The management of feedback in B2B

1. 2: ‘Following’ clients:
Next practice voice of customer
Reg Price Founder, MirrorWave
Kaj Storbacka Professor of Markets, University of Auckland; SAMA Board
Lisa Stockberger Value Maximizer, MirrorWave
Presenters:

2. The context
• People hate surveys but love being listened to
• Shouldn’t giving feedback be a positive
experience for customers?
• Shouldn’t customer feedback be a sales
enabler?
• Shouldn’t the focus be relationships?
• But customer feedback is usually owned by
marketing - shouldn’t it belong to SAM?
• If it’s owned by you then how would it be
different?
 The idea of ‘following’

3. Voice of
Strategic Clients
5 Next Practices

4. Stop taking
snapshots and
start following
stories over time
Next Practice #1

5. We get used to operating by snapshots…

6. We’re hearing more and more about following…

7. We’re hearing more and more about following…

8. She’s in limbo She’s still in limbo Things are looking up She’s happy now!!
The power of following individuals to tell stories

9. anon1; anon6;
anon8; anon10,
anon14, anon20
anon2; anon8;
anon11; anon12,
anon15, anon19
Ave= 7.2 Ave= 7.2
Survey 1 Survey 2
The typical consumer survey:
Anonymous unconnected snapshot samples

10. Ave= 7.2
Shirley 8
Madge 7
Trevor 9
George 7
Harvey 7
Jessica 5
Ave= 7.2
Shirley 7
Madge 7
DNP
George 5
Harvey 9
Jessica 8
Ave= 7.2
Shirley 5
Madge 7
Trevor 8
George 4
Harvey 9
Jessica 10
t1 t2 t3
Following: Attributed joined up individual stories
Follow
individual
changing
client
stories

11. Strategic
Account A
Ave = 7.8
NPS= +30
Strategic
Account A
Ave = 8.2
NPS= +40
t1 t2 t3
‘Tracking’ is not following
Strategic
Account A
Ave = 7.6
NPS= +20
Strategic
Account B
Ave = 6.8
NPS= -20
Strategic
Account B
Ave = 6.8
NPS= -18
Strategic
Account B
Ave = 7.2
NPS= -5
Strategic
Account C
Ave = 6.8
NPS= -20
Strategic
Account C
Ave = 6.5
NPS= -30
Strategic
Account C
Ave = 6.2
NPS= -45

12. Following what?
Relationships
Renew
Claim
MidwayMilestone
Review Sign
Train
Trial
Experiences
Contracts
Implementations
Scope
•Needs
•Options
Develop
•Beta
•Final
Use
•UAT
•Handover

13. Go back to the same
person 2 or 3 times a
year and ask the same
questions each time
Following by ‘Waves’
13
Creates a ‘story’

14. What does a story look like?
14

15. 15
What does a story look like?

16. Accounts are
evolving H2H
ecosystems- that’s
an opportunity for
smart following
Next Practice #2

17. The more digital the world becomes,
the more important people are
• Big glass buildings do not make decisions – people do
• Businesses do not have emotion. People do.
• People want to be a part of something bigger than
themselves.
• People want to feel something.
• People want to be included.
• People want to understand.
 Not B2B but H2H
Source:BryanKramer(2014)

18. © Kaj Storbacka
Customer
challenges
Sales process
Explicit potential (1/4)
Hit rate: <20%
Internally acknowledged
by the customer
Reactive: RFQ driven
Defined by the customer,
enables supplier
comparison
Specifications
Hidden potential (3/4)
Hit rate: 60%
Found by comparison with
competition and industry
look-a-likes
Proactive – solution sales
Supplier defines solutions
for customer challenges
Sales potential at customer

19. Go deep to find the unexplored frontier
Shirley 8 Shirley 7 Shirley 5
t1 t2 t3

20. Shirley 8
Madge 7
Trevor 9
George 7
Harvey 7
Jessica 5
Shirley 7
Madge 7
DNP
George 5
Harvey 9
Jessica 8
Shirley 5
Left
Trevor 8
George 4
Harvey 9
Jessica 10
t1 t2 t3
Don’t skim the
top.
Go deep into
each account for
each ‘H’.
Churn and change
with ‘H’s’ is
normal.
GET OVER IT and
GET ONTO IT!
Go deep to find the unexplored frontier

21. Trust your clients to
answer three
questions in their
own words - that’s
all you need
Next Practice #3

22. 3 highly productive questions
Q1: Taking everything into account, how
would you rate your x with y?
Q2: What were all the positive things you
were thinking of when you gave that
rating?
Q3: What were all the negative things you
were thinking of when you gave that
rating?

23. Drag and lift chart

24. Focus on managing
individual story
changes
Next Practice #4

25. Account change map
Unresolved angries
Risers
Fallers
Enduring
angels
Embedded
ambivalents

26. Change based account management
What would
you do with
these
‘unresolved
angries’?

27. What
would
you do?
Change based account management

28. What would
you do with
these
‘enduring
angels’?
Change based account management

29. What
would
you do?
Change based account management

30. What would
you do with
these
‘embedded
ambivalents’?
Change based account management

31. What
would
you do?
Change based account management

32. Score change
scenarios
Response rule Assigned to Timing
Fallers
Unresolved
Angries
Review and act- assess the situation,
consulting with others if necessary.
Decide on a response and who carries it
out, reassigning the action item if
necessary.
Senior sales
or regional
manager
Accept
within 2
days and
complete
within 5
Risers
Enduring
Angels
Contact and say thanks- decide on the
best way of saying thank you, scan for
any issues and carry it out.
Account
manager
Accept
within 2
days and
complete
within 5
Embedded
Ambivalents
Deal with niggles- scan for any issues and
contact or reassign if necessary.
Account
manager
Accept
within 5
days and
complete
within 10
Systematized change-based ‘response rules’

33. Change based rapid 1:1 response
The CLOSE THE LOOP
rapid response process
Click when completed
Feedback submitted and score changes are fitted
against pre-agreed response rules
Reporting
center to
review and
manage
all action
items
Via their email, person responsible accepts or
reassigns action item and takes agreed action
Action Item email sent to person taking
responsibility

34. ‘Ticking time bombs’
‘Frustrated give ups’
DNR
‘Fallen angels’
3 wave relationship management

35. Show partnering:
Follow both sides
of the story
Next Practice #5

36. YOUR
people’s on-
going view of the
partnership with
the account
ACCOUNT’S
people’s on-
going view of
the partnership
with you
Two-way partnership measurement

37. ... AND DOES
IT MATTER?

38. Your
intervention
Your next
intervention
I scored you
higher
because of
your
intervention
I scored you
even higher
because of
your next
intervention
Understand the impact of what you do

39. 4 ways to get business results out of
your customer asset
Reduce defections • Save unexpectedly vulnerable relationships
Increase share of
wallet
• Sell in a project on the back of a dialogue
• Provide new solutions
• Activate inactive accounts
Contain or reduce
cost to serve
• Do more with same people cost
• Nip costly escalations in the bud
New business
through word of
mouth
• Get happy clients talking to others in a way
that creates referrals or new work

41. Kaj Storbacka, University of Auckland Business School
k.storbacka@auckland.ac.nz
Reg Price, MirrorWave
reg.price@mirrorwave.com