I recently took part in Merkle B2B’s first Tea Break session with LinkedIn along with Conor Wilcock (Director, B2B International), Laura Pierce (Head of EMEA Performance Media, DWA) and Tusar Barik (Marketing Lead, Agency & Channel Partnership, LinkedIn). The session was based around recent survey findings from B2B International and LinkedIn around the ‘new point of view’ facing businesses as they start to emerge from the COVID crisis.

Here are some of the key points we discussed in the session.

(You can also view the whole discussion online by clicking below)

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To set the scene

As we all know, 2020 has presented new challenges to all of us. COVID has presented businesses and customers with a huge amount of economic uncertainty and change. COVID has drastically changed how we all operate and how companies plan business & marketing strategies.

In Our B2B Tea Break session, we discussed the impact of COVID, what the new normal looks like and how we can adjust our marketing efforts to suit this new normal and stay agile around this ever changing economic and personal environment.

The impact of COVID on businesses

The research from B2B International highlighted the impact of COVID as having “economic” and “practical effects”. Some of the key points we spoke about:

• First, economic impacts: 60% of companies report lower revenues than a year ago. This is especially pronounced among small businesses with fewer than 50 employees

• Personal/consumer services, tourism, hospitality and the arts are worst affected sectors economically. Tech has been least affected (though half of tech businesses report lower revenues)

• The impact of COVID goes far beyond the immediate economic hit. Three key practical effects relate to supply chain, technology and productivity

• There are also differences by business size – in terms of top two concerns, enterprises were more concerned about the workforce adapting to WFH, and SMEs more around business survival and cash flow. Specifically:

  • Enterprises were most concerned with employee ‘health and wellbeing’, and ‘technology issues around adapting to WFH’

  • Whereas the top two concerns of SMEs were around sales & revenue, and uncertainty around future customer demands

The LinkedIn research had similar findings. Business is segmented into:

1. Business Disrupted – Significant impact and needed to pause/severely impacted (i.e Travel, Auto, Luxury)

2. Business Unusual – Temporary Changes, need to re-prioritize (i.e. Banking, Education, Non-Profit)

3. Business Evolve – Quick adaptation, growth acceleration (i.e. Software, Cloud, Hardware, Telco)

LinkedIn’s COVID impact on B2B Execs study found “almost 75% of B2B Execs are focused on preserving cash and over 60% only want to buy familiar/reliable products”, making sales cycles longer than ever.

The customer mindset

The LinkedIn research showed that the new customer mindset also has an impact on the strategic priorities of B2B companies.

• 56% of our businesses are taking a “community-minded approach” – how can we help communities, suppliers, and employees (especially during the pandemic/challenging times)

• There is a focus on Thought Leadership – 84% using thought leadership to strengthen their position and gain trust

• There is also a need to better segment

• 62% of businesses are focused on better understanding their “Customer’s customer”

This aligns with some of the findings from the B2B International survey:

• We may find companies becoming less “human” with their customers – fewer face-to-face visits, more automation and self-service

• An acceleration of the digitalization trend, which many companies were forced into during the pandemic

• Developing direct channels (e.g. e-com, Direct to Customer and developing “last mile” infrastructure)

Differences by sector

With these potential strategic shifts in mind, we also discussed some of the differences in how certain industries will be recovering from the pandemic, and the strategies they are employing:

• Companies are looking to act more responsibly (with internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, customers, the community and the world). Their marketing strategies will need to reflect this

• Sectors which appear to be performing relatively well and have better prospects for recovery: Financial Services, Manufacturing and Tech

• Sectors which have struggled more and are less confident in recovery: Tourism, Hospitality, Arts, Transport/Travel

The impact on marketing

Considering many businesses will be shifting their strategic approach, we discussed what this means for marketing. The research from LinkedIn has some clear findings:

• Focus on building community and build for the long term (easier said than done)

  • The survey found large gaps in what people said they believed vs their actions

  • Almost a 25% gap in needing to “better understand customer” vs actually doing anything about it

  • 11% difference on “needing to reposition mission, offerings, and purpose” vs doing anything about it

• There is a lot of pressure to hold marketing accountable (more than before to sales)

  • 46% of Marketers report being tied more to revenue

  • 55% of these are focused on efforts around existing offerings vs net new to avoid spending net new cash/resources

• All that said, it is important to make sure companies understand their customer’s position (and their customers’ customer), how can they help them understand the situations and solve problems from them to put them in a position of strength

The new B2B point of view – what does this mean for B2B companies?

