Leader as Chief Marketer

Colleagues call me an itinerant marketer and a leader who is always “thirsty” for excellent results. There is no doubt that I believe strongly that leadership is all about performance and not status or position. My quest in managing business organizations is to build sustainability that is firmly rooted in meaningful impact. I want to uniquely differentiate myself by leading the teams in the marketplace to engage customers on their needs, benefits and experience. I want to listen to what they are saying and thereby unlock creativity, knowledge, empathy and new methodologies of marketing in satisfying them. I agree with in what Henry Ford said that, “It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.”

My desire is to always build a marketing momentum not only for the sales teams in our group of companies but the entire workforce. Employees in the entire value chain must think about the customer in order to drive growth. Decisions and actions must be customer-centric. There must be same customer focus and mindset as well as aligned behaviors and skills. The driving force behind everything we do must be based on the impact it will have on the customer.

Some organizations limit their growth by paying all the attention to revenues (inflows) and profits with just a snap shot view of the customer. Profitability can only be derived from a loyal customer base. Sam Walton pointed out that “If you exceed your customers’ expectations, they will come back over and over. Give them what they want and even a little more.”

When customers are satisfied, you create trust and trust is the foundation of every relationship in life. It is in the process of satisfying customers that you create trust which ultimately leads to loyalty. Please, note that in any business, customer loyalty cannot be bought, it can only be earned. Trust is the greatest reason customers keep coming back. Do not spend time and money to attract customers. The result definitely will be short-lived.

Organisations should deliver unique service and create a friendly atmosphere for interactions. Make them your friendly associates and partners. You must be friendly even when you are dealing with angry and unfriendly customers. In your various touchpoints with customers, always remember that they know what they want and that is why you must listen to them. Customers love helpful salespersons and organisations.

Achieving unprecedented results is only possible through human-centered organizational architecture and satisfaction of end-user needs, benefits and experience. An excellent customer experience will overcome roadblocks and obstacles. Deep customer understanding lies at the core of where to play. Effective strategies and intelligently executed scenario planning are rooted in a thorough understanding of customer needs and preferences. In marketing, you must always ask three fundamental questions namely; who is the customer? What are their needs, wants demands and motivation? Do I have my customer target identification right?

Leaders of organisations lose a lot when they do not pay the needed attention to customer feedbacks. This is the bedrock of an adaptive strategy. Psychographics is the market research and statistics which classify population groups according to psychological variables. Approaches to psychographics include: analysis of customers’ activities, interests and opinions as well as values and lifestyles.

The strategy of customer experience or customer experience management is defined as organizing valuable customer experiences whether business to business (b2b) or business to consumer (b2c) throughout the entire customer lifetime (the sum total of touchpoints or interactions). Customer Experience (CX or CEM) is the bedrock of customer centricity growth strategy. A customer centric focus by an organisation is a sure bet for tremendous growth.

A key aspect of re-diagnosing in a challenging marketplace and evaluation of impact (impact of organization’s values) is strategic targeting based on customer needs. Consumer target identification, knowledge of customer needs, wants and demands as well as customer motivation.

Let me emphasize at this point that businesses that are focused on customer service often succeed and the ones tilted (without balance) for profit, often fail. Customer loyalty, employee commitment, agile operating environment are essential elements of business success. Leaders should never trade off one for another. They must remove barriers standing between them and customers satisfaction Leaders must tackle these barriers and serve customers’ satisfactorily. Customers must always feel satisfied. Customer experience is a vital investment and key differentiator.

Let me conclude with the various metrics on customer experience. They are NPS or Net Promoter Score which helps organisations to gauge customer loyalty. CSAT or Customer Satisfaction Score, is a very important metric that businesses need to track and improve customers’ satisfaction with organisations’ products or services. It is an essential driving force for customers’ loyalty, word-of-mouth marketing and revenue growth. We also have CES or Customer Effort Score, a new metric which helps organisations to better manage the six (6) factors that contribute to the customer experience. These are: difficulty, sensitivity, time, expense, pain and risk. “Difficulty” is the sum total of efforts customers have to go-through while interacting with a particular organisation or its products.

You achieve customer satisfaction not just by identifying with them (the customers) but serving them and making sure they are satisfied. When customers are satisfied all the time, they will trust you and be loyal your organisation.

Three categories of customers are tracked and measured under the NPS. They are: Promoters: they represent satisfied customers. They act as brand ambassadors. They spread positive word-of-mouth and also, promote organisation’s products or services. Detractors are the dissatisfied customers. They do not recommend products or services and they will not come back for more purchases. The passives are the non-active ones. They do not damage brand reputation with negative word-of-mouth but they can always “churn”. That is, patronize competitors’ products or services.

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