4 ways to get stickier with your B2B customers (and what that really means)

Photo by Markus Spiske

“If we don’t figure out how to get more sticky, I’m gonna pull off my left shoe and hurl it at someone!!” our CEO bellowed as he reviewed the latest customer churn rates. 

It was the first time I’d heard someone describe a sought-after customer/supplier dynamic that way, but make no mistake…I’ve heard it plenty since then. (without the whole shoe throwing thing)

“Stickiness” has found its way into B2B vernacular and refers to how likely a customer will continue to purchase your products and/or services even as alternatives or new competitors enter the market.  Sometimes it’s used to describe a brand, sometimes a customer…but it doesn’t really matter - both say the same thing.  Stickiness is when your company offers unique value that your customers recognize and are willing to pay for – and that’s a great place to be.

As most of us in the B2B world can attest, however, it’s not the easiest place to get.  

If you’re lucky enough to own a highly proprietary product, technology or process that’s in a white space nobody can touch…good on you.  But for most of us, that’s not our reality.  Selling products or providing services that your customers can either a) get somewhere else or, b) find suitable alternatives to without a major disruption to their system is likely more familiar. 

Another dose of reality: the cost of acquiring new customers can be 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing customers.  And, according to a joint study conducted by Bain Consulting & Harvard Business School, a 5% increase in customer retention can drive more than a 25% increase in profit.

So, whether you sell medical equipment, packaging & shipping supplies or legal services – or live in any other space that struggles with soul-crushing price-based conversations and commoditization – it’s hyper critical that you retain (and nuture) existing customers to “up your stickiness”. 

The following 4 strategies will put you on the path to getting there.

Understand the Why

First, you MUST understand the why – why your customers are staying and why they’re leaving.  Customer retention metrics are great – but interpreting that data to uncover your unique value (or lack thereof) is the only way to arm your business teams with the insight they need to develop effective retention – and eventually loyalty – strategies. 

And the best way to understand the why is to get inside of your customers’ organizations and ASK QUESTIONS.

Get your ass under the tent

If you only retain 1 thing from this 3 minute read, please retain this…You. Must. Engage. With. The. Right. People. 

Expert knowledge on your customer, their buying process and the stakeholders who make (and influence) the purchase decision will help you identify who those are.  (hint: they’re not in procurement)

Gaining access to those folks isn’t always easy but if you make your target stakeholders believe you can make them successful – whether it’s via expertise or training, through industry introductions or by helping them solve a pressing challenge - you’ll be surprised how quickly those doors will open.  Those relationships will lead to meaningful conversations (where you can ASK QUESTIONS) and make you smarter about your customer and how they perceive your organization. 

And that insight is GOLD.  Every single customer-facing resource within your organization – whether its sales, marketing, design, technical service, customer success and support, fork-lift drivers – should be ready and equipped to mine for insight that will inform your customer experience strategies.

I’m always crazy flummoxed when I work with B2B organizations who have multiple tentacles touching the customer every day and DON’T have systems in place to share the things they hear or feedback they receive.  It’s probably one of the biggest missed opportunities I see within B2B companies today.

Sell better, sell value add

The deep customer insight you’ll generate by engaging with critical stakeholders will empower your teams to a) determine what value you should be selling, b) position your product/service in the most relevant and compelling way and, c) do it better than competitive organizations who are NOT under the tent.

Talking price with a mid-level procurement manager isn’t selling value.  Selling from a catalogue isn’t value add.  Bundling products and adding services to create solutions that deliver on new or unmet customer needs in a differentiated way…is. 

In a prior life, I lead an effort to create a new way-to-work with our largest customers to answer their growing desire to be quicker to market and take a more agile, test-and-learn approach to innovation.  We didn’t add new capabilities, we just bundled them differently.  Leadership alignment, a new process and cross-divisional team with clearly-defined accountabilities helped us to deliver on our customers’ needs better than anyone and, ensured internal alignment.  The new program allowed us to engage with brand, marketing and innovation customer stakeholders on their highest priority initiatives and exposed us to growth opportunities before our competitors.

When done right, leveraging deep customer insight to create solutions that uniquely deliver on their goals is the quickest way to sticky. 

Partner to Innovate

The holy grail of sticky?  Partnership.  With strong relationships comes trust.  With trust comes sharing.  Sharing often uncovers opportunities to create new value and new solutions together.  Now that’s sticky. 

Partnership means mutual benefit so being thoughtful around how to structure the relationship, define expectations and map out the win-win is critical.

Successful partnerships can also create a halo effect for your business and facilitate growth with your customer in areas not directly related to the collaboration.  And because partnership has a larger emotional component, it can drive next level stickiness - loyalty.  Loyal customers love your product/your brand/your company so much that they don’t bother considering alternatives. (I get shivers just writing this)

With larger organizations, true customer loyalty can be difficult for a host of reasons (i.e. regulation & oversight, supply assurance, stakeholder movement) but the relationships your teams develop can endure and be just as important for your business as people get promoted or move onto other target customer organizations. 

These are our sweet spots at Sticks & Mud.  We advise, coach and empower your sales and marketing teams to target the right customers, with the right solutions, in the right way to create advantage and win (and have a great time doing it).