{"id":17683,"date":"2020-02-09T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T19:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2020\/02\/09\/news-11418\/"},"modified":"2020-02-09T11:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T19:00:04","slug":"news-11418","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2020\/02\/09\/news-11418\/","title":{"rendered":"What B2B customer centricity looks like in action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Aamir Paul| Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2020 15:51:12 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s stated goal is to be \u201cthe earth\u2019s most customer-centric company.\u201d We know how that turned out for Amazon \u2014 it\u2019s now the world\u2019s largest retailer and cloud services provider.<\/p>\n

How does customer centricity play into B2B relationships involving complex system designs with multiple stakeholders? What happens when a complex value chain is involved \u2014 how do we stay engaged on the value for the end user?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about, for example, installing a building management solution for a large healthcare facility<\/a>. For that transaction to be customer-centric, you need more than a slick app and friendly service. You need to build relationships that allow for discovery, experimentation, and long-term thinking.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll explore how Schneider Electric approaches customer centricity \u2014 how we define it in the B2B context and what it looks like in action.<\/p>\n

What is customer centricity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fundamentally, a customer-centric relationship between buyer and seller is built on empathy and collaboration instead of opportunism and persuasion.<\/p>\n

This sounds good on paper, but it requires shifting away from the traditional mindset of closing the sale, no matter what. And that\u2019s easier said than done: Prioritizing a customer\u2019s long-term needs can affect short-term profits.<\/p>\n

When you dig a bit deeper, you find that, over time, what\u2019s good for the buyer is also good for the seller. When it comes to physical and IT infrastructure, there are significant opportunities beyond the initial purchase. In fact, we estimate there\u2019s a 5:1 ratio of operating costs to capital costs over a full building\u2019s lifecycle.<\/p>\n

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“It\u2019s not the end of the sale. It\u2019s the beginning of the relationship.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Schneider Electric\u2019s end markets \u2014 buildings, data centers, industrial spaces, and infrastructure \u2014 interconnected and intelligent systems<\/a> are the new normal. This connectivity challenges us to unite previously siloed sales teams to present a comprehensive vision for each project.<\/p>\n

For major projects, there are dozens of requests for proposals. In the past, companies, including ours, would respond to 10 RFPs with 10 different sales teams. This led to missing the forest for the trees: We promoted individual products without an overarching story of how these products work together to drive even greater value.<\/p>\n

Driving this collaboration and articulating its value is complex. Fortunately, there are solid strategies out there, including the Agile<\/a> and Lean Thinking<\/a> methods.<\/p>\n

I want to share another approach that we use to manage integrated project deliveries. It\u2019s called the solution architect method.<\/p>\n

Building a future-ready hospital with the solution architect method<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you design a hospital that meets the needs of patients, doctors, facilities teams, and the front office \u2014 both now and decades in the future? That\u2019s the question we faced as a partner on the construction of the Pavilion at Penn Med \u2014 a 1.5 million square foot, 504-bed hospital under construction in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n