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Pillsbury--which has stepped up its work with CRI in recent months--has gone so far as to set up work space for CRI's "platinum team" in a Pillsbury building, and Anderson is planning to send some of his own staff to CRI to attend training classes.

Because CRI spends so much time with its freshmen, the staff can quickly tell who will drop out the first year and who will go on to join the sophomore class. It's a small group: the company needs only a half-dozen or so new customers a year, each worth an average of about $200,000, to keep the pipeline flowing. "We don't intentionally rank the freshmen, but we do have a sense of who has the most potential," explains Elsesser. Top freshmen, she says, have the potential to double the sales they bring CRI, "and we've talked to them about that."

A sophomore is expected to show real growth in sales and profits by year two. If not--unless there is some compelling reason to keep the account--CRI prepares to cut bait. If a customer makes it through sophomore year, it is in for the Rolls-Royce treatment. Today just 36 companies provide 86% of CRI's sales and 96% of its profits. And CRI employees try to treat those 36 as if their world revolved around each one of them. Because it does.

The partner principle
Ginger Sack, a gregarious woman known for holding planning sessions at amusement parks, is a leader of the "pink team"--the team devoted solely to Procter & Gamble. That's one of the perks of becoming one of CRI's core partners: you become a really big fish in a small pond.

"Our job as a team is to bring the client forward," explains Sack. "The whole team is focused on getting new business. Everyone gets the [profit-and-loss statement]." In 1988, there were three people on the Procter & Gamble team doing limited work. Today the team has swelled to 12, while sales with P&G have increased about a hundredfold . CRI is now a P&G "approved vendor," with direct access to P&G's internal E-mail system and research database.

In fact, some people at P&G say they couldn't function without CRI. "I've been working with them on everything I do," says Leanne Schimpf, a research supervisor on the Pringles brand. She considers CRI to be on an equal footing with P&G's own internal research group. "Other suppliers wait for you to call them," she says. "[CRI takes] the initiative. That's an added value because we're so busy around here."

Surprise and delight
How does CRI constantly know when and how to take that initiative with customers? Through the help of staffers like Jon Palmquist, who is now a senior vice-president and manager of new-product development. Palmquist isn't assigned to any particular team. In fact, she worries about all of CRI's customers. It's her job to find and develop new products for current customers---sometimes before the customers even know they need the products. Her sales territory: unlimited.

Palmquist has become the ultimate sales sleuth--combing through project notes, interviewing customers, sitting in on team planning meetings, and reading between the lines. "I get ideas from our [core] partners," she explains. "You understand their business, and you can capitalize on what they need, sometimes a little ahead of when they need it, sometimes in response to a demand."

In short, CRI doesn't have "marketing people" or a marketing plan. Instead, the company has 36 individual "Surprise and Delight" plans, one for each major customer. The teams prepare the plans, which are reviewed and amended every quarter, with Palmquist often weighing in. One lucky customer doesn't know it yet, but it's about to receive some custom software, compliments of CRI. "This is a huge client, and I know the senior managers will appreciate it," says Corson.

Such perks are all part of the company's strategy for success. "Every quarter CRI would send us a list of value-added activities they would have charged another client for that wasn't a partner," recalls Robert Smith, formerly of Dow Brands. "It was pretty staggering." After one project, he wrote the company, "Thank God for CRI."

But CRI is always trying to up the ante. At year's end, all Surprise and Delight plans undergo another revision after the company's ambitious annual review of all its core partners and a few strategic freshmen. CRI's 17 senior vice-presidents conduct some 30 to 50 one-on-one interviews with customer contacts. The review is both CRI's report card and an industry snapshot. "It's our marketing research, but it's all client specific--another tenet of one-to-one marketing," notes Corson.

Of course, learning about the needs of individual customers is a lot easier, Corson points out, when you're focusing on 36 major customers "rather than 150."

Jennifer Merrill, vice-president of consumer research for ConAgra Frozen Foods, laughs as she recalls some of the little perks she enjoys. "I get FedEx packages with malt balls for my birthday and candy bars slipped into a proposal because they know I like chocolate," she says.

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