Susan And Bill Have Relationship Problems – Episode 1
The Susan & Bill Trilogy
When our partner Deep-Insight launched its B2B NPS white paper, we created a storyline around two fictitious characters called Bill (a thoughtful but somewhat introverted Marketing Director) and Susan (a more aggressive low-attention-span Sales Director). They may be fictitious but they bear more than a passing resemblance to some sales and marketing directors we have met in client organisations in the past.
Episode 1 finds Susan and Bill having relationship problems. Well, their problems are primarily related to understanding the relationship their company had with its main corporate clients but there is also some evidence of tension between Susan and Bill themselves – the sort of natural tension that exists between Sales and Marketing in any large organisation.
EPISODE 1: Susan and Bill have Relationship Problems!
Susan. Sales Director.
“I want some real customer feedback that helps my sales managers manage their key accounts for the long-term. All Marketing are interested in is some box-ticking exercise for the folks in HQ.”
Bill. Marketing Director.
“I need to provide HQ with Net Promoter Score (NPS®) metrics. It’s our corporate policy. For some reason, Sales just don’t seem to get it. NPS is a useful tool if they would only figure out how to use it properly.”
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple easy-to-use metric for measuring customer loyalty. Many large, well-known companies now use it as a key business metric. The concept behind NPS is simple: loyal customers are more willing to recommend you to a friend or colleague. To find out how loyal your customer base is, measure their willingness to recommend; the higher your NPS score (% willing to recommend less % not willing to recommend), the more loyal your customer base is.
The problem is that while NPS is easy to calculate, many sales directors find it hard to turn the answer to a single question “Would you recommend Company XYZ to a friend or colleague?” into a clear set of actions that can be used to improve a complex web of relationships in a large corporate account – or across your full customer portfolio.
Does NPS work for B2B Organisations?
Yes!
NPS provides a good starting point for understanding complex B2B relationships but it must be supplemented by other metrics that help account managers take action at an INDIVIDUAL account level, as well as helping senior executives focus on a small number of strategic initiatives across ALL accounts.
Deep-Insight already has a unique B2B methodology – Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ™) – that helps Sales Directors identify which of their major accounts are its greatest Ambassadors, and which on the point of defection (Ambivalents, Stalkers and Opponents).
More important, the CRQ methodology identifies – for each account manager – what needs to be done to transform an Opponent to an Ambivalent, and a Rational to an Ambassador.
NPS combines the power of our CRQ methodology with the internationally-recognised NPS benchmark. NPS tells you if you have a problem, CRQ tells you what the problem is and how to address it.
Back to Susan and Bill
Bill needs NPS data in a comparable format to data from other parts of the organisation, with feedback on brand, image, product and pricing. With NPS, Bill gets his NPS data in exactly the way he needs it. That keeps Bill and his Marketing team happy.
On the other hand, Susan gets detailed account-level customer relationship feedback for her sales teams, and by looking at levels of trust and commitment, Susan can avoid any surprises when contracts come up for renewal. That keeps Susan and her Sales team happy.
Join us again soon for Episode 2.
Deep-Insight is a leading European B2B Customer Experience (CX) company founded in 2000 by a small team of ‘magicians’ with one goal: researching a way to read customers’ minds.
Customer Attuned are proud to be Brand Ambassadors for Deep-Insight.
www.deep-insight.com
- Trusted Relationships = Consistently Good Service - June 6, 2019
- Our Biggest Customer is a Bully. Help! - May 28, 2019
- Why are Trust and Commitment so Important in B2B? - May 23, 2019
