In the age of product-led growth, business-critical apps are no longer decided by executives behind closed doors. Rather, everyday users are driving organic growth, championing the platforms they love and catapulting these products into the spotlight. Today, building true-blue customer love has become an essential part of any go-to-market strategy.
To help you nurture buyer relationships that last, we’ve compiled three things you need to make your customer commitment clear. Best of all, these insights are straight from the people who know best — real-world users.
Focus on Ease of Use
The more complicated our work lives become, the more we value simplicity. This holds true for software — we need technology that enhances, not inhibits, productivity. It’s essential that your user experience is seamless, even when the technology behind it is complex.
For Rachel Newman, a customer and sales enablement manager at InsideView, ease of use is a key reason why she loves her sales enablement solution. Enablement managers like Rachel need an easy way to access and share sales content. According to Rachel, her platform delivers “an intuitive interface so users can easily build, find, and pitch content” — ensuring that reps have what they need on hand to win deals.
Elizabeth McCormick, a sales enablement specialist at Maxar Technologies, has had a similar experience. She described the sales enablement platform she regularly uses as “easy to train” new employees on, making it “essential” to her enablement efforts.
Both Rachel and Elizabeth’s experiences make it clear: Dedication to simplifying your users’ lives with products that are both intuitive and easy to use is a surefire way to win and retain customers for the long haul.
Obsess Over Customer Needs
The phrase “customer obsession” is no hyperbole. Customer expectations are at an all-time high, requiring airtight alignment between users’ needs and your product roadmap.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Listen closely to customer feedback. And as much as possible, use your own product. If you sell a human resources platform, utilize it for all internal HR functions. If you sell sales software, leverage it to grow your business. Doing so will give you unparalleled insight into practical applications of your technology, including its strengths and areas for improvement.
Allied Air Sales Enablement Manager Shannon Konvalin experienced the impact of this with Highspot. “We have yet to have need or process the Highspot team has not been able to solve or deliver on,” he explained. This is largely because at Highspot, we use our own product internally, which helps our team anticipate changing customer needs and deliver agile responses.
As Shannon’s experience shows, the more you can proactively map your customers’ priorities to your product roadmap, the better you’ll be able to deliver real value to your users.
Never Stop Innovating
The final ingredient in any winning product is innovation — the ability to upend the status quo by reimagining what’s possible.
Too often, transformative products launch, gain momentum, and fizzle out. When businesses fail to cultivate a culture of innovation, they grow stagnant. And in a rapidly changing world, this is a recipe for irrelevance. You can ensure that your company’s creative spark stays alive by making space for new ideas and instilling a mindset of progress, not perfection. Doing so demonstrates support for taking risks, pushing the boundaries, and, most importantly, inventing the future your customers deserve.
“When a company continuously seeks opportunities for innovation, it’s a clear sign that they are focused on meeting the customer’s evolving needs,” said Emily Ann Clemons, Senior Marketing Associate at WeWork.
Emily Ann is spot-on in her assessment. An eye toward the future safeguards your business from plateauing and ensures your product evolves with the inevitable changes ahead.
When Products and Customers Are a Match Made in Heaven
With a commitment to simplicity, dedication to customers’ needs, and a passion for innovation, you can build products that are more than just a fiscal-year fling. Customers will find lasting love in a solution that enhances their day-to-day lives.
Is sales enablement on your list of 2020 investments? Start by exploring which platforms customers love with the latest G2 Crowd Reports.
