best practices and cultural differences in global customer reference manag…

Best Practices and Cultural Differences in Global Customer Reference Management!

By: Boulder Logic & ICRPC.com

!!!!

*  Many different mentalities & languages *  Be aware of the multiple time zones

*  Variety of business needs (e. g. Emerging Markets)

*  NEVER assume that everyone speaks English! ! 2/21/13!2!

Around the globe!

*  Formal greeting!

*  Incentives: Enjoy networking opportunities, event and business lunches or dinners

*  SMB customers open to become reference (appreciate the visibility!)

*  Austria: *  Prefer to speak in German, but are open to speak English *  Very important to use academic or royal title in greeting (e. g. Dr., Magistrat, etc.)

*  Germany: *  Prefer to speak in German, but are open to speaking English *  Don´t overuse them as reference, be careful of spending their time wisely! *  Careful with German tax law in regards to incentives or presents!

*  Switzerland: *  Pay attention: German, Italian or French speaking (depending on region)

2/21/13!3!

DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

*  Mainly prefer to conduct reference activities in local language (not always fluent in English!)

*  Allow more lead-time for your reference requests

*  France, Spain and Portugal are open to act as reference for prospects in French-speaking Canada, Latin-America and South-America

*  Italy and France: Prefer to act as reference for press activities

*  Spain and Portugal: Great references for site visits

*  Gift and rewards: *  Southern-Europeans mainly enjoy spending valuable time together at a lunch or dinner (make lots

of time available!)

2/21/13!4!

Southern-Europe (Italy, Spain, France, Portugal)

*  Very open, direct and straight-forward mentalities!

*  Always willing to conduct reference activities and also travel for event speaking engagements

*  Most customers within Scandinavia and Benelux are English speaking and can speak at least 1-2 other languages (e. g. German or French – besides local language!)

*  Gift and rewards: *  Enjoy networking events and business dinners *  Access to execs and peers *  Event invitations

2/21/13!5!

Scandinavia and Benelux

*  Emerging Market, high potential to grow *  High demand for references due to lots of competition

*  The most important facts:

*  Request references very early in the sales cycle (mainly site visits) *  Very protective of customer information (especially Russia)

*  Set-up CRP processes and educate your sales

*  Preferred reference locations: Own region, Western-Europe, USA

*  For site visits and event speaking engagements: *  Do not forget to check visa requirements and allow enough lead-time! *  http://www.visahq.com/citizens/

!

2/21/13!6!

Eastern-Europe & Middle-East

*  Eastern-Europe (mainly Russia): *  Prefer to speak in local language *  Heavily channel partner and distributor focused – involve them! *  Sales cycle tend to take a long time!

*  Middle-East *  Most customers are speaking English *  Recommended to have a male dealing with the customer ( sign of respect of

their religious beliefs!)

*  Caution: Customers in Middle-East often request their trip to be covered by the vendor (for event speaking engagements)

2/21/13!7!

Eastern-Europe & Middle-East (continued)

*  Emerging Market *  Request references very early in the sales cycle

*  Prefer to speak to references from Western-Europe or the US

*  Often request a site visit

*  Most customer contacts speak English – depending on country

*  JAPAN: *  Very important to understand customs *  Prefer to speak in local language *  Ensure to bring a gift along

2/21/13!8!

Asia-Pacific

*  Very open-minded mentality *  Open to act as reference for all sorts of activities

*  Most of African customers are English speaking

*  Important to know: during business dinner do NOT speak about business (considered rude)!

*  Bring local gift when visiting a customer!

*  Gift and rewards: *  Enjoy every sort of present or lunches & dinners

2/21/13!9!

Africa (mainly South-Africa)

*  Emerging Market

*  Very open-minded mentality

*  Prefer to speak to references in other Latin-American countries OR references within Spain, Portugal and the US

*  On average, not often requesting references

2/21/13!10!

Latin-America

*  Make it easy for the customer to communicate with your global CRP team in local language!

*  Keep the various time zones into consideration when scheduling a reference activity

*  Make yourself aware of the rules and regulations within the various countries concerning receiving incentives. In some countries, it might has a negative impact on taxes for some of the customer companies

2/21/13!11!

Other important information

12!

About Boulder Logic!

Strategic !Guidance!

Customer Recruitment!

Content Development!

Program Development !

Enterprise software (SaaS)

for customer references

Full range of spec

ialized services

Boulder Logic integrated with Salesforce.com!

13!

Evolving Global Program!

Don’t over commit

Training

Simplify

14!

Central Nomination Queue !

Global queue with individual ownership !

•  Allowing anyone to suggest candidates for the program

15!

Access Controls !

Admin Role 1

Role 2

Role 3

Role 4

Role 5

•  Use record and field level control

•  Apply conditional display rules

Intuitive Taxonomy!

16!

•  Reduce the values to a very clearly

defined list and fight to keep it clean

Automate Updates !

17!

Use an integrated wizard to select recipients, fields

and records to collect data updates!

Email based confirmation current information is correct, or to collect updates into the Db.!

Cross Regional Requests!

18!

Escalation focused on requestor region

Dynamic Microsite Templates !

19!

Self service publication of personalized

customer evidence micro site!

Personal URL tracking shows visitors to specific pieces of

evidence !

Templates localize automatically by

recipients regional settings!

Usage Thresholds!

20!

Logical groupings of activity types!

Over AND Under!Usage thresholds!

Automatic status changes based on

usage!

Default settings can be overridden for

each reference and contact!

21!

Proper Character Support!

ö ! o ! Ö

22!

Questions

For more information

•  BoulderLogic.com

•  ICRPC.com