What’s frequent between Taylor Swift and B2B corporations?
They each go all out of their fields to win over individuals’s hearts and nurture a fan base.
Take Swift’s Eras Tour, for instance. It generated $2 billion in income and even benefited native economies. She created magic moments for followers all over the place.
“These are the examples I take a look at to hunt inspiration for the B2B world,” says Kevin Lau, Vice President of Buyer Engagement at Freshworks.
With the barrier to entry in software program as a service (SaaS) decrease than ever, he believes clients have extra software program choices now, they usually don’t hesitate to modify. You’ll be able to’t take buyer loyalty without any consideration anymore.
In a chat with me, Kevin shares what it takes to construct an ecosystem of enablers inside an organization to show clients into followers and increase retention. He additionally shares tips about creating magic moments for purchasers of AI merchandise.
This interview is a part of G2’s Skilled Highlight sequence. For extra content material like this, subscribe to G2 Tea, a publication with SaaS-y information and leisure.
Heat-up questions
What’s your favourite beverage? When do you get pleasure from it?
I get pleasure from boba, a form of milk tea, with my household. It is normally a chilly beverage, and also you get to eat the tapioca balls in it.
What was your first job?
After I graduated from school, I began consulting. I needed to create a social media enterprise, and this was method earlier than Twitter and Fb.
I took a course and spent over $20,000 to be taught the basics of relationship advertising. Then, I began taking some purchasers. That’s how I bought began earlier than transitioning into the B2B world.
What’s your favourite software program in your present tech stack?
We use many various options. We use Base, which helps us reward, acknowledge, and curate buyer engagement.
We additionally use UserEvidence, which helps us curate extra customized and related third-party validation from our clients. It addresses a lot of our ache factors and gives proof for our go-to-market (GTM) groups. Our staff has discovered plenty of worth in that software program.
What issues at work make you need to throw your laptop computer out the window?
Numerous advertising people would empathize with me after I say this: anytime you attempt to sew information collectively and combine techniques, that may be a giant problem.
The identical goes for locating the right information to assist or validate a few of the campaigns or packages you’re constructing. These are the sorts of issues that hold me up at night time. It takes plenty of energy and cycles to find out greatest map that out, particularly when we now have numerous tech options.
Deep dives with Kevin Lau
Might you briefly describe your skilled journey and what introduced you to Freshworks?
Since my social media consulting days, relationship constructing, speaking to clients, and listening to their validation and suggestions have been essential to me. I’ve been fascinated by questions like: how do we modify the roadmap? How can clients be become followers, loyal customers, and advocates?
I’ve labored with organizations starting from giant corporations like Google to smaller startups in Silicon Valley. I’ve centered on how we construct a thriving buyer base and communities of passionate followers and followers.
I had a great stint at Marketo earlier than the Adobe acquisition, which helped cement a lot of my learnings and practices.
Later, I joined Freshworks and noticed many similarities with what Marketo was going by means of in its early days when it was making an attempt to refine its GTM method. They have been tackling the questions of tapping into buyer love and appreciation and harnessing it as a worth differentiator for his or her enterprise.
Freshworks is exclusive within the sense that it has a raving fan base. We have now 70,000 clients globally, and we faucet into buyer expertise professionals and other people on the frontlines speaking to assist brokers. They see these ache factors and perceive what it means to have an incredible buyer expertise.
Then again, our worker expertise providing ensures workers have an incredible expertise. These two philosophies stood out to me. I need to determine how we are able to proceed to try this proper for our clients and inner groups and create an incredible group.
How can corporations extra clearly see a robust hyperlink between buyer engagement and income?
Once we consider a wholesome SaaS enterprise, there are two sides to the equation. One aspect is concentrated on the lead era pipeline. The opposite is regarding the post-sales expertise — how do you guarantee clients are glad?
Corporations should steadiness these two sides as a result of if in case you have a leaky bucket, with you getting new clients whereas some depart you, you should determine what’s inflicting that friction.
We’ve constructed a devoted middle of excellence at Freshworks round participating clients throughout their journey from the time they consider options. This method takes a holistic view of the buyer journey fairly than a partial one.
Our philosophy is creating clients for all times and going past a transactional relationship with them. Even when the engagement is a yr or two lengthy, it goals to show them into followers for all times.
What’s the significance of buyer followers to B2B corporations? How can they use them to convey higher income?
Throughout the B2C world, iconic manufacturers like Apple, Microsoft, and even sports activities groups all have fandoms the place clients love merchandise, people, or gamers. The merchandise you market have inherent secret elements that make these engagements worthwhile.
“One other instance is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which introduced her and native economies nice revenues. The tour stood out as a result of she engaged her followers and created magic moments for individuals each attending and never attending her concert events.”
Kevin Lau
Vice President of Buyer Engagement, Freshworks
I take a look at such examples to hunt inspiration for the B2B world.
Your providing will not be as thrilling because the Eras Tour or an iPhone, however you’d have buyer followers who love your resolution. It may very well be any resolution, from HR tech to IT software program.
