(1) Marketers, why not extend an olive branch to management guru Peter first? Drucker once said: "The purpose of marketing work is to make sales dispensable." Many friends who engage in sales are afraid and hostile to marketers. In fact, what really makes sales easy is not market personnel and market work, but monopoly power and the phenomenon of short supply (illusion). Having said that, in reality, the gap and hostility between salespeople and marketers have been deep, and the contradictions and conflicts between them are as irreconcilable as oil and water. The division between the market and the sales staff is so deep-rooted that it has penetrated into the organization and culture of the enterprise. In fact, the relationship between salespeople and salespeople is very unfavorable for any enterprise, which not only reduces the work efficiency, but also affects the work effect. Nowadays, enterprises have entered a performance-oriented era, and managers are trying their best to improve their performance. However, if they don't make up their minds and find ways to improve the relationship between salespeople and marketers, the improvement of enterprise performance can't be complete. Some bosses fight on the side of marketers, some bosses fight on the side of salespeople, and some bosses fight 50 boards for salespeople and marketers. However, in any case, if the customer relationship cannot be fully valued and effectively managed, the enterprise will eventually suffer. In any company with poor performance, we can easily find misunderstandings and complaints between salespeople and marketers: marketers accuse salespeople of being too greedy and arrogant, and salespeople accuse marketers of being too stupid and arrogant. In such a cultural atmosphere, the business process of enterprises will become a political game process, which is a problem that no technology can solve. The ideal relationship between marketers and salespeople should be the relationship between coaches and athletes. Marketers are coaches and salespeople are athletes. In sports, a large number of coaches are ordered to "finish class" every year, and a large number of athletes become sports stars, with growing fame and rolling financial resources; In the business world, a large number of marketers are dismissed every year, and a large number of salespeople get huge bonuses. If you want to stand out and make a lot of money, and you can accept the challenge every day (at least every month), then do sales; If you are more willing and good at solving problems, making strategies and promoting their implementation, and willing to live away from the spotlight, go to the market. The marketing department and sales department of an enterprise should also know this. The marketing department must regard the sales department as its own customer. At the entrance of a supermarket in the United States, there is such a notice of "three chapters of the contract": "First, the customer is always right; Second, if you think the customer is at fault, please read the first one again. " Marketers should serve the sales department with such understanding and attitude. The purpose of the coach is to let the athletes show their elegance. Only by thinking in this way can the coach win the game. Only by helping salespeople achieve or even exceed sales targets can marketers win respect in the company and the board of directors. However, in China enterprises, the relationship between marketers and salespeople, similar to the relationship between coaches and athletes, has not been fully established and fully developed. There are many reasons, one of which is the mismatch between people and posts. Those who are not suitable for marketing are assigned to marketing posts, and those who are not suitable for cooperative sales are assigned to sales posts. The role of coaches has not been brought into play, and the potential of athletes has not been stimulated. The marketing system is also a small society. Establishing harmonious marketing is the responsibility of both marketers and salespeople, but the initiative to break the ice between them should be in the hands of marketers, who should take the initiative to take responsibility, extend an olive branch to salespeople, adjust their positioning, clarify their roles, improve their quality, make contributions and win respect. In the efforts to ease the tension between marketers and salespeople, if marketers can take the initiative to attack, the effect will be more obvious. (2) Customer assets are the source of profits. For marketing, the value of customer asset management may be more important than brand asset management, because the former is more humanized and interactive. "Products are short-lived, but customers are eternal." In today's increasingly diversified market and fierce product competition, customer asset management is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool to win the market. "Customer" is no longer just the starting point of marketing activities, but has become a sustainable, operational and differentiated internal resource. "Customer-centric" is no longer just a concept and slogan, but a measurable and operational management process. The marketing dilemma calls for new thinking. It is no accident that the marketing thinking of "customer equity" appears. In practice, the pursuit of "market share", "satisfaction", "loyalty" and "brand equity" has been challenged, and it is urgent to solve the difficult problems in practice with new strategic ideas. First of all, market share is the "rearview mirror" of enterprise performance, which only reflects the present and past of the enterprise and cannot predict the future. At the same time, the contribution of market share