Customer Experience and B2B Sales

34 Winning Edge
Feature | customer experience
Satisfaction
guaranteed?
David Batup and Lisa Muller examine how social media
is transforming the way customers view their experience,
and what this means for B2B selling
T
he concept of customer
experience has received a lot
of attention over the past two
years as an effective means of
competitive differentiation and
building customer loyalty.
In many markets the barrier to entry is lower than
it has ever been, resulting in fierce competition.
In these markets, creating positive customer
experience is not only a matter of business
sustainability but also a matter of survival.
There is nothing new about the impact that a
poor experience has in any aspect of selling or
fulfilment of services or promises. It is very clear
there is nowhere to hide if a company fails to
deliver, does not keep its promises or is not
responsive to customers when they need support.
Social media is now so widely used, by B2B
vendors and customers alike, that sharing
experiences with ever-increasing audiences has
never been easier. The flip side for companies is
that they face dramatic consequences if they fail at
any stage of the customer engagement. Consider
the recent research findings (see left) from
customer engagement company Thunderhead, not
T humbs Down
negative feedback costs
25%
Of customers will
switch provider after
just one negative
experience
25%
Of customers will
switch provider after
just one negative
experience
357,000
A single customer
could share a
negative experience
357,000 times
357,000
A single customer
could share a
negative experience
357,000 times
19%
Will not trust a
company after one
bad experience
19%
Will not trust a
company after one
bad experience
59%
Of customers say
that they don’t have
a relationship with their
provider
59%
Of customers say
that they don’t have
a relationship with their
provider
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Winning Edge 35
customer experience | feature
least that a single customer could share a negative
experience many thousands of times.
Driven by the knowledge that buying behaviour
has changed so dramatically, many companies
have realised the need to focus more than ever
on customers. This focus is typically driven by the
customer services team, and often supported by
programmes such as “putting the customer first”.
In addition, such customer-focused companies
have gone further to measure customer loyalty,
using metric scoring methods such as the net
promoter score. They do this on the basis that
customer loyalty drives reputation, in the context
of market perception and downstream revenues.
From product-focused to
customer-centric
Customer experience (CX, as described by global
research and advisory firm Forrester) in business to
consumer (B2C) markets has become a science. It
plays a key part in corporate strategy, and leaders
in B2C companies are targeted and rewarded on
CX scores. The science clearly shows there are
strong links between a good CX and the nurturing
of a loyal customer and a bad CX resulting in a
highly dissatisfied one. This, in turn, has a direct
impact on revenue and market perception.
Forrester has been measuring the impact of
B2C CX since 2010, unearthing a very strong
correlation between high CX and customer loyalty,
leading to significant revenue improvement.
Whether it’s the willingness to consider the
company for another/second purchase, or the
likelihood to recommend the company to a friend
or colleague, certain industries, such as the mobile
phone sector, airlines, hotels, car rentals and credit
card providers reveal a very strong CX focus.
So, what does all this have to do
with business to business sales?
In his 2013 book, Tilt, Ivey Business School’s Niraj
Dawar suggests the focus for value creation and
differentiation is shifting away from “upstream”
activities like product sourcing, logistics and
product design towards “downstream” activities
such as the customer interface and customer
retention. In other words, to gain competitive
advantage nowadays you need to shift your
strategy towards the customer, so that you can
interact with them in the marketplace.
For Dawar, business success lies in the
downstream activities, as he explains: “…value is
created in the interactions with customers,
competitive advantage is built and sustained in the
marketplace, and the primary costs reside in
acquiring, satisfying, and retaining customers”.
From a sales perspective the shift to a
downstream focus is having, or will have,
significant implications:
Customers – ignore them
at your peril
Our customers’ experience is the one we choose to
give them. Customers will then choose to share
their perceived experience via social media,
potentially reaching millions of future customers.
Accenture defines CX as “…how business
customers and their stakeholders perceive the
entirety of interactions they have with a supplier
company across all marketing, sales and service
touchpoints”. This description emphasises the need
for CX to be concerned with every touchpoint.
Accenture has identified CX as one of five key
focus areas for improving sales effectiveness.