You will need to harness these clients and provide them publicity, and you’ll find yourself with model influencers. They love your product, so why not allow them to develop your corporation within the course of?
Thanks for that elaborate reply. Buyer churn is a serious ache level for B2B corporations at this time. Have the components inflicting it advanced over the previous few years?
After the pandemic, macroeconomic circumstances modified, and so did GTM methods. Corporations are additionally present process digital transformation at a quicker tempo.
Companies are additionally contemplating higher useful resource consolidation, streamlining to be extra productive and environment friendly, and extra carefully scrutinizing their tech stacks.
“At this time, there are method too many options on the market. The barrier to entry in SaaS is decrease now, and clients have extra flexibility and choices.”
Kevin Lau
Vice President of Buyer Engagement, Freshworks
In the event that they don’t have an incredible expertise, they don’t hesitate to maneuver on to a different resolution by means of a trial or a POC.
This implies you may’t take buyer loyalty without any consideration anymore. You’ve restricted time to win over a buyer, whether or not they’re new or previous. You will need to deal with them with respect and care, particularly through the preliminary 90-day window.
The magic moments or raving experiences I discussed assist them see the worth instantly. This may very well be achieved by exhibiting them use the product quicker, connecting them to loyal clients, or having them attend occasions. All of this ensures an impactful expertise, so clients are much less more likely to churn.
You touched upon the growing variety of choices out there and the way clients might change rapidly. In accordance with G2 information, the AI product class is the quickest rising concerning the variety of merchandise being added. Do you could have suggestions for retaining clients for AI merchandise?
It goes hand in hand with onboarding, which I discussed earlier than. We have now to fulfill the shopper the place they’re. Most corporations are within the analysis section for AI merchandise.
They’re experimenting to see how AI may also help drive higher productiveness and whether or not it’s the best resolution to make workers profitable. For instance, with our Freddie AI product, we attempt to get clients by means of the beta course of.
They will play with the answer on this section and perceive some use instances. This helps us collect validation and suggestions earlier than the product goes dwell within the common availability stage.
AI additionally has many purposes in buyer engagement. How is your staff utilizing AI to higher buyer expertise and increase loyalty?
AI helps us improve assist, which yields happier clients in the long run. It’s serving to us guarantee our clients get solutions to their questions, whether or not they relate to some ache factors they’re making an attempt to resolve with the product or just need assist. AI instruments assist us deflect tickets to make sure our clients see solutions quicker. We additionally use our on-line channels, together with boards and group networks.
On the staff degree, we actively use AI for content material creation, measurement, and information reporting.
How do you convey totally different capabilities in an organization to work collectively on churn?
The largest factor is to have a customer-first mindset. There’s an ecosystem at play that helps enhance buyer expertise and create followers in your firm.
Clients shouldn’t expertise speaking to totally different groups or capabilities in a company. It ought to be a unified expertise for them.
Apple is an effective instance from the ecosystem perspective. Even should you’ve had a nasty expertise with them as soon as, the general expertise issues extra.
Rework your AI advertising technique.
Be a part of business leaders at G2’s free AI in Motion Roadshow for actionable insights and confirmed methods to reimagine your funnel. Register now
Sticky moments throughout the shopper journey hook you. Even within the B2B setting, clients view experiences from an identical lens. They could have had a tough onboarding expertise or points with the contract. But when they’ve had different nice experiences, say from the assist staff, they’d be keen to miss minor infractions.
You’ve quoted examples from the B2C phase. How do the principles of engagement change between B2C and B2B? What are a few of the engagement areas which are extra essential in B2B?
In B2B, the goal is far more particular than in B2C, the place you solid a wider internet and your product is cheaper.
As a buyer, you should purchase a product utilizing your bank card on an e-commerce web site. Nonetheless, in B2B, a buyer goes by means of a number of gross sales cycles. You discuss to engineers, pre-sales groups, and account representatives, and consider the product. You additionally contain a number of departments out of your firm. So, the shopping for habits is totally different.
So, B2B is extra about creating followers throughout totally different sectors of the shopping for firm. It’s extra like account-based advertising (ABM), whereby you don’t simply discuss to practitioners utilizing the answer. You additionally interact mid-level influencers answerable for the associated fee middle and the executives to indicate them worth. This improves the chance of consumers staying.
What are a few of the most susceptible spots alongside the shopper journey the place they’re more than likely to churn?
The onboarding expertise is among the many most important junctures from a retention perspective. That is the place the rubber hits the highway, and the shopper asks if the product delivers what the gross sales consultant promised. In addition they ask whether or not they have the best instruments and sources to see rapid worth.
The second juncture is near the renewal cycle. Nonetheless lengthy the engagement is, typically we wait too lengthy to make sure we now have the shopper on the high of our minds. We wait till the renewal cycle to speak to them proactively and nurture them. Behind the scenes, they may very well be evaluating another options.
With their autonomous capabilities, AI brokers are altering how we work and construct groups. Is the risk to people actual? Learn our newest article.
Comply with Kevin Lau on LinkedIn to unlock new methods of participating clients and constructing a fan base in your firm.