The research from B2B International gives us some indications as to what the ‘new normal’ will be for B2B marketing, and where there may be opportunities for businesses.

• Some things never change: CX and innovation remain top of the list of marketing priorities

• However, top-of-funnel activity has declined significantly

• The key to recovery and coming out of this ahead of the competition is in developing a better and deeper understanding of a company’s markets and customers. Demonstrating this understanding in clear ways is a major priority, e.g. the number 1 focus area for professional services companies is developing a thought leadership position

• With companies looking to act more responsibly (with internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, customers, the community and the world), their marketing strategies will need to reflect this

• We have also identified a group of ‘boomerang’ firms – those extremely confident of recovery and increased profits over the next 5 years. The biggest difference for them is a real focus on using insight and understanding the customer, and also an investment and shift to eCommerce and serving more customers through digital channels

The LinkedIn research also provides from recommendations for B2B executives. In particular, there are 5 key opportunities for strengthening positioning:

1. Use the time to position your offerings as a long-term solution for now and beyond

2. Segmentation is more important than ever, and knowing your customer’s customers positions

3. Stronger alignment with Sales and Marketing – now more than ever there needs to be more customer touchpoints – sales and marketing should gain alignment on the best way to provide air cover and align on how to handle touchpoints

4. To that point, have a focus on enhancing the customer journey, especially the digital customer journey

5. Utilize Thought Leadership to build trust, in an authentic way

Final thoughts

Although it’s tough out there for many companies – there are companies that are feeling confident about the future, and many companies that have adapted out of necessity.

There are untapped opportunities for b2b businesses that can invest in, and excel in customer experience, digital experience, and refreshing their value proposition around a new and deeper understanding of their customer.

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The disruption caused by COVID-19 on b2b businesses across the world has forced significant changes to marketing strategies and accelerated digital transformation.

A new report by eMarketer, featuring the latest data from B2B International’s pandemic tracker study, has identified 8 initial pivots made by b2b businesses in response to the disruption.

What’s clear is the major pivot towards digital touchpoints to engage with audiences, and the need to adapt messaging to align with shifts in buyer behavior and sentiment.

The report also contains expert analysis and insights from industry leaders, including our colleagues from Merkle and Merkle | DWA, who explore the lessons learned and the key considerations for b2b businesses going forward.

To get your hands on this new report featuring the latest data and expert perspectives on b2b best practices in a COVID-world, visit the eMarketer site.

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You could argue that employee engagement has never been as important as it is right now with the drastic changes organizations have had to make as a result of COVID-19. With employees on furlough or having to work at home, these changes have meant there is bound to be a culture shift within the company, and one which everyone will have to adapt to.

On this week’s podcast, join me and one of our research directors, Simi Dhawan, as we delve into the changing workforce; whilst flexible working was once deemed to be a “nice to have”, it is now an expectation that must be part of their roles, and now organizations must be able to adapt to their employees’ personal lives and needs.

We look at what the driving forces are behind employee engagement which can be distilled into 4 key areas:

• Self Development & Training
• Autonomy, Power & Recognition
• Communication & Connection
• Clear Direction & Leadership

With Millennials starting to dominate the global workforce, not only do organizations have the pandemic culture shift to adapt to, they will also have to remain focused on how to keep this particular group of workers content within their roles. Millennials have historically received a bad name for themselves, sometimes even known to be “highly self-absorbed”; so what does this mean for your company, and in particular its culture?

Listen to the full episode below to find out how you can build your organization from the inside out, and create a “bomb proof” culture where your employees will go above and beyond to ensure your business remains successful.

The post B2B Insights Podcast #7: The Changing Workforce appeared first on B2B International.

In June we conducted a series of webinars across the world. In attendance was our Head of Research & Analytics, Oliver Truman, who delivered the exclusive findings from our COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker. He was joined by some of our research professionals from across the globe discussing how their own countries and regions have been impacted. I also had the privilege to join each webinar where I was able to summarize the implications of our research, and what it means for B2B brands moving forward.