CX is now operationally described as customer
experience management (CEM). This concept is
already firmly embedded into business language,
coupled with solutions and monitoring to help
companies achieve added value for their customers
and to help differentiate themselves from the
competition. Last year, Nunwood, a consultancy
that assesses the quality of customer experiences
delivered by the UK’s top companies, published its
UK customer experience excellence results. The
size and success of the top 20 companies in the
survey suggests the CX wave has arrived.
Looking at the practical impact of CX on sales,
we know the sales team is as much a part of the
solution as the products and services that form the
solution. In these situations what the customer
experiences during a buying cycle will have a
significant impact on the final decision. This
impact not only influences an individual outcome
of a sale, but also the longer-term relationship and
customer retention, ie. the opportunity to engage
further and sell other solutions and services.
Who should own the CX programme? It doesn’t matter, provided
the sponsor of the programme has enough leadership support to
make things happen.The sales director would be suitable, with the
support of the CEO.This way, there is direct linkage between the CX
programme and company success and sustainability. As Christine
Crandell has concluded in Forbes,“It falls to you, sales, to deliver on
the revenue targets you’re beholden to.You’ll need to lead the entire
organisation to a customer-centric approach, sponsor research on
the buyer’s journey, use your customer relationships to understand
how the definition of value evolves over time, get the rest of
your peers to change their ways to consistently deliver value, and
transform your own cold callers into relationship stewards.”
who should own cx?
“To gain competitive advantage nowadays
you need to shift your strategy towards
the customer”
David Batup is a consultant
with SBR Consulting specialising
in sales transformation and
customer experience. Contact
him at dbatup@sbrconsulting,
dbatup@gmail.com or visit
www.sbrconsulting.com
ismm.co.uk
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36 Winning Edge
Feature | customer experience
The emotion behind CX
The concept of CX is a fragile thing. It varies from
person to person and company to company, but
the one thing we do know is that it is an emotional
thing. In the past, we have referred to the concept
of ‘E$’ (emotional dollars) which can be
exchanged at every touchpoint. Your goal is to
add value to the customer at every touch point so
that you end up at the decision point with a
healthy E$ bank balance.
This is a simple way of looking at the CX
challenge, but one which helps the team
understand the importance of a strong and
successful CX approach.
If you have overdrawn your E$ bank account
then there is a very good chance you are in trouble
when it comes to the final decision. In this
situation you will discover a mixed bag of good
and bad experiences at various touchpoints. One
of my favourite quotes from US author and civil
rights activist, Maya Angelou, is still relevant today
to the way a selling team can behave towards the
buying team. She said: “People will forget what
you said, people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It is commonly known that any memory linked
with strong emotion, and therefore feeling, remains
with us for a very long time, if not forever. If you
did deliver a good or bad experience at a
touchpoint, then despite what else might be said it
will be remembered and impact your E$ account.
To get an idea of how strong this can be just
think back to a situation where you were buying
something significant. This could be either as an
individual or as part of a buying team at work,
and you were made to feel stupid, belittled or
inadequate by the selling team. It’s a sure bet that
the feeling is still strong. When this happens to
someone in the buying team they will remember it
most at the final point in the procurement process,
typically when deciding between the last two
vendors on the short list.
Imagine this scenario. A buying team are at the
shortlist stage of their selection process. They have
decided that either of the last two vendors can
build, deliver and implement the solution. In
addition, they have established that their project
team can work with both vendor teams, and the
numbers are about the same.
In your mind you see the buying team as they sit
around a table. The door is shut and they have to
reach a decision. They have completed their
deliberations and the call is too close to make,
based on the checklists or scores from their
evaluation. So, the head of the buying team asks
the question, “What do we all think?”
What do you think springs to mind in the heads
of the others around the table?
Logic? Rational thought? No, what comes to
mind is the way they feel about the last two
vendors. We have established that these feelings
were formed by the experiences they had when
working with the two selling teams during the
procurement. In other words, we are looking at the
quality of the CX during every touchpoint with
the sales team and supporting cast.
