Imagine you are a Marketing Manager of an SME type of company. Senior management has asked you to come up with a plan to grow their business in the next three years. Where would you start? You would use research to see what is trending so you can adapt and benefit. But which research? What trends? How to benefit? Wouldn’t it be nice when you meet a salesperson who says: I am here to help. This is what your Customers expect you to do.

Your customers’ situation

Given the current economic circumstances, they are in sitting-on-the-fence mode. What are the indicators for that? Well,

• The number of companies getting out of business is on the rise.
• Business owners are afraid to borrow (too much) money.
• On average, the industry outputs are less than last year.

What has changed?

Whereas during the pandemic, everyone stayed inside and ordered online, now people are in the “I want to go out and do something” mode and spending their money on other things like vacations. So, manufacturing output is flat, but on the other hand, the travel industry is doing exceptionally well at the moment. Many enterprises are dealing with a decline in production, and according to them, this is not the right time to make significant decisions.

Or is it? As a trusted advisor, you meet with (in this example) marketing managers all the time and have the experience to show what works well and what doesn’t. You know how.

• To help improve web traffic.
• To help improve Customer Experience (CX).
• To help improve Customer ratings.
• To help drive customer loyalty.
• To help go to markets, others don’t.

Improve customer experience

In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about the impact that Customer Experience can have on the topline growth of a company. In her book “Growth IQ”, Tiffany Bova claims that Customer Experience is the true source of competitive differentiation in the twenty-first century. Many B2B businesses make the mistake of thinking that CX’s hype only applies to B2C companies. The opposite is true.

Customer Experience is a strategy that can generate exponential growth. It must sit at the intersection of all functions, all employees, and all decisions. It sits at the last mile of every package and the first impression when walking into a store. It is everywhere and anywhere. It is the new battlefield. A CX growth strategy needs focus from top executives to the bottom frontiers and vice versa.

The right time

This is the right time to have these conversations with your customers. In particular, those who are innovative and willing to listen to your ideas. They would like to be at the front. No company wants to be left behind. And you know from your experience as a Trusted Advisor that improving CX is a relatively low investment to gain topline growth revenues.

When you do, do not lead with your solutions but instead with how you can help improve their Customer Experience and the risk of doing nothing. Use evidence to support your focus on CX and how you can help grow their business.