The research which drove this webinar took place in a number of countries across the world, with the following respondent profile:

• Business professionals
• All company sizes (SMBs & Enterprise)
• Broad range of industry verticals
• Weekly fieldwork conducted throughout April and May 2020

Our exclusive research findings discussion during the webinar focused on the following key areas:

• The economic impacts of COVID-19
• The impacts it has had on a personal level
• The practical challenges organizations have faced to date

The second half of the webinar investigated what lies ahead in 2021 and beyond. Find out:

• Which industries and regions are likely to recover the fastest
• What will change on the business agenda
• Which key areas your marketing strategies should be focused on post pandemic

If you wish to ensure you are ahead of the curve in terms of planning for a world beyond COVID-19, empowering you and your organization to make critical business decisions backed by exclusive research findings, then download our live recording and webinar slides today. Click below to gain access to all webinar content from across the three separate webinars: UK & Europe, North America & APAC.

The post On The Pulse: Understanding Market Shifts During the Pandemic and the Implications for Your Business appeared first on B2B International.

Productivity Currently a Top Concern for Businesses

Data from our latest wave of research shows worries over ability to cope with flexible working and with productivity of colleagues and employees topping the list of concerns for businesses around the globe. More than four in 10 business decision-makers are very or extremely concerned about these issues, placing them at first and second, respectively, among all operational concerns we’ve asked about since the second week of May:

While productivity is a pressing concern for all businesses right now, the burden of ensuring that workers remain active and industrious are not shared equally across different regions: Concern over productivity of colleagues and employees seems especially high among organizations based in the Asia-Pacific region, where 53% are “very” or “extremely” worried about the issue. By contrast, organizations in the Americas seem significantly less troubled, as only one-third (33%) rated it very or extremely concerning.

This reflects the different stages of the pandemic that these regions are at right now – with Asia-Pacific significantly further through its initial phase of the crisis. What this suggests is that productivity may remain a persistent issue as we move toward recovery.

Reasons to Worry: Negative Impacts on Productivity

To understand the reasons behind these significant concerns over productivity, we asked businesses about a range of negative impacts they have seen to their business since early May, as well as how significant or extreme each of these impacts has been over this timeframe:

The results above indicate that productivity concerns are driven by a range of perceived problems. Altogether, 95% of concerned decision-makers indicated that at least one of the productivity problems listed above has impacted their business to some extent. Enterprises (those with 250 or more employees) generally register significantly higher proportions that have seen any impact from these challenges on their business, versus SMEs (<250 employees).

So what have the main issues been?

Top Challenges to Productivity

1. Motivation – Problems with staff morale and motivation top the list in terms of prevalence and impact, with nearly 8 in 10 (78%) citing this problem. Given the duress many have endured in balancing professional responsibilities with striving to protect themselves and loved ones from health impacts of COVID-19, it would be a surprise not to see morale as an issue. Job security created by economic uncertainty is also likely to be part of these worries.

   The fact that this issue tops the list of productivity challenges should serve as a stark reminder to organizations that they are only as strong as their people: Making employees’ mental wellbeing a top priority is likely to become an even bigger focus in future in the context of productivity.

   This need to focus and support employee mental health may, in part, be addressed by a growing array of mobile mental health and therapy apps that companies can encourage their employees to use. This includes apps such as Kite and Talkspace, as well as other mental health tools and resources. A further example of this is the free “Innen Leben” downloadable flashcard set recently developed and made available for free by a psychologist and psychiatrist in Germany.

2. Utilization – Simply having enough work to keep all employees occupied throughout the workday is problem for around two-thirds (66%) of businesses with concerns about productivity. And 3 in 10 see this as exerting a major negative impact.

   Initiatives based around shortened working hours have started to be considered by some companies and governments. New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, recently floated the idea of a national 4-day workweek aimed at both helping to bolster domestic tourism and also helping employees strike better, healthier work/life balance as the global crisis continues.