Customer Experience maturity model
Internalcustomerexperience
adoptionandvalues
Customer experience impact on customers
Level of personal and cultural change
Awareness
Mapping
Measurement
Process and technology
Culture
© SBR Consulting, 2015
“People will forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel”
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Winning Edge 37
customer experience | feature
Their comments and input to the decision will
be considered, but driven by emotion. What is
expressed will have a layer of logic and rational
thought, but what is really influencing the
comments will be an underlying layer of emotion.
If overall they have had a bad CX journey with
one vendor, then the thoughts in their heads will
be, “There is no way on earth I want to work with
that team” or “It will be over my dead body”.
Therefore, any positive or negative experience
the members of the buying team have had during
any touchpoint of the buying cycle will remain
clear in their minds when it counts the most.
Of course, this would include all the members
of your selling team and partners. Their behaviour
and attitude will contribute to or destroy the
impact of good customer experience. In a
marketplace where differentiation is increasingly
hard to achieve, that old adage, “people buy from
people”, is never more appropriate and where
possible they will buy from people they feel they
can: trust to keep their promises; work with
through good and bad situations; rely on to be
open and honest in their communication; and,
where possible, like.
In a recent McKinsey interview with Lynn
Vojvodich the CMO of Salesforce.com, she stated:
“The relationship with the customer doesn’t end at
closing the sale. It’s also about how you serve that
customer. When you are in a business like
Salesforce.com, which is a subscription-based
model, our success is completely predicated on our
customer’s success.”
This is interesting because she is suggesting that
CX is extending to the success of your customers
in the context of the adoption and use of your
product or solution. Anyone who operates a
subscription-based commercial model will be well
on the way to knowing this. If not, and your model
is more product-or solution-based, then there is a
strong pointer here that extends beyond a
successful implementation or fulfilment. It could
be that you should consider a customer-success
element to your CX strategy or philosophy.
But despite a CX wave supported by most major
companies and underpinned by research from
some leading analysts, there is still worrying
management complacency towards the subject.
Get the CX basics right
Genuinely brilliant CX may be rare, but how do
you at least aim for that? There are many excellent
CX models around on to how to improve CX and
therefore your competitive advantage. But, where
do you start? Using a simple CX maturity model
CX: signs of maturity
Maturity
level
Awareness
Mapping All the touchpoints
for the lifecycle of a
customer are known
There is a measurement
for each major
touchpoint
Processes are revisited
and where necessary
re-engineered to
improve CX
The values, attitudes,
training and staff
behaviour support a
culture of excellent CX
This includes all customers – new,
existing, partners, strategic. A
CX flightpath exists, with key
processes, owners and systems
mapped to each touchpoint
Each measurement is derived
from customer feedback and
revisited regularly for new and
existing customers. The results
drive clear actions and outcomes
Results from feedback and
measurements are actively used
to reassess the effectiveness
of company processes.
Re-engineering improves them
The company’s behavioural DNA
supports ongoing improvement
of CX. Recruitment, training,
performance reviews, promotion
and rewards all reflect the
commitment to improving CX
Measurement
Process and
technology
Culture
At least, top managers
are aware of the role of
CX in the success and
sustainability of the
business
CX should form a key part of
the company strategy, even to
the point of measures being
identified in the annual report
description notes
and matrix (see opposite and above) will help you
in the initial phases of assessing and putting
together a CX approach or strategy. This can be
used to help drive a board-level discussion about:
l Why CX is important?
l What needs to be done?
l Where do we start?
l How will we know if we have been successful?
l Is there a business case for doing it?
Most companies will by now be aware of the
importance of the impact of CX on their current
and future business. But the number of companies
that are actively doing anything meaningful about
it declines sharply after the awareness stage. CX
maturity, however, can be aspired to and, with
enough effort, achieved.
For sales, the importance of CX cannot be
stated highly enough. As one sales director once
commented, “In sales, second place is first loser.”
Today, first place is no longer guaranteed through
brilliant selling or excellent products or services.
In part 2 of this article, in the next edition, we will be
taking a deeper dive into the key elements in each level of the
maturity model.
Lisa Muller is a consultant
with SBR Consulting specialising in
sales transformation, customer
experience, and go-to-market
strategies. Contact her at
lmmuller@yahoo.com, or visit
www.sbrconsulting.com
ismm.co.uk
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Customer Experience and B2B Sales

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