About the Episode

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing presents a unique set of challenges and has often been treated as a completely different marketing practice from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. But there’s one important thing to remember, and that is that all of the business customers are also B2C customers outside of their work life.

Today we’re going to talk about B2C expectations in a B2B world and how consumer expectations can be managed and even exceeded in a B2B environment.

To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Chris Costello, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Strategic Accounts at Amazon Business.

About Chris Costello

Chris Costello is the Head of Worldwide Strategic Accounts for Amazon Business. Since joining Amazon in 2021, Chris leads the organization that drives all Fortune 1000 B2B Business for Amazon. Her organization is responsible for the full lifecycle of a deal, include Offer Development, Sales and Specialist teams as well as the go to market strategy with AWS.

At Amazon Business, she created and is the executive sponsor for the Women’s Advocacy Circle. Chris is a diversity champion and serves as a mentor for a variety of groups including business leadership, women entrepreneurs, and veteran groups.

Prior to joining the executive team at Amazon Business, Chris was the Vice President, Business Sales Services for AT&T. At AT&T, Chris built and led a team of 600 across five million clients and managed a multi-billion dollar revenue base. She architected complex sales and product positioning that catapulted the company as a leading player in the emerging industry. She delivered solutions for large enterprise businesses and drove massive growth in strategic services.

Chris has completed executive programs at Notre Dame, MIT, Southern Methodist and Texas A&M and holds a B.A. from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

Resources

Amazon Business: https://business.amazon.com

The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast

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Synopsis

In the episode, the guest speaker, Chris Costello of Amazon Business, emphasizes the importance of understanding and meeting the unique requirements of different industries in the B2B sector. Healthcare, financial services, retail, and government all have specific needs and expectations when it comes to customer experience. For example, healthcare customers may require seamless integration with existing systems and detailed analytics, while financial services customers prioritize security features and integration with procurement systems. Retail customers have specific requirements for inventory management and delivery logistics, and government customers have unique regulations and compliance needs. Therefore, it is crucial for B2B brands to tailor their customer experience strategies according to the specific requirements of their target market.

The speaker also highlights the significance of defining a target market and prioritizing customer needs. B2B brands cannot be everything to all companies, so it is essential to identify the specific market segment they want to serve. By doing so, brands can better understand the unique requirements and preferences of their customers.

To undergo a successful transformation or improvement process, the speaker suggests that B2B brands should start by understanding the needs of their chosen target market. This means prioritizing the customer experience and tailoring products or services to meet their specific demands.

Furthermore, the speaker advises B2B brands to prioritize their needs in a roadmap. This could involve starting with simpler initiatives, such as a website refresh, and gradually progressing to more complex improvements, like consolidating legacy systems or investing in customer service enhancements. While this process may require investment and time, the speaker emphasizes the importance of continually communicating with customers to understand their evolving needs and expectations.

Overall, the episode emphasizes the significance of defining a target market, prioritizing customer needs, and continuously communicating with customers in the B2B industry. By focusing on meeting customer expectations, B2B brands can enhance the customer experience and achieve long-term success.

In the episode, the guest speaker, Chris Costello, emphasizes the importance of brands communicating with their customers and continuously testing and measuring their customer experience as they build and scale their business. He suggests that brands should work backwards from customer needs and be hyper-focused on the 360 customer lifecycle. By doing so, brands can create solutions that are tailored to their customers' expectations and transform the user experience.

Costello advises brands to invest time in understanding their customers and their evolving needs. This requires ongoing communication and engagement with customers to gather feedback and insights. By actively listening to their customers, brands can identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to their customer experience strategies.

Additionally, Costello emphasizes the importance of testing and measuring the effectiveness of these strategies. Brands should use data and analytics to track customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty metrics. This allows them to identify what is working well and what needs improvement. By regularly testing and measuring their customer experience efforts, brands can make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies and ensure they are meeting their customers' expectations.

Overall, the episode highlights the significance of continuous communication with customers and the importance of testing and measuring as brands build and scale their customer experience. By prioritizing customer needs and leveraging data-driven insights, brands can create exceptional experiences that differentiate them from their competition.