In today’s business climate, customer engagement is more important than ever. With so many options available to customers, companies must take action to engage their B2B customers. This can be done by taking into account the customer’s situational awareness. This includes understanding the specifics of the customer’s procurement approach, including regulations and approvals. Additionally, it’s important to know how important this purchase is relative to other business priorities and where the buying team is in its journey. Finally, it’s also important to consider any existing relationships and interactions that may impact this purchase.
By considering all of these factors, companies can develop a strategic response that will gear interactions with buyers to how, when, and where each stakeholder chooses. This will help customers make sense of information and discontinue seller-centric strategies. To engage B2B customers, commercial organizations must support blending marketing, sales, and service to deliver what the customer needs as they need it. This will create a frictionless customer experience and encourage cross-functional teams to support the buyer.
For commercial organizations to establish and maintain customer engagement, they need to provide what the customer needs as they need it. This means a convergence between marketing, sales, and service within the organization to deliver a cohesive customer experience. A recent study by Forrester found that 89% of decision-makers involved in B2B buying processes say that converged marketing, sales, and service processes are extremely important to their organization1. To support this, businesses need technology that enables them to be agile and quickly adapt to changing customer demands. This is where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution comes in. A CRM system can help businesses automate processes, improve communication and collaboration between teams, and provide real-time visibility into the customer journey.
In addition, businesses need to take a data-driven approach to customer engagement to understand their customers’ wants and needs. This means using data from multiple sources, including social media, website interactions, CRM data, and more, to gain insights into customer behavior. With this information, businesses can make more informed decisions about how to engage with their customers. Taking action to establish customer engagement is essential for companies today. By combining marketing, sales, and service teams, using technology to support these efforts, and taking a data-driven approach, businesses can set themselves up for success in engaging their B2B customers.
It’s no secret that customers today expect a frictionless experience. They want to purchase products and services easily and don’t want to jump through hoops to get what they need. To meet these expectations, businesses must take action to create a frictionless customer experience. This means making it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for, providing them with clear and concise information, and offering them a seamless purchase process.
There are a few key ways to create a frictionless customer experience:
- Make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. The first step is ensuring that your website is easy to navigate and that customers can easily find the products or services they’re looking for. This means having a well-organized website with clear menus and search functionality.
- Provide clear and concise information. Once customers have found what they’re looking for, they must have the information they need to make a purchase decision. This means providing clear descriptions of products and services and pricing information.
- Offer a seamless purchase process. The last step is ensuring the purchase process is smooth and seamless. This means offering multiple payment options and having a customer support team available in case anything goes wrong.
Most business-to-business (B2B) customers are inundated with information and options, making it difficult for them to make informed decisions. As a result, many B2B companies focus on providing their customers with as much information as possible, hoping they can make sense of it all and decide. However, this approach often backfires, as customers can become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and feel more confused than ever. Instead of bombarding your customers with data, try taking a more strategic approach.
Start by identifying the key pain points that your customer is facing. Once you know what they are struggling with, you can focus on providing targeted information to help them resolve those issues. In addition, don’t be afraid to take action to engage your customers. For example, if you see a customer having trouble understanding a particular concept, reach out directly and offer to explain it in more detail. By taking action and engaging with your customers, you can help them make sense of the information they are being presented with and ultimately make better decisions.
Customer situational awareness is about understanding what your customers are trying to achieve, their specific challenges, and how your products or services can help them reach their goals. It sounds simple enough, but many sellers still approach each sale with a one-size-fits-all mindset. They try to sell every customer the same product or solution, regardless of their unique circumstances. Not only is this approach ineffective, but it’s also a major turnoff for today’s discerning B2B buyers. 61% of buyers say they’re likely to switch vendors if they feel they’re being “sold to” rather than being provided with helpful information that addresses their needs. If you want to engage B2B customers and win their business, you need to start by taking a step back and gaining an understanding of their unique situations. You can only develop a sales strategy that will resonate with them and help you close more deals.
As companies move to a more customer-centric approach, they are rethinking the traditional functional silos of marketing, sales, and service. Instead, they align around a single go-to-market stakeholder group focused on a common set of priorities and data. This shift has been driven by several factors, including the rise of the digital customer, the need for speed and agility, and the increased pressure on marketing and sales to deliver results. The result is a more integrated approach to customer engagement focused on providing a seamless experience across the entire customer journey. To be successful, companies must focus on four key areas:
- Customer centricity: Put the customer at the center of everything you do. This means understanding their needs and pain points and designing your products and services accordingly.
- Seamless experience: Deliver a consistent and cohesive experience across all touchpoints, from awareness to purchase and post-purchase.
- Data-driven marketing and sales: Use data to drive your marketing and sales decisions, from targeting to lead conversion and account management.
- Integrated technology stack: Use technology to drive efficiency and enable scale. This includes everything from CRM to marketing automation to social media monitoring.