Build a B2B Customer Strategy

Following hundreds of client engagements focused on Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Strategy, co-founder of Customer Attuned and CX influencer Peter Lavers provides insight in to how to build a B2B Customer Strategy.

What is a B2B Customer Strategy?

In our experience, the best B2B customer strategies genuinely join up people, processes, insight and systems around a customer centric purpose and a systemic approach to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes.

In order to achieve these aims, Customer Attuned has created a tried and tested approach to customer strategy development. We have distilled all the theory into 12 “building blocks”. It’s not rocket science, but is a pragmatic approach that answers three fundamental business questions:

What’s the purpose of the customer strategy? What are we trying to achieve? Are we all in agreement about what that means (e.g. B2B customer vs. end-customer) and are we aligned to develop and deliver it?
What insight do we need to fulfil this purpose? Have we segmented customers by need and mapped the experience so that we can meet those needs along their journey in the most appropriate channel? Where does AI fit in?
Action. What propositions and capabilities do we need to practically implement the strategy to achieve its purpose, and how will we know that we’re on-track?

Best practice components of good Customer Strategy

The following 12 elements are, we believe, essential components that when applied well build a b2b customer strategy.

Purpose: What are we trying to achieve?

Vision & Rules of Engagement. It is vital that the leaders of B2B organisations interpret the corporate vision for what that actually means for customers and their experience of engaging and dealing with you. Some don’t even have common agreement on the definitions of key terms used
Customer Culture. The culture can make or break a customer strategy. It will show up not just in direct customer interactions, but also in the levels of priority and focus that customer centric initiatives receive in terms of management time and effort
Customer Value Objectives. A customer strategy must have objectives that are distinct from product sales targets. Customer-oriented objectives could include trust, acquisition & retention rates, account profitability, cross-sales & up-sales, Customer Effort (CES), and Customer Satisfaction (CSat) or NPS
Business Case and KPIs. Customer strategy-led new initiatives often struggle to compete for budget with traditional marketing. A compelling business case and value tracking (KPI) model is required for the strategy, including hard and soft benefits

Insight: Who are we engaging with and when?

It is pretty much universally accepted nowadays that businesses need to be insight-led.

1. Analytics & Segmentation. The company’s customer analytics and segmentation models should be 100% embedded in both strategy and execution. Segments should go beyond simple revenue or “partner / key / other” account classification (see our Customer Segmentation Canvas for some free resources)
2. Lifecycle & Life Stage. The organisation’s models and approach to managing member & product lifecycles, and business life stages (from startup to mature), must be explicit in the customer strategy and drive differentiated contact plans
3. Experience & Journey Design. Experience design needs to be outside-in rather than based on internal processes. How the customer feels about their experience is just as important as the physical product / service delivery, and the strategy should specify ‘blueprint experiences’ for key journeys and segments
4. Omni-channel Engagement. Your customer strategy must prepare your business to deliver consistent, high-quality sales and service across all established and emerging media and channels

Action: How are we going to do it?

1. Propositions & Contact Plans. Clarity and definition around “the promise” are vital to the customer strategy, which must then direct how the propositions, offers and service interactions are to be delivered to customers via segmented, CRM-driven contact plans
2. Capability Enhancement. The customer strategy should contain a clear agreed definition of the capabilities required to deliver its CX and value objectives, and to quality manage all the ‘basics’ of service delivery
3. Data & Technology. Good information management is fundamental to good customer management. It is vital that the organisation delivers appropriate data to account teams (and customers via a portal or app), and the necessary tools, to deliver the right CX and value-enhancing initiatives
4. Voice of the Customer. The customer strategy should set out how the organisation will clearly hear multi-layered feedback from both customers (VoC) and staff (VoS), and track the elements of the experience that actually drive trust, loyalty and value

These are generic terms of course, which we craft to suit each organisation’s culture, overall strategy, tone and terminology. Our approach is based on a methodology that is tried and tested across many sectors (please get in touch for some case studies).

Build a B2B Customer Strategy from where you are at

Underneath each building block sits a bank of best practices, from which we select the c.100 that directly relate to your sector and strategic aims. We then engage with diverse stakeholders to assess the “As Is” for key element using an “Intention, Reality & Effect” assessment, where:

Intention = Is there already a clear aspiration to be best practice at this element of the strategy? Concrete plans already in place, budgets allocated, etc?

Reality = Is this already happening to a high standard? If it’s WIP how far have we got?

Effect = Can we show, and what is, the impact that this element is having on either the end CX and/or the customer management business system that produces it

Once the “As Is” is established we present and prioritise the gaps, and co-create the strategy to define and deliver the “To Be” customer strategy for the organisation, working closely with the internal team throughout. With good internal support and facilitation this can be achieved within 12 working weeks, and because it’s based on the logical building blocks of the approach the improvements required are ideal to be packaged into modules or workstreams for programme management through to completion.

If you are looking to build a B2B Customer Strategy and would like to have a discussion about how we can help, please get in touch and we’ll set up a meeting or call.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn.

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Peter Lavers

Peter is an expert in relationship marketing and customer experience management. He is a Director of Customer Attuned, helping clients to develop new and innovative ways to find, engage and satisfy customers.