Gone are the old days of buyers seeking out sellers who had few technology tools to help them market. And customers will interact with each other, sidestepping vendors as sources of purchasing information. Marketers will face growing pressure defining their roles in terms of their service to clients rather than in terms of the things they sell, Dr. Stryker predicted. The companies with the largest customer and prospect databases will have the advantage in the transaction era. Smarter Markets .
New strategies utilize detailed understanding of customers as well as of products.
Critical information . A customer characteristic is the same to every firm. Information about customer and prospect responses to the company s marketing mix, the hardest data to collect. Customer purchase history revenue and profit information. Each row in the last column represents the potential profitability of each customer, often called the customer s lifetime value.