3. Distraction – “Difficulties balancing work and childcare commitments” and “general distractions at home” are significant, and linked, issues. The melding of work and home lives brings with it everyday distractions that impinge on working time. Whether it’s deliveryman ringing doorbells, construction workers jackhammering nearby or furry familiars leaping across keyboards, virtually everyone has a harder time staying focused and engaged when removed from their regular business environment. Given the diversity of home settings of employees, it has been challenging for many firms to devise an overarching strategy to mitigate this problem.

 

Further Reading
The latest insights and advice on COVID-19
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4. Supervision – The inability to monitor and manage employees represents the fourth and final major drawback for productivity that the working world has had to grapple with. This obstacle can make it difficult for managers to effectively delegate to and checking on their direct reports. It also directly exacerbates the two previously discussed issues of distraction and (lack of) utilization, since managers can no longer “catch” and refocus distracted employees, nor optimally allocate workloads across their various reports. Now more than ever, managers must be able to trust the initiative of employees.

Other Struggles with Productivity

5. Sub-optimal Setups – One less severe, but common issue with productivity is the issue of sub-optimal working environments – i.e. a lack of suitable workspaces and/or equipment. This issue has had a major impact on only around one-fifth of firms with productivity problems, although around 6 in 10 have seen it have some negative impact. While firms can do little to provide for a better room or space in which their employees can work remotely, they can certainly help in the form of better technology, tools and equipment. This is especially so if working from home is likely to continue for a significant while longer, as expected in many economies.

6. Time Management – The final challenge is individual and collective time management. Around 55% of firms to have seen their productivity negatively impacted report a surfeit of meetings that take up too much time and/or long working hours impinging on individual productivity. With so many organizations operating with reduced staff or reduced hours, being careful not to overload those employees becomes a priority. However, this is a difficult balance to strike given the pressures many firms face.

Looking on the Bright Side: Positive Impacts on Productivity

As ominous as the commercial horizon has become, business decision-makers still recognized a range of positive impacts on productivity across their organizations in recent weeks.

• Extra Time Means More Time for Reflection and Creativity: First, workers have had the benefit of extra time to get their jobs done, not least in terms of time saved on business travel and commuting to work. Less time spent commuting has had a major positive impact on more than 4 in 10 organizations (42%), and some positive impact on around three-quarters (74%).

  Having this extra time and space to themselves has allowed workers to put more thought and creativity into their outputs and deliverables. Around 3 in 10 (29%) reported major positive benefits here, with around two-thirds (68%) of companies surveyed saying this has had at least some impact. More time doesn’t always lead to more productivity, of course – However, gaining a significant chunk of extra time at the start and end of the working day, in particular, has likely helped in this regard.

• Extra Flexibility: Many workers have recently gained additional flexibility to work preferred hours and patterns. Around a third (34%) of our sample cited this as a major positive impact, and even more (39%), cited it as having a minor positive impact on their business over the past few weeks. The closely related issue of changing routines was also cited as a major benefit by 25%.

• Extra Responsibilities: A third and distinct benefit that more than half (56%) cited as exerting some positive impact on productivity is that of extra experience – i.e. employees being asked to do a wider variety of tasks than normal. Theoretically, if a given organization can accomplish a wider variety of things with the same or fewer resources, productivity will increase. One caveat here is that asking individuals to learn new processes or take on additional responsibilities may still have a time and productivity cost: They’ll need additional time to learn these new skills and even then may not be as efficient as those that previously specialized in these tasks.

• Extra Intensity & Room to Focus on Complexity: The fourth and final productivity benefit since the advent of COVID-19 has been that of extra intensity or focus. For many roles, having solitary workspace away from the distractions of the usual, bustling workplace appears to have improved focus for some. While this benefit was only seen as having a major positive impact by around one-fifth of organizations, this was significantly higher in technology firms – here, 33% stated there had been major positive impacts. This aligns closely with software development or coding tasks.

Taken together, these results portray a complex and double-edged array of impacts to organizational productivity during COVID-19 so far. The ability of organizations to get work done has been hampered by issues of motivation, occupation, distraction, and supervision. At the same time, companies have seen many gains in productivity due to their workforces utilizing the benefits of extra time, flexibility, experience, and intensity.

These enforced changes to working patterns are, however, likely to provide strong pointers for businesses and policy-makers in helping to crack the “productivity puzzle” that many firms in mature economies had encountered even prior to the pandemic.

