By Arko Chandra Published on : Dec 17, 2022
To state the obvious, B2B is going through a technological renaissance, and that has empowered customers with authority to lead this realm according to their will. Companies that try and succeed in getting the hang of their customers’ wants and needs are the ones that thrive in this domain.
With 2023 dawning upon us, just being customer-centric won’t cut it for B2B firms; the goal should now be to become customer-obsessed. Let’s understand and break down the aspects of customer obsession in B2B.
Customer obsession is the process of turning your customers into fans who keep coming back for more and ultimately become advocates for your brand.
So, it’s a shift for your organization from being a customer-aware to a customer-led firm, and a revamp in your company culture, the way you pursue your target audience, and the tweak you do in your messaging are small steps in the direction.
Customer obsession doesn’t necessarily require organizations to overdo their efforts; instead, it’s more about taking measured steps that stem from a customer-centric approach. The approach starts by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, identifying their pain points, and utilizing this knowledge to build your product/service. Doing so eliminates any assumption-based approach you may have been following until now.
As discussed at Forrester’s Annual B2B Summit 2022, customer-obsessed firms are far ahead of their non-customer-obsessed counterparts in terms of engagement, profitability, and retention. More companies are trying to join this shift by bringing their customers to the axis point of their activities owing to such stats.
Many internal and external factors help in defining the level of customer obsession that’s apt for your brand. The external ones include market disruptions caused by economic, social, environmental, and tech changes. As for internal, aspects like entering new markets, acquiring and engaging new customers, and growing the business define your customer obsession.
Being a customer-obsessed organization entails a lot of nitty gritty, but at the most basic level, the idea revolves around three major facets – marketing, sales, and product.
Contemporary B2B buyers don’t just google a product/service like B2C customers and straight away make up their minds based on just the characteristics; they gather information from different sources and gauge the products’ / services’ stance on the ESG parameters.
So, marketers need to be on their toes to keep up with the latest market scenario and scrutinize if or not their brand messaging resonates with their entire ecosystem of customers, partners, and even employees. If not, it will not only keep them from retaining their existing customers but limit them from acquiring new ones, reaching the point of “negative returns.”
With a B2B firm growing a bit old in the market, it gradually starts focusing more on customer retention. At such times, sales leaders usually deal with the coverage of account managers and customer success managers for each account. This ritual, although it seems “customer-obsessed,” doesn’t lead to scalability and profit hikes. Instead, a deeper look into strategic importance, account size, market competition, and digital approaches make much more sense and justify customer obsession more accurately.
Product managers typically inspect strategic, financial, and GTM factors to determine how to delegate resources for product enhancements. Now, while almost every customer-obsessed organization says that they exactly know their customers’ requirements, the thing is not that simple to ace.
The entire customer base of an organization is divided into multiple categories in terms of geography, age, knowledge, outlook, etc. So, updates or enhancements in a product may appeal to one customer but may be useless for another. Thus, totally understanding your entire customer base is nearly an ideal situation, and the best way out is to find a working balance for your product/service.
Understanding customers and accordingly strategizing business moves has always been the fuel to run companies; however, the need of the hour is adopting the customer-first approach and striking the right chord – neither doing too much nor too little. That’s the B2B mantra you can take from this article for 2023.
To state the obvious, B2B is going through a technological renaissance, and that has empowered customers with authority to lead this realm according to their will. Companies that try and succeed in getting the hang of their customers’ wants and needs are the ones that thrive in this domain.
With 2023 dawning upon us, just being customer-centric won’t cut it for B2B firms; the goal should now be to become customer-obsessed. Let’s understand and break down the aspects of customer obsession in B2B.
Customer obsession is the process of turning your customers into fans who keep coming back for more and ultimately become advocates for your brand.
So, it’s a shift for your organization from being a customer-aware to a customer-led firm, and a revamp in your company culture, the way you pursue your target audience, and the tweak you do in your messaging are small steps in the direction.
Customer obsession doesn’t necessarily require organizations to overdo their efforts; instead, it’s more about taking measured steps that stem from a customer-centric approach. The approach starts by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, identifying their pain points, and utilizing this knowledge to build your product/service. Doing so eliminates any assumption-based approach you may have been following until now.
As discussed at Forrester’s Annual B2B Summit 2022, customer-obsessed firms are far ahead of their non-customer-obsessed counterparts in terms of engagement, profitability, and retention. More companies are trying to join this shift by bringing their customers to the axis point of their activities owing to such stats.
Many internal and external factors help in defining the level of customer obsession that’s apt for your brand. The external ones include market disruptions caused by economic, social, environmental, and tech changes. As for internal, aspects like entering new markets, acquiring and engaging new customers, and growing the business define your customer obsession.
Being a customer-obsessed organization entails a lot of nitty gritty, but at the most basic level, the idea revolves around three major facets – marketing, sales, and product.
Contemporary B2B buyers don’t just google a product/service like B2C customers and straight away make up their minds based on just the characteristics; they gather information from different sources and gauge the products’ / services’ stance on the ESG parameters.
So, marketers need to be on their toes to keep up with the latest market scenario and scrutinize if or not their brand messaging resonates with their entire ecosystem of customers, partners, and even employees. If not, it will not only keep them from retaining their existing customers but limit them from acquiring new ones, reaching the point of “negative returns.”
With a B2B firm growing a bit old in the market, it gradually starts focusing more on customer retention. At such times, sales leaders usually deal with the coverage of account managers and customer success managers for each account. This ritual, although it seems “customer-obsessed,” doesn’t lead to scalability and profit hikes. Instead, a deeper look into strategic importance, account size, market competition, and digital approaches make much more sense and justify customer obsession more accurately.
Product managers typically inspect strategic, financial, and GTM factors to determine how to delegate resources for product enhancements. Now, while almost every customer-obsessed organization says that they exactly know their customers’ requirements, the thing is not that simple to ace.
The entire customer base of an organization is divided into multiple categories in terms of geography, age, knowledge, outlook, etc. So, updates or enhancements in a product may appeal to one customer but may be useless for another. Thus, totally understanding your entire customer base is nearly an ideal situation, and the best way out is to find a working balance for your product/service.
Understanding customers and accordingly strategizing business moves has always been the fuel to run companies; however, the need of the hour is adopting the customer-first approach and striking the right chord – neither doing too much nor too little. That’s the B2B mantra you can take from this article for 2023.
