The breakout session in the afternoon that I attended discussed customer-centricity in the B2B space. Can it be done? The panel was made up of: Laura Ramos - Forrester Research, Don Friedman - CA, Jeff Reid - UPS, Marc Ruggiano - John H. Harland Co.
Laura introduced the session with some background on how the topic came about. Like many of the other sessions, it was based upon Peter Kim's research on marketing organizational structures. Much of Peter's research was B2C focussed, so how does this apply to B2B? Are the same sets of skills and attributes of a traditional B2B marketer relevant?
Forrester's recent research has shown and many B2B marketing organizations do not use customer-centric metrics. Once again, do the new rules of customer-centric B2C apply to B2B?
Laura then introduced panelists one at a time. Each of them spent a few minutes talking about experiences from within their organization.
Don Friedman, CA - Yes, B2B can be customer-centric, but the big question is how? One of the issues they face is how do they bring products to market that customers really want. Marketing used to be a function of promoting a product, today it's driving product development, the campaigns come at the end. When you have 1200 products in the portfolio it's difficult to change thinking overnight.
Being customer-centric doesn't always mean restructuring your marketing organization, it means putting the needs of the customer first. Sometimes you can work within existing structures to get that done.
Jeff Reid, UPS - UPS has a huge, diverse customer base. They have always used basic segmentation to organize their efforts. Moving forward they look to enhance their current segmentation and how those customers use the different channels within UPS. They have also developed personas. Their research has shown that they sell to five distinct personas. These personas are always looked to in the development of products/relationships. They looked to see what pained their customers and worked backwards.
A traveling road-show introduced the rest of the company to these personas. The road-show was successful since many internal groups had never really met/dealt with a customer.
Another major focus is creating and using credible metrics. When you cross different business units in a customer-centric model you need to make sure that the metrics you are using cross over well. For example in the web-space abandonment is an often used metric. However, outside the web-space it's not a well known term.
Marc Ruggiano, John H. Harland Co. - Harland is a major provider of products and services to financial services companies. Many people know Harland from checks. They print checks. However the payment world is changing. Banks aren't seeing an increase in check orders.
For years Harland had a geographically organized sales teams and product-focussed call centers. In the last two years they have undergone a large reorganization. Sales and marketing is now organized by the financial institution segment, i.e. large bank, small bank.
Harland has an interesting cross between B2B and B2C. The banks are Harland's clients, but the end users of the products are consumers. In this model then need to address the needs of the client and then their clients. Not only do they need to know their customers, they need to know the consumers.
Customer-centric marketing matters if:
- You server clients with different challenges
- You customize products for clients
- You have different business models for different clients
- Your competitors vary from client to client
- Your performance or expectation differs by client
- Your budget dollars need to stretch farther than before
Laura then joined the group and opened up the Q&A. She opened with a statement, "Are we all in agreement, B2B can be customer-centric" The panel agreed. Next, do you need to organize yourself around customer channels?
Don wondered if companies can really afford to re-organize their marketing structures by customer. There is benefit, but we're back to the 80/20 rule. The largest customer groups get the attention first.
How do you handle internal politics and disagreements on shared projects?
Jeff said that within UPS they let the customers decide. When you look at what the customer wants/needs then you take opinion out of the development process.
Good lines from Don: "If you don't have a customer you don't have a business." "Being customer-centric is not conducting focus groups and reading reports."
