Buying has changed, but selling hasn't. This is a big problem.
According to Michael Fauscette, chief research officer at G2 Crowd, 62% of B2B software buyers and end users will only contact a vendor’s sales team after they already made their purchasing decision. Yikes! How can competitive companies (potentially your business) even compete?
Increasing Power of the Customer
Customers are conditioned to look at reviews for making personal decisions. For Amazon’s Prime Day, for example, we look through the positive and negative reviews before buying a Roomba, Roku TV or other special deal. Or if we want to try a new restaurant, we jump over to Yelp to validate our decision. Fauscette explained that buyers want to get information from people that are like them. Relevance, timeliness and context are key to feeling confident about decisions.
Similarly for B2B and other technology purchases, G2 Crowd focuses on providing the right type of data and context for buyers and end users as they determine and/or validate their purchasing choices. They want to establish a real connection with other people from similar companies who are looking to solve the same types of problems. The increased value of crowdsourcing and brand advocacy requires companies to reevaluate their selling strategies based on the new mindsets of buyers.
Elevating Focus on Customer Success Management
As business models continue to shift, companies need to think differently about the way they sell. It’s no longer “sell and move on.”
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, discussed the growing need for effective customer success management (CSM) with the changing buying/selling relationship. Customers have a lot more power and information available to them than in the past - knowledge is power, right? Subscription-based companies are continually accountable for providing value to their customers, or they risk having customers sign with other companies when their subscriptions end.
The importance of CSM has evolved within companies, and now the CEO and board members are taking note of how to better implement and re-energize these programs. In addition to the key players on the CSM initiative, to scale and offer effective CSM, technology investments are key.
Changing Technology Evolving the Customer Experience
Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, explained that companies are thinking more about how to use data to better serve and delight their customers, and are implementing technologies and trends, such as Internet of Things (IoT), to carry out these goals. With your product, you could leverage sensors to determine where, what, how, and when a customer uses it. This data creates the “algorithm of you (the customer)” and helps companies better understand their audiences to transform and build their services around what customers actually want.
At the end of the day, all companies should strive to make engagement and purchasing as frictionless as possible for customers. Long-term strategies should focus on this flow to keep the value and experience high. Dr. Natalie also highlighted the importance of saying “thank you.” For customers and employees, that message of gratitude can go a long way and make the difference in this fast-moving digital economy.
Check out the DisrupTV video below for the full interviews. Be sure to catch DisrupTV live every Friday at 11 a.m. PT on Blab.
DisrupTV Episode 0023: Featuring Michael Fauscette, Nick Mehta & Dr. Natalie Petouhoff from Constellation Research on Vimeo.
