Much of the conversation was focused on digital how-to’s, discussions on the direction that online marketing will be moving in the coming years and the ever present suspicion that computers will steal all of our jobs.
https://mopinion.com/digital-development-on-the-rise-for-b2b-companies/
It's fair to say companies have recognized the power of customer experience (CX). Think of the great lengths businesses have gone to provide features such as one-click ordering or same-day delivery. We at Walker predicted this in our 2013 report “Customers 2020,” in which we revealed a rise in the influence of customer experience and a decline in traditional methods of differentiation based on products and price. It appears we got that one right. CX is now widely considered one of the best ways to establish a competitive advantage.
However, it’s clear that not all companies have caught on. In particular, new research shows business-to-business (B2B) firms are not keeping up with these trends.
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/CRM-Featured-Articles/Voice-of-the-Customer-B2B-Companies-Are-Falling-Behind-in-Customer-Experience-121782.aspx/
Picture this: in deciding whether to rebuy from your company, the customer’s general manager and purchasing agent are neutral, the end-users are supportive, the safety department gives their approval, but the facilities manager rejects it. Your company loses the sale. Because your team was focused on the end-users and general manager, everything looked like it was on-track for renewal, yet one influencer of the buying decision derailed your relationship and your anticipated revenue. After that happens, it’s difficult to get another chance. It’s best to be aware of all the drivers and factors, and manage them proactively.
https://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/b2b-voice-customer-integrating-decision-influencers-views-01956648#yiAvqLByw3fVvcRC.97/
When Connie O'Brien became chief marketing officer at U.K.-based Tungsten Network in 2016, the company's awareness was largely limited to Europe. Its marketing was pretty much confined to investor relations.
O'Brien was tasked with building a marketing machine from the ground up.
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy-columns/b2b-storytelling-a-modest-budget/311423/
Listening to your customers is a vital skill. That much is obvious.
Your current Voice of the Customer activities may be falling short of the mark and not giving you the insights you suspect are out there. Customer satisfaction surveys might not be giving you the information you expect. Asking too many questions may even have annoyed your customers.
As a B2B company, you are likely to have many touchpoints within your customers – those who purchase your products, those who use them, the decision makers and the influencers. Who to target and how you approach them will vary depending on the objectives you set.
If you are setting up a customer survey for your B2B clients, here are some things we suggest you think about.
https://customerthink.com/b2b-customer-surveys-how-to-nail-them/
If your investment in voice-of-the-customer (VoC) is intended to help you grow revenue, then VoC in business-to-business (B2B) situations should represent all of the influencers of buying decisions, As shown in the recent article in Understanding Business-to-Business Purchase Decisions, only a third of B2B companies are identifying and collecting inputs from all of the buying influencers. And still fewer are consolidating the viewpoints to create a holistic picture of reality.
Read more at
https://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/b2b-voice-customer-integrating-decision-influencers-views-01956648https://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/b2b-voice-customer-integrating-decision-influencers-views-01956648/
When talking about customer experience, there’s almost an underlying assumption that the focus is on customers in the B2C space. But B2C is just one side of the coin. There’s the B2B angle to it as well, where delivering a great experience is equally crucial to be successful in the long run.
According to Accenture, approximately 80% of executives in B2B companies believe that offering an outstanding customer experience is directly connected to generating better business results and ensuring the company has a competitive advantage. Despite this realization, fewer than 25% of these companies excel at offering great CX. The rest still have a more product or channel-centric approach, with everyone in the organization focused on the product and where and how it’s marketed.
http://customerthink.com/the-future-of-customer-experience-in-b2b/
As a reader of the Userlane blog and someone who is interested in customer success, you probably already know that this particular discipline is mostly found in business-to-business sector where companies sell their products or services to other companies. Of course, there are some forward-thinking business-to-customer companies who are trying their hand at customer success, but for the most part, it is a B2B kind of a game.
https://blog.userlane.com/customer-success-must-business-government-ecosystem/
A dedicated sales force plays a key role in business-to-business customer experience management (B2B CXM): the typical sales cycle ranges from three to twelve months, and 91% of participating companies in the ClearAction B2B CXM best practices study said they sell B2B products and services through a dedicated sales force. How do these facts uniquely affect B2B customer experience (CX)?
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/account-teams-b2b-customer-experience-help-help-01977123/
B2B mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are unlikely to slow down in 2018.
Deloitte estimates that M&A activity will accelerate in 2018, in part driven by new M&A technology and tools.
Low economic growth also pushes B2B leaders to rely on M&A as a central part of their growth strategies.
But it remains to be seen whether these deals will be as successful as leaders hope.
Many factors can improve M&A performance, but one critical factor is often overlooked: customers.
http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/225068/why-b2b-customers-important-part.aspx/
