The world has changed for B2B buyers and the way we think about B2B experiences has shifted.
“Indeed, recent data show that we have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around eight weeks.”
McKinsey, The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days
The top trends we observe have not changed with the pandemic: customers are in charge, their journey is non linear and sparkled with micro-moments, hence they are demanding a real-time hyper-personalised experience. Whether in B2B or B2C, Marketers are to operate for segments of ONE at scale! Let’s call this real-time B2ME customer experience.
The B2B buying experience has shifted to become even more focused on digital with increased emotional, real-time, and social interactions just like B2C.
According to McKinsey, most B2B teams have reduced their budgets by approximately 50%, over 96% have had to shift their go to market approach, twice as much prefer digital sales – and this, combined with the time we live in, creates a whole new set of challenges.
“Now is also the time for customer experience (CX) leaders to position themselves at the forefront of the longer-term shifts in consumer behavior that result from this crisis. Keeping a real-time pulse on changing customer preferences and rapidly innovating to redesign journeys that matter to a very different context will be key.
— McKinsey
Keeping customers engaged and happy in this new world is challenging and as we know…brands now compete on experiences to win and keep customers. As a consequence, Sales and Marketing have an imperative to align even better than before to make sure no disconnect will negatively impact the customer journey. Account Based Marketing (ABM) is most certainly prevailing in this context and helping Sales and Marketing alignment.
B2B Marketers and Sales must collect real-time data signals on their customers, understand them, and most importantly, use them to connect to what is now known as the B2B Consumer. In this time of great change there is nothing more important than customer engagement and retention.
Be adaptable, nimble, empathetic and very responsive.
LET’S MAKE EVERY CUSTOMER INTERACTION MATTER
