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Customer Excellence in Industrial Manufacturing
Boosting growth in the industrial B2B sector with customer-centric strategies – especially in times of crisis
Customer-centric strategies are driving many of the success stories in our digital age. Though these strategies have largely been a feature of consumer-facing businesses to date, customer centricity is gaining more and more traction in the B2B market as well. The key to winning the future, especially in times of deteriorating supply chains and exploding costs, is cultivating a more customer-centric culture not only in sales and marketing but across the entire enterprise. In a recent point of view series, Deloitte experts explain what industrial manufacturers stand to gain from customer centricity – and how to achieve it.
Unlike many B2C businesses with end users as their main customers, very few B2B players in general, and industrial manufacturers in particular, have embraced the latest Customer Excellence trend. One reason for this may be other pressing priorities demanding their attention, from process optimization and digital service initiatives to supply chain resilience. On the other hand, many B2B players rush to conclusions and reject the idea that Customer Excellence is an essential business function. It is, in fact, extremely relevant for industrial manufacturers and promises a whole range of benefits, chief among them the ability to leverage customer data for revenue growth and efficiency gains.
As our new three-part point of view series shows, adopting a more customer-centric approach gives industrial manufacturers three powerful levers for business success:
• leveraging the full potential of customer insight,
• taking a more targeted approach to growth, and,
• relying on collaboration to transform your business.
Which of these levers gives your enterprise the most benefit depends on how you define an optimal customer experience and what your specific business model is. Maybe you offer a standardized product range to multiple customers through third-party dealers, or you produce specialized machinery for a few high-volume direct customers. The potential gains will vary from company to company but are generally very attractive: Based on our estimates, machine manufacturers moving from a product-centric to a customer-centric mindset could unlock revenue gains of up to 20 percent.
“Know your customer” – Volume 1
The first volume of the series discusses the know your customer lever, describing five key steps to harness customer insights and drive profit growth. It focuses on ways to gain deep insight into industrial manufacturing customers through the systematic collection of data on their needs, wants and concerns. By prioritizing the customer’s expectations and experiences at each stage of the customer journey, machinery and equipment manufacturers can significantly improve overall customer satisfaction. The winning combination of deep customer data and a detailed journey map allows you to group your customers into smarter segments, to better understand the key interactions with each customer and to improve your market-based pricing methods. This calls for a well-thought-out strategy for collecting customer data as well as a shift to a more customer-centric mindset in sales and marketing practices across the enterprise. In our point of view, we describe how to use your customer database and the 360-degree view of the customer to your advantage and optimize sales performance as well as customer service. The five key know your customer principles for industrial manufacturers are as follows:
1. Take a smart approach to customer segmentation
2. Understand – and create value with – the customer journey
3. Use market-oriented pricing to optimize customer value
4. Drive your customer data strategy
5. Cultivate a customer-centric mindset across the enterprise
Download point of view here.
“Target your customers more effectively” – Volume 2
The second volume in our series focuses on using the know your customer insights to engage more effectively with industrial manufacturing customers across the entire lifecycle of the machine, from new sales to after-sales service. Building on a deeper understanding of individual customers’ needs, there is huge potential to grow sales with a multi-channel approach and to generate an estimated 20 percent top-line impact through next best offer and other initiatives. It also shows how machine manufacturers can introduce value-based targeting and selling to make their sales practices and their sales force management more efficient. This involves using (real-time) data to gain detailed insight into customer preferences and classify customers into segments based on sales potential, as outlined in the first volume of the PoV series. As many companies are still struggling to operationalize – and above all monetize – digital products and services, our recommendations help you identify the right monetization models for your enterprise and price them for further growth. We have identified four key strategies to enhance Customer Excellence and target industrial manufacturing customers more effectively
1. Make the most of your multi-channel strategy
2. Shift to value-based selling
3. Launch digital products and services
4. Introduce value-based pricing for targeted monetization of digital assets
Download point of view here.
In this series, our experts discuss each step on the way to Customer Excellence in much greater detail, including short case studies on projects from our extensive experience in the field. We also provide data on current best practices and opportunities as well as recommendations on how to kickstart your transition to a more customer-centric mindset, whether your journey is just beginning or already in full swing.
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