B2B brands can do to retain customers and win or lose.

My wife and I bought a car almost 25 years ago. We needed a larger vehicle because our family was growing and we wanted to transport everyone to their destination. A friend gave me a name of a broker so I didn’t have to walk around car lots or fight off car salesmen. He told me that this broker would make the car-buying process easy and stress-free.

The broker called me the next day and I gave him every detail of our needs, down to the model, color, and make. He said he’d call me in a couple of days. He called me back a few days after he promised. He told me that he would drop ship our brand new Dodge Durango for a small surcharge to a nearby dealer. I was sold. My friend was correct. The process was simple and painless.

But not for very long…

The simple and easy part didn’t last very long. My wife called from the dealership, where the car had been shipped. When I answered the phone, I heard her say “It’s Purple!” I wasn’t sure what she meant, so I asked for clarification. She said, “The Durango.” It’s Barney the dinosaur purple and I have no intention of driving it off the lot!

It was eventually resolved and we did not end driving a purple Dodge Durango. While the initial car purchase was easy, the service provided and the delivery were both a disaster. This meant that my next car purchase would be very different. If I was going to use another broker, I would not choose the same one that I used in this purchase.

This story is very similar to the experience of many B2B customers, and highlights a critical element for customer retention. Customers are often won or lost during the delivery and adoption phases of the journey, which is critical to improving retention.

New investors

In B2B Marketing, different stakeholders can be involved at various stages of the buyer journey. You may only encounter end-users in the adoption and delivery phases. They were not involved at the beginning of the process.

Brands must therefore understand what these stakeholders expect, pay attention to their needs, and take steps to improve the performance of the new stakeholders. You can then tailor your delivery to increase adoption within the organization.

Dig deep: Buying Group Marketing: the next evolution of ABM

It’s hard to climb that hill

A great B2B experience begins long before the purchase. The experience a prospect has once they become a client is critical to building loyalty. Delivery is the first step in this journey.

B2B clients have told us how their experience was ruined by a poorly implemented service and support strategy that impacted adoption. Low adoption rates will eventually lead your customers to look for alternatives.

Brands who stumble in their delivery and service, will find it very difficult to regain the goodwill of their customers and their positive outlook.

After many discussions, almost losing the sale, and multiple proposal revisions, I was involved in a lengthy sales cycle. The client chose us as their vendor of choice. We had our kickoff meeting two weeks later with key stakeholders and the team of her (yes, new faces who were not part of the purchasing process were present). After a few introductions, my services team took over.

As the conversation continued, I started to notice the new customer’s body language, which was not very positive. My client sent me a text almost immediately following the call, saying “That didn’t go well and I expected more.” It was true, the relationship from that point on was difficult, and the customer chose not to renew. We all learned a difficult lesson, but our stumbling start cost us a customer.

Dig deep: B2B customers are now on a digital path

A prerequisite for customer expansion

For organizations that want to grow, maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV), should be their top priority. In my article of last month , I went into more detail about this . Many organizations implement cross-selling and upselling strategies immediately to improve CLV. This is not the first thing that should be done after a purchase. It can be detrimental to the experience if done too soon.

You must understand that activating customers through delivery and acceptance is the key to winning opportunities to grow your relationship with them and maximize your CLV. If done right, it will continue the sterling experience, and drive custom loyalty. This will make it more likely for your customers to want to explore other products and services.

45% brands said they planned to spend “more than 50% of their marketing budget” on customer retention. I hope that these budgets are invested wisely, and that they understand what it takes to increase the chances of organizational growth and win at retention.

The original post B2B Brands and Customer Retention: What they can learn from each other first appeared on MarTech.