According to Yücel Ersöz, a partner at Peppers & Rogers Group, a growing number of companies are attempting to implement customer-centric strategies, but rarely are these efforts linked in any way to the budgeting process.
Budget planning has traditionally been rooted in product-centric financial targets (profits, revenues, costs) while customer-focused strategies are usually conceptualized and executed on a parallel plane.

FORWARD-THINKING COMPANIES HAVE SUCCEEDED IN BLENDING THE TWO APPROACHES IN ORDER TO PROVIDE DECISION-MAKERS WITH A MORE HOLISTIC VIEW OF A COMPANY’S OPERATIONS.

As corporate decision-makers evaluate revenue and profit targets as part of the budget-planning process, they should also include customer-focused metrics such as:
-Share of wallet
-Profit and revenue targets versus actual for segmented customer groups
-Cross-sell ratios
-Customer retention figures

By studying analytics based on the buying power, characteristics, and needs of specific customer groups, companies will greatly enhance their chances for meeting those goals.