MAIN INSIGHT 20
Natalie Hammond
SENIOR MARKETING LEADER
During the pandemic, B2B organisations learned to put the customer first and at the centre of everything they do. In your opinion, what should organisations be doing differently to improve customer acquisition in the post-pandemic recovery period?
Putting customers first and at the centre has been the mantra for years, so I don’t believe that’s the result of the pandemic. Certainly not for us anyway. But the pandemic has definitely digitised everything and for that reason, I don't think it is about having a digital strategy, but a strategy that's digital. In short, it’s about accessing modern mediums to create better engagements, and experiences with your customers.
All this digitisation has also brought digital fatigue. Information is all around us and can be quite overwhelming. In many respects there is also no separation between work and life because of how we live our lives in this mobile era. I do believe we can be efficient across a variety of channels and effective at how we communicate through them though. The foundation of this is to really understand your customers, their attitudes and intent, so that you can choose the appropriate blend to engage with them that makes them feel front and centre.
Does this mean that sales leaders must adopt a digital mindset in order to meet customers’ new buying preferences?
Modern buyers need modern mediums, but the question is how to best use those mediums. Pre-pandemic, a key focus for me was centred around innovation experiences. Exploring how augmented reality, new technologies can better enable sales, and drive customer value. It was about how to deliver better experiences through new mediums to better articulate our message. We moved away from the traditional PowerPoints to far more interactive collaboration and that was working really well.
Now, post pandemic there's a huge appetite for that face-to-face interaction, but there is also “time preciousness”. Time has become even more critical from a buyer's perspective. So, we need to look at the buying cycle and understand what mediums are needed to support each stage of it - on and offline. A key part is also to ensure marketing and sales are really connected–and the sales team are empowered to understand and articulate the most compelling, valuable messages, across the buying funnel. Companies that manage to do this will transform the monotony that everybody faces today.
We need to ensure marketing and sales are really connected–and the sales team are empowered with the best messaging, and most appropriate mediums in order to articulate the value of our offer.
Human interaction is an extension of your brand. Today it’s about how that interaction happens that sets firms apart.
In this type of environment, do you believe human engagement will be a point of competitive differentiation in your market?
As cliché as it sounds, human interaction is an extension of your brand. Even though we are more digital now, the ability to be able to live up to your promise and to deliver value, is a key element for relationship building. This doesn't mean it has to be in person, it just means it has to be present and it has to be an integral part of the partnership.
For me competitive differentiation comes down to how well you understand your customers. How well you understand the market. It’s about listening, and how you can translate the learnings into a set of outcomes which add unique value. These outputs could be thought leadership, it could be through product or proposition development. Anyone can offer competitive differentiation, but that will only be effective if it matches a need. I mean, I could make a hammer out of glass - but who needs that?
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