Читать книгу The B2B Executive Playbook - Sean Geehan - Страница 11

The leadership teams of many B2B companies are beset with conflict. Often, this conflict is based on competing opinions about how to best move the company ahead. Some members of the team have rogue ideas; others categorically resist change; still others have a “not-invented-here” mindset that can blind them to external developments that could have a powerful effect on the company and its markets. Further, the personal ambitions of leadership team members can stifle alignment and consensus, and limit support for critical initiatives.

There is no better means of overcoming these sources of conflict than executive customers. When the leadership team of a B2B company works directly with executive customers, it becomes more unified and aligned. These customers, especially when gathered together in a group, provide an unimpeachable source of information, insight, and opinion that acts as a filter—quickly dispatching the conflicting views that can splinter a company’s strategic focus or create barriers to change. An executive customer collective provides a single point of reference for the entire leadership team—in contrast to the information overload and endless debates, which can paralyze companies when key decisions and faster and bolder moves are most needed.

We’ve seen first-hand how executive customers deliver this benefit at many of our client companies. At Springer Science+Business Media, a global leader in scientific and professional publishing, customer executives have provided valuable input that enabled the company’s leaders and directors to make important decisions about pricing and business models in an industry that has been buffeted by technological change. Executive customers also provide Springer’s leaders with the clarity and focus they needed to speed market and product planning, and build internal support and performance.

Executive customers have had a similar effect at Wells Fargo, which has quadrupled the number of its programs aimed at engaging top customer decision makers from 5 to 12 in recent years. “Our executive customer programs have been incredible for our leadership team,” explains senior vice president Jeff Tinker. “They continue to validate our challenges, our thinking, and where we should be going. They definitely help keep us aligned to their needs, which in turn ensures greater internal alignment.”