As a start-up or SME that is seeking to grow your business by acquiring business customers, the key to successfully doing so is to deliver a great B2B customer experience.
Here are 5 tips that will enable you to acquire, retain and grow the business customers you seek.
- Remember the key difference about B2B!!
- All members of your team must always be aware of one of the key characteristics of b2B markets–Buyers (i.e. decision makers) and users in large organisations are not often not the same people!
- As a result, your start-up or SME must be BUYER DRIVEN delivering to both Buyer and User needs
- Obtain an in-depth understanding of both Buyer and User needs!
- Gaining an in-depth understanding of both the needs of decision makers and users (some of whom may influence buying decisions) is critical to delivering a great customer experience which ultimately will drive the growth of your business
- Conduct in-depth interviews with existing and prospective customers in order to understand their objectives, needs and pain points so that your start-up or SME can provide them with the kinds of SOLUTIONS they need to succeed
- From a BUYER perspective, you must understand:
- Who is involved in the decision making?
- What are their strategic priorities, drivers, needs?
- How they make buying decisions? (e.g. What do they look at, Who do they listen to, What must be demonstrated?
- Show BUYERS What’s in It For Them!
- Based on your understanding of buyer requirements and priorities, demonstrate how your start-up or SME will help them be successful and achieve their objectives
- Hint: Do focus on technology, features or benefits. Show demonstrate your value proposition in terms of what matters to buyers. These typically will be broadly focused about one or more of the following:
- Increasing revenues
- Increasing customer retention
- Decreasing costs and/or risks
- Think about customer experience HOLISTICALLY!
- Consider B2B customer experience from END to END. This should include:
- Who searches for a solution (i.e. your product or service offering)
- How they research and select alternatives (i.e. what do they look at, who must they talk to, what must they see and/or experience, what information do they require)
- Who has the budget and authority to make purchases?
- Who else must be involved in the signoff process?
- Does your customer need additional “value adds” such as training and reporting?
- Are their specific service or support levels that they require?
- What are your customers’ preferred methods for seeking support
- Consider B2B customer experience from END to END. This should include:
- Gain customer feedback and continuously improve!!
- Establish formal mechanisms to enable both buyers and users to be able to provide feedback about your start-up or SME and its offerings
- Effective approaches for obtaining business customer feedback include:
- Customer Visits
- Strategic Customer Workshops
- Surveys
- Share the learnings gained from your customers within the various departments/teams within your start-up or SME including Products, Operations, Client Services, Sales, Industry/Practice teams if you are a professional service firm
- Be sure to communicate with your customers as to what you will be doing as a result of their feedback and when
In need for some further ideas as to how to deliver a great B2B customer experience for your business customers, sign up to listeninnovategrow.com and have insights and approaches delivered straight to your inbox.