Strategic priorities of B2B customer management

1st October 2015 |   Peter Lavers

What did companies prioritise?

  • The first section of the report reveals that, at the overall level, Relationship & value building (farming) takes top priority. However, it is not an emphatic victory – it comes out on top because half the respondents rated it in their top three.
  • People & competencies is a strong second overall and Brand & proposition completes the top three, underlining the vital importance of interpersonal skills and staff stability in offering and providing a compelling customer value proposition.
  • The two threads that relate to acquisition (hunting and market targeting) come next in the priority list – indeed they are top priority in some regions and sectors.
  • Key Account Management (KAM) and Negotiating skills make up the mid-table. These are more sophisticated elements of customer management, suggesting that many B2B companies are still concentrating on getting the basics right.

Peter Lavers

Co-founder and Director at Customer Attuned Ltd

Peter Lavers is a co-founder and Director of Customer Attuned Ltd. He is an expert in CRM and customer experience management, and recognised as a top influencer in the subject. His early career was with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors, where he trained as an engineer and went on to hold senior roles in commercial and logistics, market analysis, customer satisfaction, regional marketing and in his last client-side position as head of relationship marketing. He joined customermanagement consultancy QCi, and rose to become QCi’s managing partner after its takeover by OgilvyOne Worldwide, who also appointed him as MD of Customer Futures, their international network of customer experience learning groups. In addition to Customer Attuned, Peter is MD of WCL Customer Management Ltd and represents Deep-Insight in the UK.