François M. Jacques

Cuando llegué a ser director de marketing de la división de cemento de Lafarge a finales de 2001, los veteranos me decían que solo había dos tipos de clientes: los que les gustaba el golf y los que les gustaba pescar. Bienvenido a la primera línea de una empresa de cemento típica, un mundo difícil poblado por vendedores canosos cuyas propuestas tenían como objetivo hacer amigos en lugar de demostrar que sus productos eran mejores que los de la competencia.

jutvt/3ztLhwBAc6P8YNnA3YVdai85mitdZrPTF9V+p+nP4PdQFjNG7I8lS5uSShinMFFrlcUxy6JqAA8VfkW+WyGbmQ5sMmsW/Gpa5kLS81fKAweh0U3XRHK4/fsYZM

Reprint: R0705G
When Fran&#231;ois Jacques became head of marketing at Lafarge&#8217;s cement division in late 2001, old-timers told him that there were only two types of customers: those who liked golf and those who liked fishing. Welcome to the front lines of your typical cement company, a hardscrabble world peopled by grizzled salesmen whose pitches are about making friends rather than demonstrating that their products are better than the competition&#8217;s.
It isn&#8217;t easy to establish a marketing function in a company that doesn&#8217;t think it needs one. From the start, Jacques tackled the challenge on a number of fronts. First, he formed a three-person steering committee with both his strongest ally and his most vociferous foe in the executive ranks. Then he set right to work applying marketing&#8217;s most basic and powerful tools&#8212;segmentation and pricing strategy&#8212;to four carefully chosen pilot projects. To make the value of those efforts quickly apparent, he measured their effectiveness with readily understood metrics. He shared the ongoing results as widely as possible by establishing regional networks of marketing and sales executives. He wove marketing into Lafarge&#8217;s mainstream management processes by becoming a fixture at the company&#8217;s strategic-planning, performance, and budgeting discussions.
Step by step, over the next four years, Jacques and his team of first temporary, and then permanent, marketers fundamentally transformed Lafarge&#8217;s commodity mind-set. Segmenting customers allowed people to see that they were selling to different groups that required different products, which in many cases could be sold for higher-than-commodity prices. Customer satisfaction surveys led them to improve supply chain execution and, ultimately, to change what they sold, so that their offerings were suited to a range of customer requirements, increasing value both for them and for the division.
Many firms have a marketing function in name only. These lessons can serve as a model for such companies looking to escape the commodity trap.

Even Commodities Have Customers

Reimpresión: R0705G Cuando François Jacques fue nombrado director de marketing de la división de cemento de Lafarge a finales de 2001, los veteranos le dijeron que solo había dos tipos de clientes: los que les gustaba el golf y los que les gustaba pescar. Bienvenido a la primera línea de una empresa de cemento típica, un mundo difícil poblado por vendedores canosos cuyas propuestas tienen como objetivo hacer amigos en lugar de demostrar que sus productos son mejores que los de la competencia. No es fácil establecer una función de marketing en una empresa que no cree que la necesite. Desde el principio, Jacques abordó el desafío en varios frentes. En primer lugar, formó un comité directivo de tres personas con su aliado más fuerte y su enemigo más vociferante en las filas ejecutivas. Luego se puso manos a la obra para aplicar las herramientas más básicas y poderosas del marketing (la segmentación y la estrategia de precios) a cuatro proyectos piloto cuidadosamente seleccionados. Para hacer evidente rápidamente el valor de esos esfuerzos, midió su eficacia con métricas fáciles de entender. Dio a conocer los resultados actuales de la manera más amplia posible mediante el establecimiento de redes regionales de ejecutivos de marketing y ventas. Introdujo el marketing en los principales procesos de gestión de Lafarge al convertirse en un elemento fijo en los debates de la empresa sobre planificación estratégica, rendimiento y presupuestación. Paso a paso, durante los siguientes cuatro años, Jacques y su equipo de vendedores, primero temporales y luego permanentes, transformaron radicalmente la mentalidad de Lafarge sobre las materias primas. La segmentación de los clientes permitía a las personas ver que vendían a diferentes grupos que requerían diferentes productos, que en muchos casos podían venderse a precios superiores a los de las materias primas. Las encuestas de satisfacción de los clientes les permitieron mejorar la ejecución de la cadena de suministro y, en última instancia, a cambiar lo que vendían para que sus ofertas se adaptaran a una serie de requisitos de los clientes, lo que aumentó el valor tanto para ellos como para la división. Muchas firmas tienen una función de marketing únicamente de nombre. Estas lecciones pueden servir de modelo para las empresas que buscan escapar de la trampa de las materias primas.

Incluso las materias primas tienen clientes

Reprint: R0705G When François Jacques became head of marketing at Lafarge’s cement division in late 2001, old-timers told him that there were only two types of customers: those who liked golf and those who liked fishing. Welcome to the front lines of your typical cement company, a hardscrabble world peopled by grizzled salesmen whose pitches are about making friends rather than demonstrating that their products are better than the competition’s. It isn’t easy to establish a marketing function in a company that doesn’t think it needs one. From the start, Jacques tackled the challenge on a number of fronts. First, he formed a three-person steering committee with both his strongest ally and his most vociferous foe in the executive ranks. Then he set right to work applying marketing’s most basic and powerful tools—segmentation and pricing strategy—to four carefully chosen pilot projects. To make the value of those efforts quickly apparent, he measured their effectiveness with readily understood metrics. He shared the ongoing results as widely as possible by establishing regional networks of marketing and sales executives. He wove marketing into Lafarge’s mainstream management processes by becoming a fixture at the company’s strategic-planning, performance, and budgeting discussions. Step by step, over the next four years, Jacques and his team of first temporary, and then permanent, marketers fundamentally transformed Lafarge’s commodity mind-set. Segmenting customers allowed people to see that they were selling to different groups that required different products, which in many cases could be sold for higher-than-commodity prices. Customer satisfaction surveys led them to improve supply chain execution and, ultimately, to change what they sold, so that their offerings were suited to a range of customer requirements, increasing value both for them and for the division. Many firms have a marketing function in name only. These lessons can serve as a model for such companies looking to escape the commodity trap.

Incluso las materias primas tienen clientes

Resumen.

Partner Center