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Kristin Zhivago: Partners: Customer Carewords
 Kristin
Zhivago, a "revenue coach," is an expert on the customer's buying
process. She helps companies of all sizes understand what their
customers want to buy and how they want to buy it. She helps CEOs,
entrepreneurs, and other business managers make it easier for their
customers to find them, understand (and appreciate) what they're
selling, and buy from them.
Her approach is very logical, and gives company managers a
straightforward way to increase their top line revenue. Customers have
a buying process. The company that does the best job of supporting the
buying process is the company most likely to make the sale. What does
that actually mean?
- The customer's questions are answered, promptly and to the
customer's satisfaction - regardless of the method/medium used
(websites, emails, blogs, forums, social media sites, salespeople, ads,
PR, etc.)
- The customer can easily go from one step to the next in the buying process, no matter how complex that process might be.
- Nothing
the seller does impedes the progress of the buyer (there are hundreds
of ways that a seller can impede the progress of a buyer - just try
calling any company, for example, and see if a real, live, helpful
person answers the phone!)
- The website is easily navigated; everything is obvious. The customer is never confused.
- The company's leaders understand what the customer wants and the entire company is set up to deliver.
- The
salespeople are knowledgeable about their products (unfortunately, in
today's Google-based buying environment, many customers know more about
the product than the salesperson does)
Zhivago has perfected the art and science of in-depth, qualitative
research, via literally thousands of interviews with customers,
business partners, and employees. She conducts these interviews by
phone and then comes back to her client with a word-for-word
transcription of the conversations, an executive summary of what the
interviewees said about the company, its products, website,
salespeople, and processes, and a set of recommendations that will
remove the barriers to the sale.
She then works with top managers to make the necessary changes. These can include:
- Company positioning. The customer
interviews that Kristin conducts always result in a clear understanding
of the promise that customers expect the company to keep. She then
works with top managers to further identify the promise that the
company can keep, given its unique products, processes, people, and
policies. This becomes the company's brand.
- Product positioning.
Kristin works with owners and managers to re-position the product so it
is in alignment with what customers want to buy. She then writes the
seminal pieces, to set the tone for the website, emails, and all other
marketing/selling materials. She then "works herself out of a job," by
finding and training the writers who can continue to generate the
necessary materials.
- Re-engineering teams.
She identifies the right positions, and makes sure the right people are
in those positions. She writes job descriptions, recruits, interviews,
checks references, and helps the client with the hiring and managing
process.
- Training. Kristin has trained
salespeople, marketing people, copywriters, product managers, and
business partners, worldwide, for companies such as IBM and Dow Jones.
She wrote all of the instructional materials used by IBM marketers as
they create their marketing materials. She has managed marketing and
sales teams in companies of all sizes.
- Website strategy, navigation, and content.
IBM has hired Kristin a number of times to redesign various sections of
its Business Partner websites and other portals. Her redesigns included
mapping 3000 pages from the "old" to the "new," a completely new and,
as Gerry would say, "task-oriented" navigation scheme, and redesign.
Activity included in-lab and on-phone user testing.
- Vendor identification and management.
In addition to finding, training, and helping to manage employees,
Kristin can find the right outside vendors who will help create the
company's website, and online/offline marketing and selling materials.
Kristin has sold and marketed tech products for 40 years, but also
works with companies in the health, travel, food, and consumer goods
industries. She founded Zhivago Management Partners, Inc., in Silicon
Valley in 1979. The company now operates out of Jamestown, RI. Clients
range from thriving young start-ups to those in the Fortune 500,
including Dow Jones, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson.
Zhivago speaks and teaches frequently, worldwide, on the subject of the
customer's buying process. She will be launching her second book,
Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customer Wants to Buy, in
2010. She is the author of the blog RevenueJournal.com.
Email Kristin Zhivago
Partners
About Customer Carewords
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