Subcategoría 2 Formación para investigación

The results of this study have important implications for B2B marketing managers. It has been long held that understanding the personal characteristics of the B2B purchasing decision maker is critical for a successful sales transaction and relationship. However, little guidance has been provided on how to accomplish this in scale rather than on a customer-by-customer basis (Fugh-Berman & Ahari, 2007). The present study not only empirically demonstrates support for

this contention but provides a practical example of how to employ. The results establish that the predictive power of the geodemographic segmentation data used exceeds, in each of the six segments modelled, that of the total population.

Commercial geodemographic systems have been created for consumer applications, not B2B applications (C. Frohlich, personal communication, February 2, 2015; C. McClave,

personal communication, January 30, 2015), let alone to account for the dynamics of any specific B2B market. However, data exists for virtually every individual or household in most

industrialized nations making this source immediately available and scalable for firms with names and addresses of customer and prospects. This overcomes two significant barriers currently faced by businesses of all sizes: identifiability and accessibility of segments (Wedel & Kamakura, 2012). As such, these systems offer a viable, scalable approach for firms and sales organizations to better understand both current customers as well as prospects and allocate resources accordingly.

By evaluating the commercial options available and integrating a data solution that best aligns with an organization’s needs, a firm can empower marketing managers to better analyze historical performance and its drivers as well as to develop more efficient and effective

marketing and sales plans due to the ability to more accurately identify and apply specific sales activities. For example, by integrating geodemographic segment data with prior purchasing history (buyclass), a sales organization can determine which specific sales activities to employ. In the current study, an assessment of Segment 5 provides an excellent example (see Table 7). Each of the segment’s two buyclass categories have five sales activities significantly related to sales effectiveness. For existing customer that have purchased prior (Rebuy), two External Wholesaler activities – Call/email and POS (point of sale) – should be emphasized over the other

activities when possible. Internal Wholesaler activities should focus on Proactive, Product

Question, and Underwriting Follow-up, the latter two representing prompt and thorough

reponses to financial advisors’ questions regarding specific solutions and the status of submitted applications within the participating firm’s underwriting function. For Segment 5’s new

customers (Newbuy), External Wholesalers should emphasize Client Workshops whenever possible while the firm’s Internal Wholesalers should focus on Case Status and Proactive communications. Also note that for Internal Wholesalers the sales activity Proactive Email is negatively related to sales effectiveness, suggesting that other communications tools – phone, voice mail, text – should be attempted first. Finally, the variable Other was found to be significantly related to sales effectiveness but due to its broad nature it is currently not operational by the sales team.

As Table 7 demonstrates, this level of segment and buyclass sales activity specificity is available to each of the participating firm’s six geodemographic segments. By integrating the purchasing history and segment data, we clearly see with Segment 5 that the two buyclass categories have, with the exception of the activity Proactive, completely unique sales activities to emphasize. This would have been masked had the analysis focused on segment alone. While each firm employing this approach will have a different taxonomy of activities as well as

differing results due to the unique nature of its products, sales process, distribution focus, and competitive environment, the opportunity to gain insights into activity-level specificity is high.

To gain deeper insights into understanding which specific sales and marketing activities have or have not been historically successful and to identify possible future marketing

opportunities per segment, it is further recommended that post-geodemographic data integration, an organization conduct a quantitative study of current and former customers as well as

prospects. A study of this nature, with geodemographic segment appended for each respondent, will enable the organization to explore important company- and market-specific issues such as former, current, and future usage, intentions and needs related to products and services. Results can be aggregated at the segment level enabling easier institutionalization within a firm

(educational training materials, CRM integration, usage for planning purposes). Unlike segmentations that require reactive assessments of face-to-face client

engagements for categorization purposes (File & Prince, 1996), commercial geodemographic solutions may provide meaningful insights prior to any allocation of sales or marketing resources. While it is well established that a sales professional’s role includes collecting

information on prospects and customers (Weitz, 1981; Shapiro & Bonoma, 1984; Fugh-Berman & Ahari, 2007), this data can be used to refine and augment segment-level understanding. It is often worthwhile to create simple sales information systems to incent salespeople to input observed personal data they gather from customer and prospects such that the marketing department can utilize in creating successful segmented marketing strategies (Shapiro & Bonoma, 1984). In cases where customer or prospect segment membership warrants sales and marketing attention, strategies can be tailored to meet the specific needs and objectives of the purchasing decision maker prior to an engagement, increasing the probability of success.

The study’s results also suggest that companies with external and internal sales functions should fully understand the value that each function creates for customers and which specific activities drive sales effectiveness. Consistent with life insurance industry practices, the participating firm allocates far more resources and incentives towards its external sales teams. However, as demonstrated in Table 6, more sales activities undertaken by the firm’s internal sales team were found to be significantly related to sales effectiveness.

Increasing the rate and pace of adoption of the firm’s CRM system by a salesforce will enhance insights and increase the effectiveness of sales and marketing activities. The data used in this study reflected a sales force’s first year of mandatory compliance of information entry into a CRM system. Weitz (1981) stressed that a salesperson’s ability to adapt to the client environment is predicated on one’s ability to gather information, design an effective message and solution set, and then gather feedback from the buyer to determine the true degree of

effectiveness. In order to institutionalize insights from the salesforce’s ongoing engagements with customers and prospects, accurate information input and analysis within a CRM system is required.

To aid in CRM adoption by a sales team as well as increase the value of the data

collected, it is suggested that a simple yet granular taxonomy of sales and marketing activity be created by organizations. The participating firm had created its own taxonomy of 63 separate sales activities spanning both sales teams. However, analysis of these activities across more than 3,000 dyads for an entire year indicated that (1) there was no data for several categories, (2) many categories had such sparse data as to be useless for statistical purposes, and (3) overlap existed for several categories (i.e., Proactive, Proactive Email, and Proactive Voicemail). Of the 63 original activities categories representing the number of times each each was utilized per individual dyad, only 23 were used in the final analysis (nine for external wholesalers, 14 for internal wholesalers). Marketing and operations analysts, in collaboration with their sales colleagues, should discuss the types, nature, and processes of activities undertaken in an effort to create an accurate, actionable, and agreed upon sales activity taxonomy.