top of page
  • Jason Angelos Managing Director – Accenture

Managing the B2B customer experience


Spend less time selling Leaders spend less time selling products and more time delivering customer experiences (CX).

CSOs no longer win customers at the point of purchase. Consider this: business customers are usually 57 percent through the buying process when they meet sales representatives for the first time. That’s more than 50 percent of the sales journey during which time sales teams are shut out, unable to influence buying decisions.

In this environment, CSOs need to reconsider their interactions with customers and better understand where, when and how often they have opportunities to advise and influence them. They need to shift their focus from increasing selling time to helping their sellers optimize precious moments of truth.

Many Chief Sales officers at B2B companies are struggling:

  • In 2014, nearly a fifth failed to meet their revenue targets. They attained, on average, just 82 percent of their goals.

  • In 2015, 79 percent saw a sales target increase of 5 percent or more. But only 16 percent are confident they can achieve them.

In contrast, some CSOs experience much more success. They distinguish themselves by acknowledging that engaging experiences persuade customers to buy more, stay longer and refer others. Further they prioritize and monetize customer experience and maximize selling opportunities by aligning their sales approach to the entire customer experience. Those efforts pay off:

  • Fifty-eight percent of high-performing B2B companies originate the majority of their leads from non-sales experiences.

  • Seventy-two percent can directly attribute business results to CX investments; only 22 percent of low performers can.

Managing the B2B customer experience | by Robert Wollan Senior Managing Director, Accenture StrategyAdvanced Customer Strategy Global Lead

Customer experience: Just a fad? Or a driver of sustainable growth?

Business-to-business (B2B) companies recognize customer experience is critical to growth and competitive differentiation. Yet, fewer than 25 percent of them excel. Those who are customer experience (CX) leaders achieve higher-than-average revenue growth.

What do these companies do differently? They elevate service as a critical enabler of growth. And they over-invest in both traditional and digital capabilities to sustain—and monetize—customer engagement. With sound strategies and strong execution abilities, these leaders show other B2B companies how to achieve through customer experience excellence and help drive revenue growth.

Accenture’s 2015 B2B Customer Experience Survey revealed that despite the perceived importance of customer experience, most B2B companies do not realize desired business results.

Importance

  • 86 percent of B2B executives consider customer experiences to be very important.

  • 79 percent are convinced that a differentiated experience has a direct effect on business results.

Outcomes

  • Only 23 percent of B2B companies achieve strong returns from their customer experience initiatives.

  • 20 percent (despite stating customer experience’s importance) generate low or even negative returns.

  • 57 percent are in the middle, idling in customer experience mediocrity. They lack a sound customer experience strategy and/or the ability to execute well.

The few B2B companies that consistently and significantly outperform their peers stand apart by having both strong strategies and execution capabilities.


25 views0 comments
bottom of page