These findings are from the B2B International COVID-19 Tracker. They are derived from n=2,030 interviews with business professionals in SME and Enterprise firms in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Canada, China, Singapore, Australia and Japan. Fieldwork was conducted from 13th April – 22nd May 2020.

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INSIGHTS INSIDE: Our new “podcast on lockdown” series, focusing on how businesses just like yours have adapted during this pandemic.

In these times of uncertainty, we have created a new podcast series to help you understand how businesses like yours are adapting, as well as hearing experts across various industries give their best advice on how you can defend your brand and remain successful during these times.

#1: The Importance of Innovation to Stay Ahead (James Gibson, Michelin)

Find out how Michelin has remained at the forefront of innovation during this pandemic, how they are operating during the crisis, and how insights have helped them adapt their strategy to become more digital-focused through these times.

#2: Bringing Your Brand To Life Through Culture (Theo Kroese, Moving As One)

Learn how to bring brands and the customer experience to life through aligning teams around a common goal, how to avoid common pitfalls and challenges and how businesses can navigate their way out of a crisis.

#3: How Research & Insights Can Help Businesses Navigate Uncertain Times (Jane Frost, MRS)

Jane discusses the importance of businesses continuing to focus on research in times of uncertainty, as well as how research professionals can best position and frame the value of research within their companies to ensure it’s importance is recognized.

#4: The Role of Strategists to Deliver New World Success (Rhys Taylor, gyro)

Nick and Rhys discuss the importance of placing your customer at the heart of your strategy, what CMOs need to do to take hold of the opportunities that have arisen out of the current situation and the importance of delivering a seamless omnichannel B2B experience in the new world post coronavirus.

#5: The Importance of Selling on Value (Steve Laborda, ValueBizbooster)

Nick and Rhys discuss the definition of value selling and what businesses struggle with most when trying to improve their customer experience.

#6: The Importance of an Agile Strategy (David Ward, Irwin Mitchell)

Nick discusses agile strategies and “the new normal” with David Ward, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Irwin Mitchell. Find out how his organization flexed their operating model so quickly, and whether they had ever planned for a situation like this.

The post Insights Inside Podcast Series: Catch up on Episodes 1-6 appeared first on B2B International.

In these times of uncertainty, we have created a new podcast series to help you understand how businesses like yours are adapting, as well as hearing experts across various industries give their best advice on how you can defend your brand and remain successful during these times.

COVID-19 has turned 2020 plans upside down for most organizations. As a result, it has never been so important to have an agile strategy in place in order to remain competitive, continue to grow or even in some instances keep heads above water and defend your brand(s).

Today on Insights Inside, I discuss agile strategies and “the new normal” with David Ward, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Irwin Mitchell. Find out how his organization flexed their operating model so quickly, and whether they had ever planned for a situation like this.

Our in-depth discussion also touched on:

• Flexible working and employee support;

• Their product offering, considering changing consumer behaviour and demand;

• How they have continued with their “people culture” (reflected in their client intimacy strategy in which they live by) in this new digital world;

• How they plan on remaining innovative and creative as we start to slowly emerge from the pandemic lockdown.

Listen to the full episode below to learn how embracing agile strategies can help your organization succeed in the “new normal”.

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Business decision-makers have room to think about the future again

Data from our latest wave of research shows an abatement in concern about business strategies being disrupted due to COVID-19: The chart below shows that in our latest week of data, those expressing high levels of concern about this issue has fallen to 43% among business decision-makers. This is from a high point in the mid-to-high 50% range only a few weeks earlier. Tentative signs are that businesses are turning their thoughts to recovery:

Further, the above downward trend is clear in all three of the geographical regions we cover in the study: Americas, Europe and APAC. Likewise, both SMEs (companies with fewer than 250 employees) and Enterprises (those with 250 or more) also show this same pattern. So there’s genuine cause to think we may now be moving to a new “phase” from a business perspective.