of different industries to profits is different. So one-sided pursuit of market share is harmful. Satisfaction and loyalty often form a trap. Satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal customers, and loyal customers may not bring benefits to the company. Related research has found that 65% ~ 85% of satisfied or unsatisfied customers have found new lovers. The customer satisfaction rate of American automobile manufacturing industry exceeds 90%, but the reality is that only 30% ~ 40% customers buy the same brand again, and many enterprises aiming at "serving all customers" fall into the "satisfaction trap". In order to retain customers, enterprises spend a lot of money to establish customer loyalty programs, which is often not worth the loss. In addition, in the traditional market of anonymous customers, the information of buyers and sellers is asymmetric. Brand is the "market signal" that enterprises put on unilaterally. Enterprises create brand image, endow brand personality, develop and manage brand assets, so that enterprises and customers can obtain benefits other than products or services themselves. By using these benefits, enterprises can effectively judge the performance of brand management. However, it is not the brand that creates wealth, but the customer. Three breakthroughs in "customer assets" 1, emphasizing "customer lifetime value". "Customer lifetime value" is the basis of customer asset management. The customer's ability to create value for the company is not determined by a single transaction, but the sum of the customer's entire life cycle. A customer may buy the same product of the company many times in the consumption life cycle of more than ten years or even decades, or buy other products of the company's product line, or continue to buy upgraded products of the company, or let enterprises cross-sell. The longer the customer keeps the relationship with the company, the greater the value created for the enterprise. According to statistics, Cadillac's 30-year value of each customer is $332,000. 2. Measure customer value in the form of assets. Assets are predictable future economic benefits and have the ability to make direct or indirect contributions to future net cash inflows. In customer asset management, customer lifetime value, including discounted value of future value, is used to calculate customer assets, which ensures the financial interpretability of customer assets, enables it to change the company's product-centered strategic decision-making system and performance appraisal system more thoroughly, and can also be better combined with modern management science such as balanced scorecard. 3. Identify the differences in customer profitability. A company's customers are not uniform. They can be divided into different customer groups according to their purchasing power, loyalty and absorption of company resources, and different groups have different abilities to create value for the company. Take Hilton Hotel, one of the four largest hotel groups in the world, as an example. Among the different types of customers in this hotel, "diamond plus gold honorary members" only account for 1% of the total customers, and they generate 6% revenue and 28% profit, while "conference and holiday travelers" account for 66% of the total customers, but only generate 6 1% revenue and 49% profit. Third, improve the equity of customers' assets: Value equity is determined by customers' subjective perception of the price, quality and convenience of products (or services). Brand equity: Brand equity is determined by customers' brand cognition, brand attitude and brand morality. Retaining rights and interests depends on the customer's desire to maintain a long-term relationship with the enterprise. Enterprises can encourage customers to establish long-term relationships with enterprises through frequent visitor programs, loyalty reward activities, special appreciation and special treatment activities, and networking activities. Let's take a look at how China Southern improves customer assets from these three aspects. In terms of value assets, China Southern provides customers with safe, convenient and value-for-money travel services through route design, operation and maintenance management. In terms of brand equity, we can enhance customers' cognition and subjective evaluation of China Southern Airlines brand through overall corporate image design, brand communication planning and community public welfare activities. In terms of maintaining assets, we will strengthen the relationship between customers and enterprises by means of Pearl member club, accumulated mileage exchange, key customer service system and special courtesy planning. Customer assets are operational assets, but the management of customer assets is not to "lock in" customers, but to create real value for customers and make customers an advantageous resource for enterprises to compete. The management mode of customer assets can be realized by up-selling, cross-selling or diversification. In the process of managing customer assets, enterprises usually redesign business processes as needed. Managing your customer assets "Customer asset management" requires treating customers as internal resources of the company and making strategic planning around them. The first step is to evaluate customer assets and divide customers into high-value customers and low-value customers according to their lifetime value. The second step is to arrange different resources for different customer types and formulate different customer asset management strategies. The third step is to track the changes of customers' assets and evaluate the enterprise performance according to the returns of customers' assets.