June
2001
Latin American consumers fall into eight distinct segments -- and you will never see them on a map. Your marketing strategy will be more effective if you aim for socio-economic status and ignore borders because that, not nationality, creates commonality. Trying to reach everybody in each country is a scattershot method that wastes time and money.
Due to the disparity of income and consumption, there is no typical consumer in any Latin American country. It's far more effective to target specific economic segments than nationalities. The Gallup Socioeconomic Allocator divides Pan-American consumers into eight distinct groups and details their spending habits.
A call center agent needs four kinds of managers throughout his career -- a recruiter to hire him, a training manager to train him, a retention manager to keep him, and project manager to lead the way. The most successful centers use these manager relationships to move an agent from close contact to high independence -- and top performance.
The best sales managers know how to provide their star performers with just the right rewards to feed that drive for success. In fact, finding the perfect "fit" between motivation and rewards may be the key to focusing great sales reps toward even greater achievements -- or sending them into a slump. Here are some strategies to motivate your sales stars.
Imagine meeting your car dealer for lunch just to catch up. Or imagine a mechanic at the dealership working late because he promised your car would be back to you on time. Sound like a fantasy? Not at Audi USA. So how has Audi transformed branding from a cut-and-dried marketing practice into a force that releases and directs human energy?
Happiness on the job depends on many things, including opportunities to learn and grow. But it also seems to depend on gender. These days, women find more fulfillment in their jobs and personal lives than men do -- and that gap has widened.
The U.S. Postal Service handles 200 billion pieces of mail a year -- and faces an awesome customer service challenge. The U.S.P.S. wanted to link data to specific postal centers and people to fix problems and increase customer satisfaction. Find out how a new Web-based reporting system provides those links.
Countless self-improvement books and seminars have promoted the idea that business leadership can be analyzed and imitated. But can leadership be reduced to a formula? Find out how five top executives leverage their unique talents to climb the corporate ladder and energize their organizations.
Holding onto a customer has never been harder -- or more important. Proprietary Gallup research shows that the key to wooing customers isn't price or even product. It's emotion. Here's how to win over fickle customers and make them love you for life.