Customer Strategies: 4 main themes emerge

With this context in mind, what are the top priorities of commerce as it begins to navigate the “new normal”? To this end, we asked firms about how their approach to business may need to change – especially in terms of how they serve their customers. The chart below shows a summary of the main themes and issues to emerge:

Our results show 4 clear themes pulling through in terms of anticipated changes to customer strategy:

1. Insight and understanding of customers: The strongest and most consistent actions relate to businesses improving the depth of understanding that organizations have on their customers and markets. Given the profound changes that COVID-19 has brought to the circumstances of many customers, suppliers will need to “right size” their offerings in line with new customer needs.

   Allied to this, strong levels of interest in CRM also suggest the need to better operationalize customer and market insights (e.g. through increased personalization of experiences). What is notable is that the intent to invest in back-office systems was especially high among more industrial firms, such as manufacturing (where 74% stated it was a likely action).

2. Acting responsibly: The communications of major consumer brands have placed strong emphasis on “being there” throughout the crisis. But how sincere is this? When we look more broadly across the business community, there does appear to be a genuine desire from firms to act responsibly as stakeholders in wider society. This includes taking a more active role in community and social initiatives, for instance (mentioned by 60%).

   At a practical level, this also includes seeking to provide greater flexibility to customers, where possible (mentioned by 69% as an action likely to be taken) – for example, through greater forbearance in terms of payments.

3. Developing direct channels: As we’ve previously reviewed in this blog series, supply chain challenges during COVID-19 have been a major issue – particularly issues related to deliveries and getting products to customers when relying on partners or distribution. What is clear from our data is that there is a sub-set of businesses that are seeking to exercise greater control over their own destiny in this regard.

   62% of firms state that they’re likely to further develop their eCommerce and online sales capabilities, while 54% potentially intend to invest in and build out their own delivery / “last mile” infrastructure in the future.

4. A less human touch? Our final theme concerns a topic that’s been on the agenda of business for several years – the increased role of automation and remote working. 61% of all the firms surveyed anticipate making fewer face-to-face visits to customers in future, while 55% intend to make greater use of automation and self-serve technology.

   It is worth noting, however, that this potentially less “human” approach to business is not an approach that all see virtue in: Only 36% of SMEs (<250 employees) stated that greater automation / self-serve would be a likely priority. Similarly, only 43% of decision-makers in business and professional services firms stated that it was likely that they would develop opportunities here.

Further Reading

The latest insights and advice on COVID-19

COVID-19 Insights Hub

Post-COVID marketing strategies reflect a renewed focus on customer experience

Looking beyond broader business initiatives, we also asked companies taking part in our survey about their marketing strategy plans moving into 2021. The table below shows the top 5 strategies that are anticipated to be pursued among Enterprises that have b2b customer bases (that is, those that sell to other companies):

Out of over 15 different marketing strategies presented, there was a high degree of consistency globally and between regions in terms of top priorities among larger b2b firms:

• Customer experience: Linked to the trends seen earlier in this article, customer experience and loyalty figures very prominently, and is the top strategy in Americas and Europe.

• Product development / innovation: This ranks within the top 3 priorities of every region. This is very likely linked both with product innovation and improvements to organizations’ customer service approaches that we outlined earlier. This is encouraging, as innovation might possibly be expected to be an area where spending is stripped back in a crisis. This re-invigoration of R&D spend is perhaps seen most clearly in the pharmaceutical industry right now, where research spending by biopharma companies has increased 13% year-over-year in Q1 2020.

• Extending reach – looking to new sectors and territories: As demand falters in markets closer to home, it is natural for companies to look to new opportunities. This takes two forms – Diversification into new industries (a priority in all regions) and exploration of opportunities in new countries / territories (seen more prominently in Europe).

• Strongly different priorities across the funnel by region: This is most evident between Europe and APAC – In the former, bottom-of-funnel and conversion activity will be a priority next year. For APAC, the emphasis is instead very strongly on top- and mid-funnel activity (awareness-raising and brand positioning).

These findings are from the B2B International COVID-19 Tracker. They are derived from n=2,030 interviews with business professionals in SME and Enterprise firms in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Canada, China, Singapore, Australia and Japan. Fieldwork was conducted from 13th April – 22nd May 2020.

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The post Business Strategies Post-COVID: Customer Needs, Social Responsibility and D2C Business Models the Top Trends appeared first on B2B International.