Building a deep understanding of customers' needs begins with customer segmentation. Customer segmentation helps companies to focus on the different attributes and behaviors of their customers and serve them more effectively. This builds customer equity and profitable growth, say Onder Oguzhan and Asli Cantutan of Peppers & Rogers Group.

The quality of a company’s customer service is a critical competitive differentiator in today’s market; proactive customer service is a highly effective way to create that differentiation. If conveyed through marketing communications, proactive service can be a powerful strategy for exceeding customer expectations by servicing customers at the right time and in the right place. One company seeing success with this strategy is Super Glue.

Economic pressures are forcing conversations about the importance of predictive analytics to a place of prominence in organizations. Companies now not only strive to analyze data from traditional channels, but also from their websites, social media, gaming sites, and mobile. Although the rise of interactive media presents its share of challenges for the practitioners of advanced analytics, it also creates opportunities.

It is essential for sales teams to continually engage with and monitor their customers to ensure they are adequately supplying the most appropriate products and services for their customers’ changing needs. Employing a BtoB social networking solution allows sales professionals to effectively monitor clients’ respective industries and engage with them at the most appropriate time.