?

REAL ROI

BPM Speeds the Purchase Request Plow

"The customer understands we're looking for innovative ways to make processes easier...."

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

A travel-tech services broker taps digital contract management for e-signatures.

Hosting Time Is Money

Migrating to iRadeon's version of SugarCRM saves a search engine marketing company both.

Pounding the Pavement with Real-Time Communication

Field-service management and optimization lead to enhanced productivity and significant cost savings.

Opening Accounts and Relationships

A credit union uses service as a competitive advantage over price.

Secret of My Success: Hughes Network Systems

Broadband satellite network provider Hughes turns to Perseus Development to take customer satisfaction surveys to the outer limits

Re:Tooling

Tech Solution: Workforce Optimization Tools

Business Problem: Managers cannot staff and manage their contact centers effectively.