It seems we spend a lot of time on this site talking employee engagement, motivation and recognition. There is a lot of demand for that kind of information.
But our practice, and the goal of this site, is to work with clients to drive positive influence with all members of the business ecosystem. Not just employees – but vendors, suppliers, distribution channels.
Unfortunately we struggle to find great content and groundbreaking information on how to build relationships and influence behavior outside of the employee audience. I’ve tried. I have twitter searches, google alerts, etc. set up to monitor what’s being said about channel loyalty, channel incentives, vendor recognition – too many to list – and I get nary a hit each day. I might get a tweet here and there about channel loyalty but not enough to warrant ongoing discussion.
I think most of the time when businesses think about the other “businesses” they rely on to make money they think in terms of transactions not relationships.
- Vendors are people we “negotiate with” to beat down prices (we all know that cost is our only metric for purchasing success, right?)
- Channel sellers, dealers, distributors –are only interested in the best deal so most companies rely on price discounts and bundled pricing to attract buyers.
- Business customers aren’t people. They’re economically-driven automatons searching for the lowest price and the longest payment terms.
Bunk
Businesses are people.
Business buyers are business people and they do look for mutually-beneficial relationships just like your employees do.
Businesses that understand this do better. Zappos treats their suppliers just like they treat their employees – with respect and with a spirit of partnership. They work diligently to find win-win situations with their suppliers. They don’t just beat them up for the best price – and then beat them again next time they hit the negotiating table.
Geehan Group Blogtalkradio Show
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This past Wednesday I had Sean Geehan on the rescheduled show Influence Insider to talk about his new book and how to drive relationships in the B2B world.
Sean is the CEO and founder of Geehan Group and expectant father of the soon to be released book “The B2B Executive Playbook”.
Sean’s book is all about building relationships with business customers to drive sustainable growth and profitability.
While I may have been a bit scattered in the interview, Sean’s contributions were great and I urge you to listen to the full hour. (And feel free to listen to previous episodes of course...)
To recap some interesting points on why anyone who relies on business buyers versus consumers should listen to the show and buy his book when it comes out…
- B2B companies typically don’t have 11 million customers. Starbucks has a ton of customers. Losing one customer to Dunkin Donuts isn’t going to put them out of business. However, many if not most, B2B businesses rely on a disproportionate number of large customers for their ongoing success. Losing one of those customers can be a fatal issue. Sean talks about how to build relationships with these key customers.
- B2B companies need their customers to drive future growth and innovation. Similar to B2C companies – customers decide what’s important. And when you have few customers their needs are critical. Knowing what problems they are facing, and getting input on their needs today and in the future create great guideposts for future innovation.
- Sales and Marketing for B2B companies is different. You cannot apply B2C tactics and strategies in a B2B world. It can’t and won’t work. Sean provides a great example of a B2C marketer who failed miserably when making the transition to B2B.
- Social media isn’t the same in B2B as it is in B2C. Sean makes a great point of saying – “I believe in Social Media.” But he also provides some interesting statistics on and thoughts on how social media efforts need to be part of an overall B2B strategy.
I’m looking forward to Sean’s book when it hits the shelves and will hopefully get a free review copy (hint, hint) when it comes out. Until then you can see Sean at the Motivation Show in October where he will be speaking on Oct. 13 about building B2B relationships in his session entitled… "Dominating the B2B World: How Marketing and Sales Leaders Achieve Sustainable, Predictable & Profitable Growth."
Listen to the show and hit me in the comments. Love to hear your thoughts. Oh, and btw - I'm presenting at the Motivation Show too... "Responding to the Assault on Incentives."
Paul --- Would love to see some posts on your thoughts about what other metrics ARE more appropriate for buyers, if price seems to drive win/lose behaviors. Same for channel sellers, etc. I agree that they're all people, and you could lead the way to that reality by also discussing and exploring some of those issues here. Whatya think?
Posted by: Scott Crandall | September 17, 2010 at 03:35 PM
Great question Scott. I've addressed this issue a few places - here's a link to a PDF of an article I wrote with a partner for Loyalty Management Magazine talking about how to drive channel loyalty.
http://incentive-intelligence.typepad.com/i2i/Loyalty360/Loyalty360%20Sept%202009.pdf
Also, here's a post that also talks about how to engage with your distribution channel...
http://www.i2i-align.com/2009/07/channel-loalt-is-it-possible-toda.html
The bottom line in both of these articles: Don't worry about what you want - worry about what they need.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | September 17, 2010 at 03:47 PM